I'll add a couple more randoms after I strongly second Todd's suggestion of Ozymandias, which should be compulsory reading for anyone ever contemplating a career in either politics or the arts. And it's just a damn good poem.
Because I really enjoy stuff that seems quite simple on the surface, but sticks in your head until you realise how complex it actually is, I'd recommend:
The Nightingale by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
A Party of Lovers by John Keats
A Poison Tree by William Blake
The Destruction of Sennacherib by Lord Byron
The Charge of the Light Brigade by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
And I'm going to add these two poems in, that I remember word-for-word from my childhood:
The Triantiwontigongolope by C. J. Dennis -- a kid's poem that to me is the very essence of poetry, just loving the language and having a huge amount of fun with it.
and the most beautifully stirring ballad ever written, in my opinion:
The Man From Snowy River by A. B. (Banjo) Paterson
Because I really enjoy stuff that seems quite simple on the surface, but sticks in your head until you realise how complex it actually is, I'd recommend:
The Nightingale by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
A Party of Lovers by John Keats
A Poison Tree by William Blake
The Destruction of Sennacherib by Lord Byron
The Charge of the Light Brigade by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
And I'm going to add these two poems in, that I remember word-for-word from my childhood:
The Triantiwontigongolope by C. J. Dennis -- a kid's poem that to me is the very essence of poetry, just loving the language and having a huge amount of fun with it.
and the most beautifully stirring ballad ever written, in my opinion:
The Man From Snowy River by A. B. (Banjo) Paterson
It could be worse