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Murmurs/Purling

        Murmurs/Purling   Modern poetry  modern verse  contemporary poetry  contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem [“Lo!  I divine through murmurs borne The subtle thread of voices old” ~ Paul Verlaine, “Je divine, a travers un...

Mixed Race Divinity and Humanity

Mixed Race Divinity and Humanity Socrates “builds up a picture of the poet as ‘a light, winged, holy creature’, who cannot compose until he is out of his mind and possessed . . . .  The god takes away the poet’s senses, and uses him . . . so that the poems he utters...

I Have Looked upon the Face of Jolliness

I Have Looked upon the Face of Jolliness The ancient Greeks in poetry were lewd As limericks, playful, silly as a stand Up joker on a comic’s platform, rude And crude, yep, far more rude than Russell Brand. Emitted from these ancient rhythmic throats Were poems...

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....

Ha Ha Ha Ha Hacking (Pathetic)

Ha Ha Ha Ha Hacking (Pathetic) Modern poetry  modern verse  contemporary poetry  contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem “A first-century Roman acquired an ancient statue of the comic poet Poseidippus (c. 316-250 BC).  He had a local craftsman resculpt it...

Formal Poetry against Free Verse

Formal Poetry against Free Verse Modern poetry  modern verse  contemporary poetry  contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Plato in “inventing some extraordinarily powerful images of his own” came up with “notably the poet as Corybant”.  ~ Penelope...