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Classical Literature

Home
Classical Literature

‘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...
history allegory

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
10 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...




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Poetry Challenges

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Resources

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