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      Essay: ‘Twas the Night after Rhyme…

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      December 24, 2013
      Poetry
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      14
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      September 15, 2021
      Culture, Poetry, Poetry Contests
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      March 31, 2025
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Author The Society

The Society

The Society of Classical Poets was founded in New York in July, 2012.

‘New Day’ and Other Poetry by Theresa Rodriguez

The Society
May 20, 2019
Beauty, Poetry
30 Comments
New Day Welcome to a new day. I must go Ahead with life as it presents to me I have to forge ahead steadfast and show What moving on and steering forth can be For past is only dreams and memories And...

A Poem on Terrorism: ‘Why Not?’ by T.M. Moore

The Society
May 18, 2019
Culture, Deconstructing Communism, Poetry, Terrorism
6 Comments
  We shake our heads, and wonder, “Why?” aloud each time some speeding truck plows through a crowd, or grinning gunman gloats at blood and breath spilled and extinguished by his date with...

‘A Poet’s Lament’ and Poetry by Joe Tessitore

The Society
May 17, 2019
Beauty, Culture, Essays, Poetry
19 Comments
A Poet’s Lament - for Charles Southerland, whose brilliant prose style I so painfully tried to imitate and incorporate Nobody cried when poetry died a long, slow death - a final breath, maybe even a last...

‘White Is A Color, Too’ and Other Poetry by Ron L. Hodges

The Society
May 16, 2019
Culture, Deconstructing Communism, Humor, Poetry
10 Comments
White Is A Color, Too It seems strange to have to say this After what that great man taught, Yet I have seen so much amiss That I fear we all forgot. I’m here to share an opinion, Which might be a...

On Wendy Cope’s Wasteland Limericks (Essay)

The Society
May 15, 2019
Culture, Essays, Humor, Limerick, Poetry, Reviews
6 Comments
by Lew Icarus Bede The way I dealt with T. S. Eliot's The Wasteland was to write a poem, equally desperate, in that same allusive style—with notes. That unpublished poem Cicadas' Voices, written in the...

Poetry Challenge: Write a Square Poem

The Society
May 14, 2019
Culture, Poetry, Riddles
30 Comments
by David Watt I recently came across the following “square poem” attributed to Charles Dodgson (better known as Lewis Carrol). Please note that each of the six lines may be read horizontally, or...

Friends of Falun Gong Poetry Contest Winners Announced

The Society
May 13, 2019
Culture, Human Rights in China, Poetry, Poetry Contests
2 Comments
Congratulations to contest winners David Whippman (First Place), Randal Burd (Second Place), Theresa Rodriguez (Third Place), and Dusty Thorne (Fourth Place). Mr. Whippman's winning poem is below. Other poems...

Selected Poems from ‘Journey to the East’ by Evan Mantyk

The Society
May 13, 2019
Beauty, Children's, Culture, Humor, Poetry, Short Stories
10 Comments
A Journey to the East by Evan Mantyk is a historical and poetical fairytale adventure styled after Journey to the West, by Ming Dynasty writer Wu Cheng’en. The first nine chapters of the former may be read...

Three Poems for Mother’s Day

The Society
May 12, 2019
Beauty, Culture, Poetry
1 Comment
Bunny by Sally Cook Indebted to a simple spark of life, You missed your chance at Europe’s wondrous door. A conscientious mother and a wife, You danced your dance upon an inland shore. Your simple...

‘On Seeing You Upon Waking’ by Martin Rizley

The Society
May 11, 2019
Beauty, Love Poems, Poetry
21 Comments
  I woke this day from napping, and I saw you lying there, Across the room, upon a couch, asleep without a care. The golden beams of twilight streaming through the windowpane, Shone wondrously upon...

‘Paper Flowers’ by Sathya Narayana

The Society
May 10, 2019
Beauty, Humor, Poetry
27 Comments
  With lifeless smiles she's sitting tight in the vase. With painted flowers, leaves and twigs she's like a dressed deadman on funeral day. Let days and months pass by; forever she's...

A Line of Shakespeare Poetry Contest

The Society
May 8, 2019
Culture, Education, From the Society, Humor, Poetry, Poetry Contests, Shakespeare
148 Comments
Winners announced here! Write a short poem that begins with one line from any Shakespeare play or poem. The poem should be two to four lines in length. Post it in the comments section below under your...

A Riddle by Connie Phillips

The Society
May 8, 2019
Culture, Humor, Poetry, Riddles
8 Comments
Riddle No. 1 So astounding is this part— A major muscle, like your heart. And so astonishing its job, Without it you would be a blob: You couldn’t stand or lift or bend— You’d be a pretzel in...

‘Irrelephant’ and Other Poetry by Raymond Gallucci

The Society
May 7, 2019
Culture, Humor, Poetry
21 Comments
Irrelephant Within the room there’s something big, But management ignores it. A redwood tree, not tiny twig? Concern they haven’t for it. Though elephant is in the room, It’s on the mouse they...

‘Tolstoy: A Very Brief Biography in Verse’ by William Walters

The Society
May 6, 2019
Culture, Humor, Poetry
6 Comments
  Dust to lust to disgust to trust to must to just to dust.     Wm. Walters is a professor of English and linguistics at Rock Valley College, in Rockford, IL. His poems have appeared...
poem/cooper/culture

‘Some People Did Something’ by J.M. McBirnie

The Society
May 6, 2019
Poetry
8 Comments
Some People Did Something On Rep. Omar's reducing the 9/11 terrorist attacks to "Some people did something" Some people swallowed towers, kept ashes on their bones, saw steel like fainting flowers, or...

‘Streamlined’ and Other Poetry by David Whippman

The Society
May 5, 2019
Culture, Humor, Poetry
10 Comments
Streamlined In some alternative reality I have remained unmarried, all alone. Would that have been a better way for me - Some Spartan bachelor flat, my comfort zone? Just having to look after number...

‘Centauromachy’ by Nathaniel Todd McKee

The Society
May 4, 2019
Culture, Poetry, Short Stories
15 Comments
  This poem recounts the famous mythical battle, “Centauromachy.” It unfolds in the ancient home of the Lapiths in the region of Thessaly, Greece, a generation or two before the Trojan War. King...

‘The Collapse of Character’ by Joseph S. Salemi

The Society
May 3, 2019
Culture, Humor, Poetry
23 Comments
  —from A Gallery of Ethopaths What generates the half-assed views That this dimwit nation spews? Why are persons mindless lemmings? From what source is this stuff stemming? Collapse of...

A Poem on Recent Shooting Heroes Lori Kaye and Riley Howell, by James A. Tweedie

The Society
May 2, 2019
Beauty, Culture, Poetry, Terrorism
10 Comments
  For Lori Kaye and Riley Howell I sing in praise of Lori Gilbert Kaye. When racist hatred paid a deadly call On Congregation Chabad of Poway, She stood and “took a bullet for us all.” I sing of...

On the 200th Anniversary of John Keats’ Odes (A Video Essay by Daniel Leach)

The Society
May 2, 2019
Poetry, Readings, Video
5 Comments
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9LEnZ9T4F0&feature=youtu.be&app=desktop When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be  by John Keats When I have fears that I may cease to be __Before my pen has...

‘Epigrams on the Decay within Academia’ and Other Poetry by C.B. Anderson

The Society
May 1, 2019
Culture, Epigrams and Proverbs, Humor, Poetry
21 Comments
Epigrams on the Decay within Academia   Liberal Artifice "Progressives," through advanced miseducation, Have shaken our fair land to its foundation.   Gustatory Chiasmus Good taste is...

Remembering John Whitworth (1945–April 22, 2019)

The Society
April 30, 2019
Beauty, Culture, Essays, Humor, Poetry
5 Comments
Read the poetry of the recently departed John Whitworth at Trinacria or The Poetry Archive. by Sally Cook Any ordinary poet composing a landscape piece might easily imagine a dull blue sky, one small white...

‘An Ode to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern’ by James A. Tweedie

The Society
April 30, 2019
Culture, Humor, Performing Arts, Poetry
3 Comments
An Ode to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern 50 Years Later A Poetic Summary of Tom Stoppard’s Award-Winning Play As Seen Through the Eyes of Its Two Leading Characters Says Rosencrantz to Guildenstern, “I...
poetry/homeschooling/teachers guide

‘Venting’ and Other Poetry by T.M. Moore

The Society
April 29, 2019
Beauty, Culture, Poetry
17 Comments
Venting Be angry, and do not sin. —Ephesians 4.26 We're told a large volcano roils and seethes beneath the soil of Yellowstone. The steam that rises all throughout the park, and wreathes its many...

‘On Time’s Memory’ and Other Poetry by Frederico Nick

The Society
April 28, 2019
Beauty, Poetry
12 Comments
On Time’s Memory Time is a sieve of our own brand. A net Made not to catch but to let go: of gold, Of fish, of bread, or dust; a knotted mould Formed from ourselves, to let us so forget. Or else time is...

‘The Fall of the Fourth Estate’ and Other Poetry by Randal A. Burd, Jr.

The Society
April 27, 2019
Beauty, Culture, Poetry, Rondeau
4 Comments
The Fall of the Fourth Estate a rondeau The Media: the Fourth Estate* Performed disgracefully of late: Delivering the news askew, Allowing certain viewpoints through To fuel the discontent and...

Translation of Gottfried von Strassburg’s ‘Tristan’ Prologue

The Society
April 26, 2019
Beauty, Culture, Poetry, Translation
4 Comments
Translation by Matthew Wildermuth Note: In the time of its composition—the first decade of the 13th century—Tristan was already a timeless story of heroism and romance, yet in the hands of a great...

A ‘Birthday Apology’ to Shakespeare on his 455th, and Other Poetry by Joe Tessitore

The Society
April 26, 2019
Beauty, Culture, Humor, Poetry, Shakespeare
8 Comments
  Birthday Apology William Shakespeare was born April 26, 1564 If all the world’s a stage, and all the men are women, myne eye be true, I gauge; her beard doth need a...

‘Towards the End of Chinese Communism’ and Other Poetry by Damian Robin

The Society
April 25, 2019
Beauty, Human Rights in China, Poetry
11 Comments
Towards the End of Chinese Communism Through Shanghai’s packed glissando peaks and Beijing’s glossy miles, As though to keep out counter breaths and polish glassy smiles, The dazing days of blinding...

‘The Keyhole’ by Lynn Michael Martin

The Society
April 24, 2019
Beauty, Poetry
5 Comments
Here shut behind an oaken door I stay, left in a room paneled with times long gone, and learn to know the passing of the day, for day and I await the selfsame dawn. My window faces west, my door is...

Five Sonnets on World War I by Peter Hartley

The Society
April 23, 2019
Beauty, Culture, Poetry
33 Comments
Gallipoli, 1915 There are none left on earth can ever tell At first hand of this mortal waste of war Hard-fought one hundred years ago and more, The stench of death, of corpses left to swell, Their...

‘Sonnet’ by Andrew McDiarmid

The Society
April 22, 2019
Beauty, Love Poems, Poetry
5 Comments
  I face the day with unexpected strength, to know we’ll meet when the sun has disappeared. Your hand in mine we’ll walk the forest’s length, with peace of mind and nothing to be feared. I...

‘The Terrorist Attacks in Sri Lanka, Easter, 2019’ by Bruce Dale Wise

The Society
April 21, 2019
Culture, Poetry, Terrorism
16 Comments
  O, curse Zahran Hashim and, yes, Abu Mohammad too, for evil at the Shangri-la and Batticalao, just two, of all those vicious men, who hit Sri Lanka's calm. O, Lord, the people cry aloud; they long...

A Poem for Easter Sunday: ‘Tosspot Tulip’ by James A. Tweedie

The Society
April 21, 2019
Beauty, Culture, Poetry
7 Comments
  Tosspot tulip, withered, bowed and bent; __Severed stem embedded in a vase. __Natal bed a now-forsaken place. __Glory passed; its bloom and beauty spent. Birthed, bedecked, betrothed, by bulb and...

‘A Spot in Time’ by Theresa Rodriguez

The Society
April 20, 2019
Beauty, Love Poems, Poetry
2 Comments
  It is a moment or a spot in time, When time is quieted and put away; A simple thing becoming the sublime, Suspended and eternal in a day And all around me just dissolves to naught; I feel my...

Poetry for Good Friday 2019

The Society
April 19, 2019
Beauty, Culture, Poetry
12 Comments
A special holiday post featuring "My Cross" by Joe Tessitore of New York, New York; "Pietá" by Tonya McQuade of Los Gatos, California; "The Pietá" by Michael Charles Maibach of Alexandria, Virginia.

‘Pleasuring Dreams’ by P. T. O’Talryn

The Society
April 18, 2019
Culture, Poetry
6 Comments
They fell into a numbing sleep Perchance to darkly dream. The kettle for their tea was boiling; The plants were rich and green. They stoned themselves on television And marriage habits bad; Their...

‘Luckily for the Lovelorn’ by E.V. Wyler

The Society
April 17, 2019
Beauty, Poetry
18 Comments
  Luckily for the bereft grieving through darkness alone, dawn is abundantly deft at its medicinal tone. When a new morning appears, duty abruptly commands focusing thoughts on careers and...

Three Poems on the Fire at Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris

The Society
April 16, 2019
Beauty, Culture, Poetry
33 Comments
The Cathedral, Burning by T. M. Moore Flames wreck the walls and ceilings that had stood for centuries, scorch ancient timbers, raze to ash that sanctuary made for praise, and cruelly crumble sacred...
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