"Love Is Not All" (Edna St. Vincent Millay – Sonnet 30)

When I first started teaching, my attitude toward poetry was similar to most of my students: "why don't they just SAY what they MEAN?" However, I knew that unlike most of my students, this would be something I would be unable to escape for DECADES, unless I changed careers entirely.

So one of the tasks I set myself during my first few years was to look for poems that I loved. I mean, it just makes sense. There's so much poetry out there. There are so many people who have chosen to create poems, and so many people who enjoy them. The odds seemed to be pretty good that I would be able to find something that I didn't hate.

And, as it happened, I was right! And that got me started thinking about what it was about some poems, like this one, that made me like them, while others... not so much. (Yes, William Carlos Williams, I'm looking at YOU.)

What are some of your favorite poems? Why do you like them? Tell me in the comments!