Book Review: Doorway: The English Cantos, Volume III by James Sale The Society April 26, 2025 Dante, Epic, Poetry, Reviews 10 Comments . Book Reviewed: Doorway: The English Cantos, Volume III, by James Sale, 2025 by Cynthia Erlandson It’s been several years since I’ve read...
HellWard Canto 1: ‘Hospital’: Extract from the Epic Poem by James Sale The Society November 6, 2024 Epic, Poetry 15 Comments . HellWard Canto 1: Hospital ---lines 1-92 It had to be---that long descent began: About me images, one century That started, stuttered, showed how...
DoorWay Canto 7: ‘Flight to The Eyrie’ from James Sale’s Epic Poem The Society August 24, 2024 Epic, Poetry 14 Comments . DoorWay Canto 7: Flight to The Eyrie In Canto 7, the narrating Pilgrim Poet deviates from the Zodiac, leaving Sagittarius, to visit the...
DoorWay Canto 5: ‘Waters of the Crab’ from James Sale’s Epic Poem The Society March 12, 2024 Epic, Poetry, Terza Rima 19 Comments . DoorWay Canto 5: Waters of the Crab From Canto 4 in the constellation of Taurus, the Bull, the poet has been led by Michael, the Seraph, to the...
Extract from DoorWay Canto 3: Constellation of the Virgin, by James Sale The Society October 28, 2023 Beauty, Epic, Poetry 24 Comments . Extract from DoorWay Canto 3: Constellation of the Virgin DoorWay is the Poet’s journey through Heaven. Having left the constellation of Libra in...
DoorWay Canto 2 Extract from James Sales’ Epic Poem The Society May 6, 2023 Beauty, Culture, Dante, Epic, Poetry 16 Comments . 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...
StairWell Canto 8: ‘Covid-Priest’ by James Sale The Society January 28, 2023 Covid-19, Culture, Dante, Epic, Poetry 30 Comments . 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...
StairWell Canto 10 Extract 2 by James Sale The Society September 19, 2022 Beauty, Culture, Dante, Epic, Poetry 44 Comments . 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...
StairWell Canto 10 Extract by James Sale The Society September 5, 2022 Beauty, Culture, Dante, Epic, Poetry 55 Comments . 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...
An Extract from Canto 4 of James Sale’s StairWell The Society January 21, 2022 Beauty, Culture, Dante, Epic, Poetry 13 Comments . 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...
‘The English Cantos: Volume 2: StairWell. Canto 3 Ex-Wife’ by James Sale The Society August 6, 2021 Beauty, Culture, Dante, Epic, Poetry 20 Comments . 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...
‘The English Cantos: Volume 2: StairWell. Canto 1 Ascent’ by James Sale The Society March 7, 2021 Beauty, Culture, Dante, Epic, Poetry 13 Comments . 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...
‘HellWard Canto 11: Poetasters,’ From James Sale’s English Cantos The Society May 8, 2020 Beauty, Culture, Epic, Humor, Poetry 12 Comments The Argument: The Poet, having escaped the HellWard of European and corrupt politicians, emerges into the penultimate HellWard depth where he,...
Extract from Canto 9 of James Sale’s English Cantos The Society December 8, 2019 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 24 Comments In Canto 8 the poet and Dante, accompanying him, encounter the next-door neighbour, Peter, who brutally murdered his wife for money. Escaping...
‘Canto 3’ by James Sale The Society August 30, 2018 Beauty, Culture, Poetry, Short Stories 19 Comments Canto 3 is the third canto in the sequence of the English Cantos, the first two of which are available to read on the SCP website. James Sale is...
‘Canto 2’ by James Sale The Society June 7, 2018 Beauty, Culture, Poetry, Terza Rima 39 Comments Canto 2 is part of a sequence of 33 Cantos called The English Cantos that James Sale is attempting to write in the style – and using the terza rima...
‘Canto 1’ by James Sale (with Video) The Society April 10, 2018 Beauty, Poetry, Readings, Terza Rima, Video 71 Comments Canto 1 is the provisional name for a sequence of 33 Cantos that James Sale is attempting to write in the style - and using the terza rima - of...
‘Bayesian Hubris v. Mercy Seat 11A’: A Poem by James Sale The Society July 1, 2025 Beauty, Poetry 19 Comments . Bayesian Hubris v. Mercy Seat 11A “Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, 40, who miraculously walked away from the Ahmedabad disaster, in which more than 240...
‘Apollo, Mnemosyne, and Poetry’: A Chapter from James Sale’s Gods, Heroes and Us The Society May 20, 2025 Essays, Poetry 25 Comments . Apollo, Mnemosyne, and Poetry Chapter 9 from Gods, Heroes and Us (Bruges Group, May, 2025) by James Sale Our last chapter discussed the imperative...
From James Sale’s Epic Poem DoorWay: ‘Arriving in Aquarius’ The Society March 16, 2025 Epic, Poetry 10 Comments . Opening extract from Canto 9 DoorWay: Arriving in Aquarius The poet, wrenched from love’s bliss with Seraphina in Canto 8, is carried onward by...
‘Imitating Shakespeare’s Sonnet 107’ by James Sale The Society December 15, 2024 Love Poems, Poetry, Shakespeare 18 Comments . Imitating Shakespeare’s Sonnet 107 . Sonnet 107 __by William Shakespeare Not mine own fears, nor the prophetic soul Of the wide world dreaming...
‘Three Things Alexander Knew’: A Poem by James Sale The Society October 5, 2024 Culture, Poetry 26 Comments . Three Things Alexander Knew “What can you tell me that deserves such excitement, except perhaps that Homer has come back to life?” ---Alexander...
‘The Father of All Lights’: A Poem by James Sale The Society September 18, 2024 Beauty, Poetry 20 Comments . The Father of All Lights "Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no...
‘Like Him’: A Poem by James Sale The Society August 5, 2024 Beauty, Poetry 29 Comments . Like Him "But we all, with unveiled faces, looking as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to...
“I Worship My Mistress, for I Have Seen Her Beauty”: A Poem by James Sale The Society July 11, 2024 Love Poems, Poetry 26 Comments . “I Worship My Mistress, for I Have Seen Her Beauty” ---Egyptian Coffin Texts, spell 484---a poem for Linda It may be said that I am weak,That...
‘Upon Learning of Trump’s Conviction’ by UK Poet James Sale The Society May 31, 2024 Poetry, Satire 17 Comments . Upon Learning of Trump's Conviction _America is big;__Does things in style:Like setting up a President__And rigging his trial. _America is...
‘Orpheus’: A Poem by James Sale The Society May 10, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 29 Comments . Orpheus We want the heroes back so we can learn: Herakles smashed his way to hell and stormed By violence the ferryman and three-faced dog; Even...
‘Lone Musketeer’: A Poem by James Sale The Society April 11, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 25 Comments . Lone Musketeer "To be a poet in a destitute time means: to attend, singing, to the trace of the fugitive gods. This is why the poet in the time of...
Two Sonnets by James Sale The Society February 2, 2024 Beauty, Love Poems, Poetry 33 Comments . Had I held you in the fields of Hay beside The Wye and on an afternoon that cleared To brilliance, although the sun soon would Sink to an evening...
‘Out of Purgatory’ and Other Poetry by James Sale The Society September 24, 2023 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 23 Comments . Out of Purgatory There I went blind. I could no longer speak, but as I died, I murmured Mary’s name, And there I fell and left my empty...
‘I Have Loved You All Along’: A Poem by James Sale The Society August 17, 2023 Love Poems, Poetry 12 Comments . I Have Loved You All Along for Linda I have loved you all along; No matter what was error, Or what was done imperfectly Through weakness, worry,...
‘Some Post-Animated Protestations of Goliath of Gath’: A Poem by James Sale The Society August 3, 2023 Poetry, Satire 27 Comments . Some Post-Animated Protestations of Goliath of Gath Firstly, I protest That this protestation Is useless nonetheless. Secondly, I object To...
‘Good Friday, Revisiting Glamis’: A Poem by James Sale The Society July 18, 2023 Culture, Poetry, Shakespeare 17 Comments . Good Friday, Revisiting Glamis "Not in the legions Of horrid Hell can come a devil more damn'd In evils, to top Macbeth" ---Shakespeare The...
‘To Winter’ and Other Poetry by James Sale The Society July 31, 2022 Beauty, Poetry 27 Comments . . To Winter for John Keats Where are the songs of spring? Now moving west All of us are into winter finally: Threadbare, lackluster, shorn-sheer,...
Re-imagining Spenser: A Review of ‘Virtue’s End’ by Joseph Sale The Society May 10, 2022 Poetry 19 Comments . Reviewed Book: Virtue’s End by Joseph Sale by James Sale In writing this review I have to come clean and confess an interest that not many...
A Brief Poem on Joe Biden and Afghanistan, by British Poet James Sale The Society August 20, 2021 Culture, Humor, Poetry 19 Comments . The Commander-in-Chief How Biden sucks---I mean the man, Who being wholly characterless Will criticize Afghanistan "Cowards"---when he can’t face...
‘No Letters’ and Other Poetry by James Sale The Society June 16, 2021 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 29 Comments . No Letters "An odd thought strikes me: we shall receive no letters in the grave." ---Dr. Johnson, from Boswell’s Life Of all the things which I...
‘Verbum Dei’ by James Sale The Society January 25, 2021 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 51 Comments . The Verbum Dei Retreat Centre on the Isle of Wight aims to be a place of encounter with God We took the ferry; darkness closed; Warm lights ahead;...
The Rebirth of Epic: A Review of James Sale’s HellWard The Society August 22, 2020 Beauty, Culture, Epic, Essays, Poetry, Reviews 31 Comments by Andrew Benson Brown James Sale’s HellWard is the first volume of a planned trilogy entitled The English Cantos. If the quality of the current...
‘Diomedes Speaks’ by James Sale The Society April 29, 2020 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 4 Comments We meet Diomedes, the Greek hero of Troy, trapped in a flame with Odysseus in Canto 26 of Dante’s Inferno. Odysseus speaks but Diomedes remains...
