A Poem in Tribute to Dame Vera Lynn (1917-2020), by Susan Jarvis Bryant The Society June 18, 2020 Beauty, Culture, Music, Poetry, Readings, Video 41 Comments https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZUryvFffTQ Some Sunny Day A tribute to Dame Vera Lynn who died today, June 18, 2020 (aged 103). She was the British Forces' Sweetheart who sang to the...
Poetry Readings from 2020 SCP Symposium – ‘A Celebration of Meter and Rhyme’ (Session I) The Society June 17, 2020 From the Society, Poetry, Readings, Symposium, Video All of the below poems were read on May 31, 2020 at The Society of Classical Poets Symposium, which was held online due to the pandemic. Below are poems from Session I. Session II readings are...
A Poem for the George Floyd Riots: ‘The Second Coming’ by W.B. Yeats The Society May 31, 2020 Culture, Poetry, Readings, Video 10 Comments Video and reading by Rob...
Friends of Falun Gong 2020 Poetry Contest Winners Announced The Society May 13, 2020 Culture, Deconstructing Communism, Human Rights in China, Poetry, Poetry Contests, Readings, Video 2 Comments FIRST PLACE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F96xN0VV7JU The Virus and the Cure by Rob Crisell One hundred years of tyranny, One hundred years of pain and lies. If communists of China win, The...
A Reading of “I Wandered Lonely As a Cloud (Daffodils)” by William Wordsworth The Society May 10, 2020 Beauty, Poetry, Readings, Video 10 Comments https://youtu.be/bYg-ITiEEyM "I Wandered Lonely As a Cloud," also known as "Daffodils," the poem by former British Poet Laureate William Wordsworth (1770-1850) read by the President of...
Online SCP Poetry Symposium 2020 – “A Celebration of Meter and Rhyme” The Society May 1, 2020 From the Society, Readings, Symposium 8 Comments Due to the unprecedented circumstances regarding the CCP virus (COVID-19) pandemic, the Symposium has been moved online. The details of the event have been adjusted. Sunday May 31, 2020 Session 1: 12...
Scots Translation and Poetry by George T. Watt for Tartan Day 2020 The Society April 6, 2020 Beauty, Culture, Poetry, Readings, Translation 12 Comments The Last Bard o Scotland Translation by George T. Watt, frae the original by Joseph Charles MacKenzie Watters o Irvine an Annock, Ma saut tears mell wi the sautie ocean, Wast o Arran Isle...
A Poem Celebrating Tartan Day and 700th Anniversary of the Declaration of Arbroath The Society April 6, 2020 Beauty, Culture, Poetry, Readings, Translation 8 Comments Read by George T. Watt The Scrieve fae Arbroath Non enim propter gloriam, diuicias aut honores pugnamus set propter libertatem solummodo quam nemo bonus nisi simul cum vita amittit....
SCP Poetry Symposium 2020—“A Celebration of Meter and Rhyme” The Society March 6, 2020 From the Society, Poetry, Readings, Symposium 1 Comment NOTE: This event has been canceled due to the CCP virus (COVID-19) pandemic. A new online SCP Symposium has been planned. The details of the online symposium will be available here on May...
‘Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven, Christmas Editition’ by Studio C The Society February 19, 2020 Culture, Humor, Poetry, Readings, The Raven, Video 1 Comment ...
Poems for Christmas Day 2019 The Society December 25, 2019 Beauty, Culture, Music, Poetry, Readings 7 Comments Come to Bethlehem / Silent Night Song and Poem by James A. Tweedie Come to Bethlehem, come and see God stripped bare of majesty. Fragile as a flower; Emptied of might and power; Come to...
‘Sonnet XXXVIII: The Adoration of the Shepherds’ by Joseph Charles MacKenzie The Society December 24, 2019 Beauty, Culture, Poetry, Readings 9 Comments https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sA_UsvwgdQ8 Our nakedness was swaddled by the night, With Eden’s worn-out dust our feet were shod, When heaven opened and a being of light Announced that earth...
Review: The Secrets of Archery, by Alessio Zanelli, Greenwich Exchange, 2019 The Society December 21, 2019 Beauty, Culture, Poetry, Readings 22 Comments by James Sale Alessio Zanelli is a fascinating poet, and probably a fascinating man as well. This is his sixth collection of poems and part of his well-publicised and unique charm is that he is an Italian...
A Villanelle and Video by Joseph Charles MacKenzie The Society November 5, 2019 Beauty, Love Poems, Poetry, Readings, Video, Villanelle originally published on MacKenzie Lyric Poetry Oh, run with the sun and the wind in your hair! Before the day-star sets in the west: Love flowers best in the wide, open air. Behold! The noon-tide waxes not...
‘Mailied’ by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Translated and Read by David B. Gosselin The Society October 31, 2019 Beauty, Culture, Poetry, Readings, Translation 6 Comments Mailied by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) How brightly nature Shines this morning! What radiant sun! How the fields sing! The buds burst forth From each green frond! A thousand...
A Reading of Petrarch’s Sonnet No. 7, in Italian The Society October 11, 2019 Beauty, Culture, Poetry, Readings, Translation 25 Comments This recording was made by M. P. Lauretta for the Southend Poetry Group in August 2019. Sonetto n. 7 dal Canzoniere di Francesco Petrarca La gola e ’l sonno e l’oziose piume hanno...
Joseph Charles MacKenzie’s Sonnet 5 Inspires the World of Pop (Video) The Society September 9, 2019 Beauty, Culture, Poetry, Readings, Video Originally published here. ALBUQUERQUE, NM — July 27, 2019 — Sonnet 5, a marriage poem from MacKenzie’s Sonnets for Christ the King, has inspired award-winning producer, composer, and vocalist D.G. Hall...
Bryant Park Poetry Reading: Two Poems by Theresa Rodriguez (Video) The Society September 4, 2019 Beauty, Culture, Deconstructing Communism, From the Society, Poetry, Readings, Video 9 Comments ...
SCP Symposium Readings (Videos): Joseph S. Salemi, James Sale, Adam Sedia, Michael C. Maibach The Society August 7, 2019 Beauty, Culture, From the Society, Humor, Poetry, Readings, Symposium, Video 1 Comment ...
Poems of Hibernia & Caledonia, by James A. Tweedie (with Audio) The Society August 1, 2019 Beauty, Culture, Music, Poetry, Readings 13 Comments Poet's Note: These five sonnets and song are the product of a four-week journey taken in June to Ireland and through west central Scotland and the Inner and Outer Hebrides. Unlike the sonnets, the lyrics to...
Three Sonnets in an Antiquated Style by James A. Tweedie (with Audio) The Society July 13, 2019 Beauty, Culture, Love Poems, Poetry, Readings 11 Comments Her Love for Him My true love laughs, and angel choirs sing; The mountains echo back his tuneful mirth While Nature dances, heav’n in step with earth. ‘Tis music to mine ear; mine heart takes...
‘The Loan’ and Other Poetry by Benjamin Daniel Lukey (with Audio) The Society July 11, 2019 Beauty, Culture, Poetry, Readings, Villanelle 7 Comments A reading of the below poems by the poet: The Loan a villanelle This life we hold so dear is but a loan. For good or ill, its balance must be spent, For life is not a thing that we can...
‘The Man Who Never Cries’ by David B. Gosselin (with Audio) The Society July 8, 2019 Beauty, Poetry, Readings 21 Comments The man who never cries is like the ship That never sailed, or left the sleepy shores, Who’s never felt the waves of peril whip Against his keel far off from peaceful...
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...
Two Videos on the Reading of Poetry Out Loud The Society March 11, 2019 Beauty, Culture, Essays, Poetry, Readings, Video 5 Comments The Bad The first video of Hannah Silva instructs us on the abyss that poetry reading has found itself in today. The irrationality and baseness of slam poetry has given way to experimental poetry that doesn't...
‘The Clockmaker’ by Benjamin Daniel Lukey The Society February 8, 2019 Beauty, Culture, Poetry, Readings 7 Comments When I was young, I’d disassemble clocks So I could understand what made them go. With tools in hand, and pieces in a box, I’d wonder, and I’d look, and then I’d know. But...
A Beginner’s Guide to Sapphic Verse (with Audio) The Society November 27, 2018 Education, Essays, Poetry, Poetry Forms, Readings, Sapphic Verse 37 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...
‘The Swallows of La Cienega’ by Joseph Charles MacKenzie (with Audio) The Society October 12, 2018 Beauty, Poetry, Readings 92 Comments For Elizabeth La Cienega slept on a muted afternoon At old Las Golodrinas, when I spied a nest Of swallows beneath the age-worn latias, hewn By a hand that is gone with the days that were...
‘To the Class of 2018’ and Other Poetry by Benjamin Daniel Lukey The Society August 21, 2018 Beauty, Culture, Poetry, Readings 11 Comments Exodos, Prologos to the Class of 2018 In times uncertain, ask your truest friends For counsel, and take all they say to heart— But know that we are bound for different ends, And none but...
‘SonnetVision 27’ (Video) by Joseph Charles MacKenzie The Society June 21, 2018 Beauty, Poetry, Readings, Video 9 Comments Note: Joseph Charles MacKenzie would like to offer a 25% discount on the first edition hardcover of Sonnets for Christ the King to his fellow poets and readers of the Society of Classical Poets, in gratitude...
Video: A Reading of Sonnet 18 by William Shakespeare The Society June 14, 2018 Beauty, Culture, Music, Poetry, Readings, Shakespeare, Video A short film by Gleb Zavlanov. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxnDmkKqaF4&feature=youtu.be Sonnet 18 Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate: Rough winds...
‘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 Dante. His aim is to create a contemporary epic of heaven and...
‘A Rounded Stone’ by Benjamin Daniel Lukey The Society April 3, 2018 Beauty, Poetry, Readings, Short Stories 5 Comments He pressed a rounded stone into my hand. He said, "Take care of this," and turned away To tend to things we needed for our trip: The boats, the lines, the paddles, and the...
‘I Know Why the Red Rose Weeps’ by David Bellemare Gosselin (with Audio) The Society April 2, 2018 Beauty, Poetry, Readings 11 Comments I know why the red rose weeps Why she hides her tears in dew As the summer breezes sweep From those seas of peaceful blue, And then like our dreams She fades with the morning dew. I know...
‘The Wintering-Ground’ by Douglas Thornton (with Audio) The Society March 9, 2018 Beauty, Poetry, Readings 4 Comments Within what hut, My woodland maid, May I remain awhile? Next what fire may my chills Be warmed? Be there A path that leads Past stony piles and tells Us not to walk alone? I do not...
‘Sonnet for Elizabeth’ by Joseph Charles MacKenzie (with Audio) The Society February 14, 2018 Beauty, Poetry, Readings 23 Comments I fear no more the settling of the night Or mind its grey, evaporating shades; Mine ears are deaf to time’s lost serenades, Mine eyes content with thy soul’s loving light. Thy...
‘Swallows’ by Leo Yankevich (with Video) The Society February 13, 2018 Beauty, Culture, Poetry, Readings, Video 8 Comments https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjc_6R0ang8&feature=youtu.be It was once thought that swallows wintered on the moon, or morphed into field mice beneath the autumn swoon of clouds, or...
A Sonnet for the Feast of the Three Kings (with Audio) by Joseph Charles MacKenzie The Society January 6, 2018 Beauty, Culture, Poetry, Readings 16 Comments Sonnet XLI - Gifts of the Magi A grander throne than Solomon’s of old, Though wrought of rough-hewn wood and winter hay, Received the royal deference of gold From one who watched a star, by night and...
‘A December Wish’ by Leo Yankevich (with Audio) The Society December 23, 2017 Beauty, Culture, Poetry, Readings, Video 10 Comments https://youtu.be/dVnGlUaitiY You hear the sound of carols from afar. Bright bulbs and tinsel, cinnamon and cloves. Beyond a hill of snow you see a star. Here you can look at stacks...
‘Ode to Autumn’ by Joseph Charles MacKenzie (with Audio) The Society October 31, 2017 Beauty, Poetry, Readings 7 Comments Sonnet XXV: Ode to Autumn Of shadows long and light of rarest gold, Abundant bringer, harvester of land, Receive, O Autumn, as in days of old, This wreath of olive from a poet’s hand! I sing the...