Poetry is one of my life-long loves, something I shared with my father and his father, a love that has been in my family for five generations that I know of. While I do write poetry, this is a resource for others to share.
Something to note: I do have multiple books of poetry from non-English speaking countries, however my language skills are not good enough to do competent translations myself, and any translations given are still under copyright. Poetry is that perfect mix of rhythm and reason; while spoken poetry can be comparable to music without melody, in the written form understanding is essential. For that reason, I won't post poetry here in languages other than English, but I will review and recommend the books of non-English period poetry I have.
A note about sources: these poems are long out of copyright, and I will retype them rather than use text recognition scanning software. For that reason, I have no problem with using editions that are still under copyright, where the original language is in use (i.e. I will not provide copyrighted translations to modern English, or commentary on the original.) Very often poems are published with a glossary; I believe understanding the poet's meaning is essential, but I also understand these glossaries to be copyrighted and will not publish them. Where I think the poem's original meaning may be lost due to language shift, I will provide my own modern English transliteration. This should be treated as a guide for understanding only, and not an acceptable for use with modern audiences.
Another note about sources: there are lots of primary sources out there online. Project Gutenburg alone has a phenomenal number of books of poetry. When in doubt, always go to the source. As I find reliable facsimile sites, or sites with good independent commentary, I'll try to link them here.
Something to note: I do have multiple books of poetry from non-English speaking countries, however my language skills are not good enough to do competent translations myself, and any translations given are still under copyright. Poetry is that perfect mix of rhythm and reason; while spoken poetry can be comparable to music without melody, in the written form understanding is essential. For that reason, I won't post poetry here in languages other than English, but I will review and recommend the books of non-English period poetry I have.
A note about sources: these poems are long out of copyright, and I will retype them rather than use text recognition scanning software. For that reason, I have no problem with using editions that are still under copyright, where the original language is in use (i.e. I will not provide copyrighted translations to modern English, or commentary on the original.) Very often poems are published with a glossary; I believe understanding the poet's meaning is essential, but I also understand these glossaries to be copyrighted and will not publish them. Where I think the poem's original meaning may be lost due to language shift, I will provide my own modern English transliteration. This should be treated as a guide for understanding only, and not an acceptable for use with modern audiences.
Another note about sources: there are lots of primary sources out there online. Project Gutenburg alone has a phenomenal number of books of poetry. When in doubt, always go to the source. As I find reliable facsimile sites, or sites with good independent commentary, I'll try to link them here.