One poem that I read over and over and find something new every time, is W H Auden’s ‘Musee des Beaux Arts’ which is based on the painting by Pieter Brueghal – The Fall of Icarus. You can find it on www.english.emory.edu/classes/paintings&poems/auden.html.  It is loaded with connections to so many ideas and feelings that become drawn together – but all at a distance.  It deals with one of the great themes – suffering of others and how we carry on our lives as normal- without any upsetting images, yet it is not superficial. Some great lines and a hint of Billy Collins in there .

My favourite poems when I was in school :-

The Goat Paths by James Stephens –www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-goat-paths
The Lake Isle of Innisfree by W B Yeats
Sea Fever by John Masefield
all escapist poems which I could possibly learn off by heart, to recite to the palm trees on my desert island.