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Essays

Home
Essays

A Beginner’s Guide to Sapphic Verse (with Audio)

The Society
November 27, 2018
Essays, For Educators, Poetry, Poetry Forms, Readings
31 Comments
by James A. Tweedie My interest in Sapphic verse arose from a discussion thread on an SCP post some months ago. I researched the subject and decided to try my hand at it. Recently, I submitted my poem to...

Poetry Found: ‘The Battery Horse’ by E.R. Henry

The Society
November 16, 2018
Beauty, Culture, Essays, Found Poem, Poetry
32 Comments
Presented by Monty Phillips Given that the recent days have been rightfully occupied by the remembering of the humans who never made it home from World War 1, I thought I might highlight a less represented...

Essay: ‘Down with the Suck-Ups’ by Joseph S. Salemi

The Society
November 5, 2018
Culture, Essays, Poetry
13 Comments
When formal poets come to me for advice, I do my best to be helpful. I can comment on metrics and diction and syntactical choice. I try to avoid discussing subject matter since that is in the realm of personal...

Review: In the Measuring, Carol Smallwood, Shanti Arts 2018

The Society
November 3, 2018
Beauty, Essays, Poetry, Reviews
12 Comments
by James Sale Carol Smallwood In the Measuring is a substantial new collection of 77 poems by Carol Smallwood. Carol is well-known to readers of The Society of Classical Poets, as her poems regularly...

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...

Review: Selected Poems from Baudelaire’s Les Fleurs du Mal, Translated by Helen Palma

The Society
October 17, 2018
Beauty, Culture, Essays, Poetry, Reviews
10 Comments
by Joseph Charles MacKenzie Read the Selected Poems from Baudelaire's Les Fleurs du Mal online. Purchase the book here. Two arts are beautifully displayed in Helen Palma’s Selected Poems from...

A Brief History of Riddles

The Society
October 13, 2018
Culture, Essays, Poetry, Riddles
7 Comments
by Manfred Dietrich The world is riddled with riddles. Riddling is as old and as ubiquitous as language itself. When God invited Adam to name the beasts and the beauties of creation, he showed that each...

The Eight Greatest Poems of William Wordsworth

The Society
October 6, 2018
Beauty, Culture, Essays, Poetry, The Environment
12 Comments
by Charles Eager William Wordsworth was born in Cockermouth, Cumberland, in 1770—the same year as gave us Beethoven, Hegel, and Hölderlin—and died at the age of eighty, rich in the knowledge of his...

Review: Two Poetry Books by James B. Nicola

The Society
September 24, 2018
Beauty, Culture, Essays, Humor, Poetry, Reviews
3 Comments
by James Sale Wind in the Cave, Finishing Line Press, 2017 Out of Nothing, Shanti Arts Publishing, 2018 Recently in a poetry review of another poet on these pages I commented that the poet had included 33...

An Analysis of Norman MacCaig’s ‘Summer Farm’

The Society
August 27, 2018
Beauty, Culture, Essays, Poetry
3 Comments
Paradox as Explanatory Paradigm in Norman MacCaig’s ‘Summer Farm’ by Phillip Whidden   Summer Farm Straws like tame lightnings lie about the grass And hang zigzag on hedges.  Green as...

The Rise of Conservative Art and Poetry

The Society
August 10, 2018
Art, Culture, Essays, News of Note, Poetry
17 Comments
An earlier version of this piece was published in The Epoch Times By Evan Mantyk When Jon McNaughton released his new painting, “Crossing the Swamp,” on July 31, he probably wasn’t expecting to get...

Review: ‘Organ Harvest’ by Damian Robin

The Society
July 20, 2018
Culture, Essays, Human Rights in China, News of Note, Poetry, Reviews
5 Comments
Organ Harvest by Damian Robin, published by Fulton Verse, 2018. Read three sonnets from the work here.  by James Sale Damian Robin is well known to readers of the Society of Classical Poets web...

Review: Three Poetry Books by Joseph S. Salemi

The Society
June 20, 2018
Culture, Essays, Poetry, Reviews
33 Comments
by James Sale FORMAL COMPLAINTS by Joseph S. Salemi, Somer Rocks Press, 1997 MASQUERADE by Joseph S. Salemi, Somer Rocks Press, 2005 SKIRMISHES by Joseph S. Salemi, Pivot Press, 2010 I first encountered...

Essay: ‘Frog-Marched Into the Prison of Poetry’

The Society
June 8, 2018
Culture, Essays, Humor, Poetry
9 Comments
by Con Chapman Nyla Matuk and I have a few things in common; we are both poets (or in my case, claim to be), and we both know what sumptuary laws are, she having written a book of poems using that term as...

10 Favorite Shakespeare Sonnets

The Society
May 24, 2018
Beauty, Culture, Essays, For Educators, Poetry
15 Comments
By James A. Tweedie Call me a snob but I am generally attracted to what is commonly referred to as “great art” or the “masterpieces.” Over the years I have looked at famous paintings and I have looked...

Essay: A Defense of Poetry

The Society
May 11, 2018
Beauty, Culture, Essays, Poetry
7 Comments
''A good poem helps to change the shape and significance of the universe, helps to extend everyone’s knowledge of himself and the world around him.'' —Dylan Thomas By Gideon Cecil We are living in...

Pastoral Poetry: Arcadia Through the Ages

The Society
April 29, 2018
Beauty, Culture, Essays, For Educators, Poetry
5 Comments
  by James Green “Come live with me and be my Love, And we will all the pleasures prove That hills and valleys, dale and field, And all the craggy mountains yield.” —Christopher...

10 Greatest Shakespeare Sonnets: An Immortal Series

The Society
April 8, 2018
Beauty, Culture, Essays, For Educators, Poetry
4 Comments
By David B. Gosselin William Shakespeare (baptized April 26, 1564 - died April 23, 1616) is arguably the greatest writer in any language. His poetry is not only one of the most exalted examples of what an...

Essay: On George Herbert’s ‘Easter Wings’

The Society
March 25, 2018
Beauty, Culture, Essays, Poetry, Shape Poems
5 Comments
by Jane Blanchard George Herbert was born into a well-to-do and well-doing family of Montgomery, Wales, in 1593. When he was three years old, his father died, leaving a wife and ten children. Herbert...

Essay: The Life, Death and Art of Rachel Wetzsteon

The Society
March 11, 2018
Essays, Poetry
13 Comments
By Con Chapman It has been a little more than eight years since poet Rachel Wetzsteon committed suicide at the age of 42 following the end of a three-year romance. At the time of her death Wetzsteon...

Thirty-one Sonnets: Renaissance to New Millennial

The Society
March 3, 2018
Culture, Essays, For Educators, Poetry, Poetry Forms
7 Comments
by Lew Icarus Bede "A sonnet is a coin: its face reveals The soul—its converse, to what Power 'tis due: Whether for tribute to the august appeals Of Life, or dower in Love's high retinue, It serve; or,...

Essay: On Edgar Allan Poe’s Search for Supernal Beauty and His Five Greatest Poems

The Society
February 12, 2018
Beauty, Culture, Essays, Poetry, The Raven
4 Comments
By David Bellemare Gosselin Today, seldom is Edgar Allan Poe's voice heard as it's drowned out by the popular notions of Poe as some sort of deranged man whose stories and poetry are simply the product of...

Essay: Unmerited Neglect: A Look at Three Longfellow Poems

The Society
February 5, 2018
Beauty, Culture, Essays, For Educators, Poetry
5 Comments
By Carter Davis Johnson In a period where American literature was considered peripheral and amateur, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) helped create a national literature to challenge European...

Rediscovering Percy Shelley’s Greatest Work: ‘Prometheus Unbound, with Other Poems’

The Society
January 25, 2018
Beauty, Culture, Essays, Poetry, Reviews
7 Comments
By Brett Forester Writing but one fine, enduring poem is a remarkable achievement. Writing a book of great poems is an even rarer triumph. Yet in 1820, British Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley (born...

Review: What Is Shen Yun All About?

The Society
January 19, 2018
Beauty, Culture, Deconstructing Communism, Essays, Human Rights in China, Music, Performing Arts, Poetry, Reviews
38 Comments
By Evan Mantyk Advertising for it is everywhere. If you haven’t seen it, you just haven’t been paying attention. A brilliantly colored image depicts a Chinese woman striking an airborne pose. But what...

Essay: The Wit of William Cowper

The Society
January 14, 2018
Beauty, Culture, Essays, Humor, Poetry
16 Comments
By James A. Tweedie These days, William Cowper (November 26, 1731 - April 25, 1800) isn’t likely to be found on anyone’s list of “Top Twenty English Poets.” Fifty years after his death, however,...

10 Greatest Poems by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The Society
January 2, 2018
Beauty, Culture, Essays, Poetry
39 Comments
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (born February 27, 1807 - died March 24, 1882) was an American poet of the Romantic period. He served as a professor at Harvard University and was an adept linguist, traveling...

10 Greatest Poems by John Keats

The Society
December 22, 2017
Beauty, Culture, Essays, Poetry
13 Comments
by Annabelle Fuller John Keats (born October 31, 1795 - died February 23, 1821) began life as the son of a stable-owner, and ended it as an unmarried, poor and tuberculosis-ridden young man. Somewhere along...

Concepts on Classical Scalds: William Dunbar, Robert Burns, and More

The Society
December 14, 2017
Beauty, Culture, Essays, Poetry, Translation
By Sam Gilliland The Poisoned Chalice Let he who lips me then beware, My potion’s more than honeyed mead, One sip, I shall your soul ensnare, Death conquers all, so take you heed! It is a foolhardy...

Essay: Put Down That Poem Before You Kill Yourself

The Society
December 11, 2017
Culture, Essays, Poetry
14 Comments
By Con Chapman Boston may no longer be the Hub of the Universe, but its Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area remains the undisputed capital of America in at least one respect—home of suicidal...

Essay: A Tribute to John Keats by Sam Gilliland

The Society
December 7, 2017
Beauty, Culture, Essays, Poetry
1 Comment
Any treatise claiming critical review of verse, whether in the widest sense, or, as in this case, the result of compressed choice, purely down to the author’s own consideration, I hasten to add, is probably...

Essay: My Predecessor, Fray Angelico Chavez Part I by Joseph Charles MacKenzie

The Society
December 1, 2017
Beauty, Culture, Essays, Poetry
4 Comments
The poetry of Fray Angelico Chavez can be read here. By Joseph Charles MacKenzie Fray Angélico Chávez, O.F.M. (1910-1996) remains the most important poet of New Mexico’s modern history. It is precisely...

Ten of the Best Poems by Robert Frost (that you’ve probably never read)

The Society
November 24, 2017
Beauty, Culture, Essays, For Educators, Poetry
18 Comments
by Dusty Grein The Man The American poet Robert Frost was born on March 26, 1874, in San Francisco, CA. He spent his first 40 years mostly unknown, and it wasn’t until after returning to the United...

10 Greatest Poems Written by John Milton

The Society
November 7, 2017
Culture, Epic, Essays, Poetry
5 Comments
John Milton (Born December 9, 1608 – died November 8, 1674) was an English poet of the late Renaissance period. He is most noted for his epic poem on the fall of Satan and Adam and Eve’s ejection from the...

Essay: Are Shakespeare and Dante Dead White European Males? (Part 1)

The Society
October 30, 2017
Beauty, Essays, Poetry
5 Comments
By David Gosselin The answer to the above question is of course no. Shakespeare and Dante are not dead because every true poet is immortal. However, much of our contemporary thinkers seem to be under the...

Essay: ‘Poetry Matters’ by Bruce Wren LC

The Society
October 22, 2017
Beauty, Culture, Essays, Poetry
3 Comments
An Introduction to Poetry and Its Place in an Integral Human Formation Introduction  It is well known to most sensible educators that one of the fundamental goals of their profession is the so-called...

Beatrice: Muse for One, Model for All (Essay)

The Society
October 1, 2017
Beauty, Culture, Essays, Poetry
3 Comments
by Jane Blanchard Beatrice, Dante Alighieri’s second guide in La Divina Commedia (The Divine Comedy), makes her literary debut in an earlier work, La Vita Nuova (The New Life), a combination of prose and...

Book Review: Groans From Old Bones by William F.E. Morley (1920 – )

The Society
September 25, 2017
Essays, Poetry, Reviews
4 Comments
Click here to download the entire book as a pdf file. By Leonard Dabydeen In the fraternity of poetic minds we can luxuriate joyously on the richness of old age, or on becoming old but fresh as sunshine...

Interview with Samuel Gilliland: ‘The Finest Lyric Poet in Scotland’

The Society
September 17, 2017
Beauty, Culture, Essays, Interviews, News of Note, Poetry
5 Comments
By Joseph Charles MacKenzie, for the Society of Classical Poets Born in 1939 Samuel Gilliland attended the ancient Dreghorn School in an old mining village on the right bank of the river Irvine, said...

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...
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Resources

       1. How to Write a Sonnet

       2. How to Write a Haiku

       3. Poetry Lesson Plan

       4. A Timeline of English Poetry

       5. Poems by High School Students

       6. What Is Poetry?

       7. Ten Great Class Novels

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