‘The Sonnet of the Reluctant Mariner’ by Emmanuel Flores The Society November 20, 2019 Beauty, Classical Literature, Culture, Poetry 9 Comments What might, what gold does Ithaca hold to vex us; Enthralled ‘till when, by whom, for what, and where? Do not the mermaids sing the song that wakes us to pleasured, pampered mornings in their...
Five Translations of Aesop’s Fables (from Phaedrus, First Century AD Latin Poet) The Society November 19, 2019 Beauty, Children's, Classical Literature, Culture, Humor, Poetry, Translation 16 Comments Translations by Terry L. Norton. Original Latin by Phaedrus follows each. The Red Kite and the Doves When doves had from a certain kite fled And by the swiftness of their wings escaped, The wily bird of...
‘Quasimodo’ by Theresa Rodriguez The Society November 12, 2019 Beauty, Classical Literature, Culture, Poetry 12 Comments “Look not on the face, young girl, look at the heart.” —Quasimodo, The Hunchback of Notre Dame A vile, lumbering mass, so hideous, Rejected and despised by every eye That fears and is repulsed by...
How NOT to Hate Shakespeare: TED Talk by Rob Crisell The Society October 13, 2019 Classical Literature, Culture, For Educators, Poetry, Video 1 Comment ...
A Poem on Violinist Fiona Zheng and Other Poetry, by Evan Mantyk (Video) The Society October 1, 2019 Beauty, Classical Literature, Culture, Human Rights in China, Music, Poetry, Video 12 Comments Sonnet VI. Fiona Zheng Violinist Fiona Zheng and her father spent part of their lives fleeing communist authorities in China after her mother and grandmother were killed for refusing to renounce their...
A Fairy Tale in Poetry: ‘The Singing Bone,’ by Jan Darling The Society August 20, 2019 Children's, Classical Literature, Culture, Poetry 11 Comments This is a tale of sibling rivalry from the 1812 Brothers Grimm collection of Children’s and Household Tales. Similar stories exist in Danish, English, Hungarian, Icelandic, Norwegian, Slovinian and...
Selected Poems from ‘Journey to the East’ by Evan Mantyk The Society May 13, 2019 Beauty, Children's, Classical Literature, 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...
‘Tolstoy: A Very Brief Biography in Verse’ by William Walters The Society May 6, 2019 Classical Literature, 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...
Poetry Lesson Plan: British Romantic Period (including Lecture Notes) The Society March 18, 2019 Beauty, Classical Literature, Culture, For Educators, Poetry 6 Comments Note: Teaching classical poetry rather than other forms of poetry or modern literature makes a difference. Inherent in classical poetry is a respect for tradition, for order, for discipline, and for the...
Preface to the Poems Composed at the Orchid Pavilion (A Rhyming Poetry Translation) The Society February 4, 2019 Beauty, Classical Literature, Culture, Poetry, Translation 11 Comments The Preface to the Poems Composed at the Orchid Pavilion ( 蘭亭集序; Lántíngjí Xu), from the 4th century AD, is generally regarded as the greatest work of Chinese calligraphy. Although...
Rediscovering Homer’s ‘Odyssey’ The Society October 24, 2018 Beauty, Classical Literature, Culture, Epic, Essays, For Educators, Poetry 27 Comments by Evan Mantyk Where is Homer? The epic poems of the famous Greek bard were the cornerstone of education for young Socrates, Alexander the Great, Roman emperors, William Shakespeare, and every serious...
Translation of the Iliad’s Beginning by J. Simon Harris The Society January 21, 2018 Classical Literature, Culture, Epic, For Educators, Poetry, Translation 7 Comments Homer’s Iliad I.1-47. Translation in the epic hexameter, the meter of the Greek. Sing of the wrath, my goddess, of Peleus’ son Achilles, doomed and destructive, which gave the Achaeans numberless...
‘The Teacher to His Students’ and Other Poetry by Evan Mantyk The Society September 30, 2017 Classical Literature, Culture, Deconstructing Communism, Poetry 17 Comments The Teacher to His Students The ghost… the ghost of Hamlet’s father, came To walk the castle walls one moonless night. This father, once the king, had come to blame His brother, for his grave,...
‘Re-visiting Dante’ and Other Poetry by James Sale The Society September 22, 2017 Beauty, Classical Literature, Culture, Poetry 5 Comments Re-visiting Dante “For Dante it was a strict rule not to rhyme the word ‘Christ’ with any other word except itself” – Clive James Inferno Down we went like no other care were there; No...
Review: Wolfe and Other Poems by Donald Mace Williams, Wundor Editions, 2017 The Society September 2, 2017 Classical Literature, Essays, Poetry, Reviews 3 Comments By James Sale Donald Mace Williams Wolfe and Other Poems is an extraordinarily good collection of poems, clearly written by a veteran writer. The underlying credo of the collection is very aptly summed...
Classical Book Review: The Icelandic Sagas: Tales of Kings and Heroes (Folio) Joshua Philipp August 16, 2017 Classical Literature, Essays, Poetry, Reviews By Joshua Philipp Abbie Farwell Brown described the far north in his 1902 book, "In The Days of Giants," as "the land of the midnight sun, where summer is green and pleasant, but winter is a terrible time...
Classical Book Review: Dante’s Vita Nuova and Reflections on Divine Love (Folio) Joshua Philipp June 20, 2017 Classical Literature, Essays, Poetry, Reviews, Translation 4 Comments By Joshua Philipp The Italian poet Dante Alighieri is best known for his journey into hell, purgatory, and heaven which he told of in his "Divine Comedy." But before he took that journey, he took a very...
Book Review: Hare Krishna by Mahathi, Prowess Publishing, 2017 The Society June 14, 2017 Classical Literature, Essays, Poetry, Reviews 7 Comments By Sandeep Kumar Mishra There are two things that came to my mind when I read the book Hare Krishna by Mahathi: First, in this modern era in which every person thinks himself a poet, the shape, size and...
An Alternative Ending to Romeo and Juliet Part II by Reid McGrath The Society June 2, 2017 Classical Literature, Culture, For Educators, Humor, Poetry, Short Stories 6 Comments Click here to read Part I. Montague (That afternoon, on the outskirts of Verona, at a Club, getting in an afternoon’s worth of pheasant shooting, having needed to get out of town and “think about...
Classical Book Review: A Brief Look at ‘The Kojiki’ (Tuttle) Joshua Philipp May 18, 2017 Classical Literature, Essays, Poetry, Reviews, Translation 3 Comments By Joshua Philipp The Japanese creation story begins in a time of primordial chaos, and from this the god Izanagi and the goddess Izanami emerge to create the Japanese islands. This is the first tale in The...
A Timeline of English Poetry Part I: The Song of Amergin, Caedmon’s Hymn, Bede’s Death Song, Deor’s Lament The Society April 21, 2017 Classical Literature, Culture, Essays, For Educators, Poetry 9 Comments By Sandeep Kumar Mishra and Evan Mantyk English poetry has a rich history dating back at least 1,400 years. Looking at poetry today, it is easy to get trapped into thinking that the flurry of poetic...
An Alternative Ending to Romeo and Juliet by Reid McGrath The Society April 13, 2017 Classical Literature, Culture, For Educators, Poetry 7 Comments If Romeo Had Received the Letter Part I Romeo (in the catacomb, lying down beside Juliet) The friar’s note said: “Romeo she will wake.” Thus here I am now with my life at stake. You’ll...
On Their Uncanny Similarities: Hamlet and Journey to the West The Society January 30, 2017 Classical Literature, Culture, Essays, For Educators 5 Comments by Evan Mantyk WHAT DOES THE classic Chinese story Journey to the West have to do with William Shakespeare’s classic play Hamlet? A lot it turns out. Both Hamlet and Journey to the West were...
10 Greatest Novels Ever Written The Society January 1, 2017 Classical Literature, Culture, Essays, For Educators, Poetry 38 Comments By Evan Mantyk From The Iliad, Beowulf, and Shakespearean literature in the West to the Chinese Classic of Poetry, the Indian Ramayana, and the Middle Eastern Epic of Gilgamesh, classical poetry is the...
