Mine is “If” by Rudyard Kipling. There’s just nothing there to chew on. You know what the ending tag line will be from the second you read the first few.
Link: https://youtu.be/EEFMVIfl2UY
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Hey Matthew, great question! I've been thinking about this for days. I guess the short answer would be almost any micro-poem written by Rupi Kaur because they're just too painfully cliche and vapid. But I've already discussed this in length before. More than once, lol.
'If-' has a beautiful rhythm to it, and the visuals are astounding when you read it the first few times, but I agree, the poem lacks a little depth and is completely digestible as it is. That doesn't mean it's a bad poem at all- in fact, I do like it very much for what it is. Though I see why's it's so popular, it also has what I'm going to call the 'Daddy Factor' (lol). I mean this in reference to Plath's 'Daddy'. It's a good poem; well written, with a unique use of metaphors, visuals and allegories, and has a consistent, smooth rhythm, but it loses a bit of its magic over time. Also, every time i read this poem, Plath's awkward delivery (which can be found on YT) clouds my reading and almost corrupts the poem for me. It's... kinda awful, to be honest.
Also, I'm not one for radical political correctness (i.e. trying to hold writers from the last century accountable for unintentionally politically incorrect things they may have said) but I'm not sure if all the references Plath makes to her being like a Jew or references to Nazis would bode well these days. It's certainly a poem of its time but I no longer find it revolutionary or spectacular. I guess this is also the price we pay for putting certain poems on pedestals and leaving them their for decades on end, hence, making them overrated.
So I guess my answer would be, without attempting to compromise Plath's undeniable talent, is this very poem of hers. I'm starting to dislike it and am finding it stale.