What piqued your interest?

I was wondering what got everyone here into poetry, and if they can remember who the first author/poem was that made them interested in the subject.

For me, I liked Dr. Seuss as a kid but never made the rhythmic shift until high school when we started studying the Anglo-Saxons in English. I was numbly leafing through the textbook and came across the following:

I can sing a true song about myself,
tell of my travels, how in days of tribulation
I often endured a time of hardship,
how I have harboured bitter sorrow in my heart
and often learned that ships are homes of sadness.

http://www.sisabianovenia.com/LoLeido/P ... farer.html

me wonder about who the people were who lived and died so many years before.

Elizabeth Barret Browning's lonely life and her love for a man through writing back and forth to one another. Robert Browning. I did a paper on her in high school. My favorite is this one.

How Do I Love Thee (Sonnet 43)

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of being and ideal grace.
I love thee to the level of every day’s
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for right.
I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.

Your poem about the man at sea resonates with me a little bit. I was in the military and on a ship. When we would go out to sea, it was terribly lonely knowing others in land units or just civilians could lead a regular life. I missed that kind of life and I longed for it because it was so lonely being on a ship and you missed so much of the simple things like watching tv or taking a walk, etc. I later got out of the military after finishing my 5th year. I appreciate the simple life much more than before. Don't live a hurried life, I tell myself. Enjoy the little things.