A while back, I reflected on songwriters as travel writers. Poets whose work appears on the printed page and elsewhere as you read and listen have places in travel writing and reading, as well.
Consider Homer, for example. This ancient Greek poet wrote a story in verse which has given its name to a whole travel idea: The Odyssey.
Then there is Robert Frost, whose poem Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening surely evokes a New England winter, even if you’ve never seen snow.
Robert Burns, remembered for his love poems and bawdy stories, also wrote movingly of the landscape of his native Scotland in The Westin Winds and My Heart’s in the Highlands.
Rabindranath Tagore, William Shakespeare, Pablo Neruda, WB Yeats — poets widely known and lesser known, from every language, land, and culture, draw on ideas of landscape, journeying, and homecoming in their work, in ways that help inspire, define, and reflect on travel.
Popular television travel host Samantha Brown is among those who carry a book of poetry on their travels. Do you? If not, it might be a time to try out adding a few poems to your travel kit.
Resources to explore for that
You may like to know about this exhibit on the life and work of poet Seamus Heaney, in Dublin, Ireland.
You could explore five ways to experience the work of Scotland’s ploughman poet, Robert Burns.
For news and ideas about poetry in and outwith Ireland, the Poetry Ireland website is a good place to visit.
Likewise the website of the Academy of American Poets online site offers wide ranging information and a library of poetry to enjoy.
Photographs by Kerry Dexter/ Thank you for respecting copyright.
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Before humans can take photos, people often used words to record what they saw. That was the origin of travel literature. As Homer and many other poets in history, poets at this time sometimes integrate their experience of travel into their works, and this often results the combination of words and feelings. This perspective makes the National Poetry Month more interesting. Now, I am more excited about the related events coming soon in my area.
Kuei-Ti Lu, I am glad you mentioned Homer as did the author. He was the prototype, and mythical, imaginative, and physical travel are all parallel to my mind. In my youth, I carried and read so many poetry/philosophy/mythology books in my backpack, it was hard to make it up mountains! But reading Homer while on a Greek ship sailing from island to island is an experience like no other, as is reading Baudelaire in Paris, etc. Now we have tablets, of course, so the books need not weigh you down… Traveling makes me want to read even more, and the absence of travel makes reading a psychological necessity.
Kuel-Ti Lu and Gregory, thank you for stopping by and taking time to add your reflections. Poetry distills thought and emotion, which travel and reflecting on it often lead to as well.