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Heroes, Victims, and Poseidon

Heroes, Victims, and Poseidon The metre of ancient Greek poetry succeeds in “achieving a length and complexity that are unusual in the heroic verse of other literatures.”  ~ Michael Grant, The Rise of the Greeks, 325, as quoted in Michael Schmidt, The First Poets, 16....

Farsighted

               Farsighted “Things that inadvertantly shape us draw upon structures, forms, legends, myths, which have their origin in ancient Mediterranean cultures.” ~ Michael Schmidt, The First Poets   The temples stand still, still and broken.  They Refuse to be...

Ever Newly Old

             Ever Newly Old Modern poetry  modern verse  contemporary poetry  contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Each time that Homer spoke his epics, they Were new.  His improvising made the old A new creation slightly.  He could play With ready-made...

Eurydice behind Orpheus

Eurydice behind Orpheus Modern poetry  modern verse  contemporary poetry  contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Do spirits dress in spirit clothes and shoes? Do spirit sandals make a sound when on The road in night or are they too diffuse Of spirit atoms? ...

Esthetic Wistfulness as Obscenity

Esthetic Wistfulness as Obscenity “The two greatest poems of western man are still, in many eyes, the two oldest.  And the grace and sanity of Greece are not so common in the modern world that we can afford to forget them.” ~ F. L. Lucas in Greek Poetry Does ancient...

Epicinian:  Poetry Is a Victory if We Do Not Bastardize It

Epicinian:  Poetry Is a Victory if We Do Not Bastardize It “The continuous efforts of English poets in every generation to rediscover a ‘language really used by men’ would have been incomprehensible to a[n ancient] Greek.’” ~ Michael Schmidt, The First Poets, 15,...