Poetry is not simply something you learn at school and forget a few months later. It can be fun, evocative, and exciting to read. Besides, quoting a few lines from a poem at a party will make people think you're terribly sophisticated! 　　 　　"The Waste Land," by T. S. Eliot (1888-1965), is possibly one of the greatest poems ever written. It expresses a bleak vision of a sterile<注1&…showed first 75 words of 667 total…

…showed last 75 words of 667 total…poem like "The Ballad of the Long-Legged Bait" shows his concern with vivid, sensual language. He was very much a man of the senses.<注12> 　　 　　Walt Whitman's (1819-1892) poem "Song of Myself" also glorifies the body and senses. Whitman was forced to publish the collection that contained the poem at his own expense, but it has become one of the most important poems in American literature.-