Great Poets

. Beatrice and the Ineffable Smile: Canto XXIII of Paradise by Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) translated by Stephen Binns Just as a bird that stands watch to ensure __the safety of her brood, beside the nest __throughout the night which hides all things from her, who, eager to behold them after...

. DoorWay Canto 2, Extract The Poet has gone through the ‘DoorWay’ and entered heaven. Here in the second Canto and in the constellation of Libra he meets his dead grandfather (who was a Libran: 30/7) and his uncle Jim, who died only ten years old and long before the...

. Beatrice Does Not Smile: Canto XXI of Paradise by Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) translated by Stephen Binns And now my eyes were fastened once again __upon my lady’s face, and all the while __Beatrice __my soul could not another sight retain. She was not smiling. “Were I to smile, __she...

. Bardic Bots Will Shakespeare has been rendered obsolete. Bill’s quillings are a patriarchal scandal. His iambs lack that fresh, progressive beat. Barred from Avon is his current handle. As lost as Lear, as dead as Desdemona, His wonder will no longer soar on high. Now robots can compose, the Swan’s a goner. His dusty folios have bid goodbye. They’ve shuffled off like Hamlet and poor Yorick. Alas, the Big-Tech Bods now canonize...

. Parque España, Mexico City I walked until I couldn't walk without at least alighting on a city bench, the first that had a shaded seat, about ten yards from workers digging out a trench to place a pipe to mend a water break. But this was causing traffic to...

. How to Write Contemporary Poetry a pantoum in free verse composition keep letters lower case. dump classical tradition then cite the marketplace. keep letters lower case make use of ampersands then cite the marketplace if no one understands. make use of ampersands so texts can look progressive. if no...

. Beatrice Smiles: Canto XXXI of Purgatory by Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) translated by Stephen Binns “You, on the other side of the sacred river,” __Lethe __she called to me, and sharply to the point, __Beatrice __after her blade’s edge left a cut so bitter, and then commenced: “Say, say, if...

. Homeric Hot or Not (Hotness Ratings Out of 10) . 10 By birth divine and radiantly tressed And beautiful and of a charm possessed That turns men into pigs if she’s inclined, A better girl than Circe none can find, 10 While of the boys, for clever, handsome, strong...

. Dante Meets Paolo and Francesca: Canto V of Inferno by Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) translated by Stephen Binns And so from that first circle I went down __into the second, where there is less space __and much more grief, and toward a distant moan. There Minos grinds the teeth within...

. Odysseus Begs? He’s leaning on a Pluto niche machine: an ATM, balanced on his good leg— a fresh appearance in an ancient scene— a bandaged hand gropes slowly out to beg. Was he Odysseus, sail raised to breeze, carving current never plied before? Herodotus, or old Diogenes? Or mad...

The Best Poems of 2022: Winners of the 11th Annual SCP International Poetry Competition Judges Joseph S. Salemi, James Sale, Evan Mantyk Past First Place Winners James A. Tweedie (2021) Susan Jarvis Bryant (2020) Joseph Charles MacKenzie (2019) Adam Sedia (2018) C.B. Anderson (2017) James Sale (2016) Ron L. Hodges...

. Canto 8: Covid-Priest from The English Cantos Volume 2: StairWell StairWell is the Poet’s Purgatory, and as in HellWard where we met with contemporary challenges such as Brexit, so here in StairWell the Poet, led on by his guides Dante and Virgil, runs into another---Covid.  …With Dante facing a...

. Moments from Dante’s Inferno Prepared to travel, if the gods allowed, I saw the woods were dreary, dark as death. I chose to heed a blessing there endowed, before emerging spirits took a breath. And that was Virgil, orator and font of god-like wisdom. He began to speak: "The...

. “Where Ever-present Joy Knows Naught of Time” ---Dante, Paradiso, Canto X, D.L. Sayers translation a rondeau redouble Where ever-present joy knows naught of time, The music of infinity is sung In full-toned harmony and richest rhyme, In higher speech than any earthly tongue. Outside the bounds of days or...

. The Three Democrats of the 2020 Election after Shakespeare's Macbeth, Act 4, Scene 1 Scene: Thunder illuminates a 2020 calendar page in an undisclosed conference room where a pot bubbles on an electric stovetop. Enter the Three Democrats. FIRST DEMOCRAT Thrice each democrat will vote. SECOND DEMOCRAT Thrice at...

. A Southern Italian’s Reply to Shakespeare If you compare me to a summer’s day then, Bill, your mind has melted in the heat. Let’s go inside, there’s no one on the street. Just look at how the snowbirds flew away. If I were wealthy, I would not delay. Our...

. StairWell Canto 10 extract 2 Context: In the 10th Canto of HellWard we met 4 poets condemned to Hell. Now in the 10th Canto of StairWell, we meet another 4 poets stuck in Purgatory. This extract takes us to meet the fourth poet in the sequence of meetings, which...

. The Odyssey Translator's Note: The Odyssey, Book 1, which exemplifies an essential feature of Homer's art as a storyteller, the way he composes the books of his epics as wholes, each with its own beginning, middle, and end. by Homer (circa 8th century BC) Translated from Greek by Mike...

. StairWell Canto 10 extract Context: In the 10th Canto of HellWard we met 4 poets condemned to Hell. Now in the 10th Canto of StairWell, we meet another 4 poets stuck in Purgatory. This extract takes us to meet the third poet in the sequence of meetings, which is...

. . Non Existent One day my body disappeared, __nor could I touch or taste, but I could feel the flood of tears __that filled my missing face. My presence was by no-one known. __Not felt, nor seen, nor heard, imprisoned in a realm alone, __dissevered from the herd. Back...

. Cordelia's Choice Ye gods, what should I do with such ill news? My father, once the king, is now insane And stripped of dignity. What must I choose To set things right? Yet, pray, why should I fain Raise up this man who banished me from sight And left...

. Creativity, Originality, and Eccentricity by Joseph S. Salemi I don’t know why it should be so, but I have a propensity to attract the attention of eccentric persons. Three times, at three separate academic conferences, I have been cornered by earnest little nerds who insisted on telling me their...

. Classical Poetry and the Martial Ethos by Andrew Benson Brown . The Heroic Age Towards the end of “Egil’s Saga,” one of the masterpieces of Icelandic literature, the eponymous hero composes a verse to eulogize a fallen friend: . Their numbers are dwindling, the famous warriors who met with...

. Judge Not We notice, Signor Alighieri, that You have a rather well developed bent For taking your opponents to the mat And showing them that in the Main Event They will be pinned like insects to a wall To illustrate their faults and consequent Amercements handed out to one...

. According to The Telegraph, the University of Salford is planning to remove sonnets from its Creative Writing program.  The reason? They are "products of white western culture" and the University of Salford has an initiative to "decolonise the curriculum." (A version without paywall can be found here.) The Society...

. The Canterbury Tales---General Prologue, Lines 1-18 by Geoffrey Chaucer (1343-1400) Translated by Evan Mantyk When April’s sweetest showers downward shoot, The drought of March is pierced right to the root Through every vein with liquid of such power And virtue that it generates the flower; When Zephyrus too exhales...

. Remembering Ophelia His scathing tongue had thrust her to the edge. It nudged her through the willow’s sunless fringe. She teetered on that petal-littered ledge Where Hades howls and bluest moons unhinge The violet thoughts of agitated minds. The breath of death, it wreathed her in a kiss Of...

Judges Angela Alaimo O’Donnell James Sale . OVERALL WINNER . Papa’s Commedia by Nicholas Walz That was hellish—the hulking chopper plunging Through the top: the battered fuselage yawed, Dipped, and dove, while like a lunging weed-eater, The stuttering, feckless blade chawed the trees. There’s no war, nor downed helicopter now....

. The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare Classical Poets Student Edition Adapted by Evan Mantyk to retain the meaning of each line within the original poetic form, including blank and sometimes rhyming verse. Purchase a copy of the below adapted version on Amazon here. For a PDF of the...

.   https://youtu.be/3XWcnISYGSE . Rondel for Saint Valentine's Day by Geoffrey Chaucer (c.1340–1400) | modernized in the original lyric form by Margaret Coats Now welcome, springtime, with your gentle sunThat wintry weather milder soon will make,And tiresome nights' long shroud of blackness shake. Saint Valentine, great triumph you have won,And...

. The English Cantos: StairWell Canto 4 Leaving a broken relationship of the past behind in Canto 3, the poet enters a new world of education and what that means. Before entering a specific establishment, the poet has to catch up with Dante and Virgil who have forged ahead. But...

. Twelve Chaucerian Limericks for Paul Freeman Some pilgrims went riding to Kent, And here’s how the journey was spent: As they traipsed through the dale They each told a tale Of sacred or worldly intent. Some of the stories were clean, And others absurd or obscene. Whether gentle or...

100 Days of Dante Poetry Contest Sponsored by the Calvin Center for Faith & Writing with the Society of Classical Poets . . Introduction 100 Days of Dante is a collaborative resource aimed at educating readers and forming new readers of Dante’s Divine Comedy. Through videos that explore its literary,...

. I. The Blacksmith God Forges Scenes on Achilles’ Shield after Homer’s Iliad Book 18 The hammer strikes! And glowing sparks fly out As Earth takes shape and then the flowing seas, The sun, the moon, the wondrous Pleiades And all the constellations round about. The hammer strikes! And now...

. Lady Macbeth’s Regret Soft hands that led her smitten lord to bedInflamed the flare and thrust of his desire.Cool hands that won his trust and soothed his dread,Now sting and burn in licks of Hades’ fire.  Slick hands now drip with crimson viciousness And reek of wicked deeds that sliced at life. Their smooth allure and sleek perniciousness  Had honed the blade of regicide’s sly knife.  Sore hands are scrubbing skin,...

. The Argument: The Poet, with Dante and Virgil, has arrived on the third step of the StairWell, or Purgatory. Dante at the start of Canto 3 has been at pains to explain to the shocked Poet what just has happened on step 2. It has been an incredible, almost...

. Contemplating Aristotle Contemplating a Bust of Homer He stands enwrapped in luminous shadowed light, A woven cord of gold across his chest, Voluminous silk sleeves of purest white Contrast the deep-black velvet of his vest. Arrayed as though he were a wealthy man; A citizen of Rembrandt’s Amsterdam. An...

. Bardolatry He boasted an iambic ear, That playwright with insight, Shakespeare; Yes, Measure for Measure He’s given much pleasure With Hamlet, Macbeth and King Lear. The Bard’s jealous fellow, Othello, Brings lust, unjust murder and bellow— You’re after a laugh? Then check out Falstaff Or Malvolio’s tights of bright yellow. In mystic Midsummer Night’s Dream  Titania’s a mean fairy queen; There’s Puck, of wild antic, And Bottom, a frantic,...

. Advice from Dante “If you hear nostrums* in the market cried, Behave like men, and not like witless sheep.” ---Dante, Paradiso, Canto V Behave like men, and not like witless sheep. The CDC has shown no evidence That covering one’s face with cloth will keep The people near us...

. The poet has now escaped Hell, and has arrived in Purgatory or what he calls the StairWell. But he seems to have been abandoned by Dante, and has a fresh set of problems to confront. In this first section of the Canto he encounters an unexpected companion to help...