by phillipw | Jul 20, 2020 | AC, BO, BR, CA, CR, GA, HA, HE, KA, MA, NE, PA, PR, SA
Troy in New Orleans, Manhattan, or London Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem So I found “Helen” sitting in a streetcar; the Dionysian revels of her court were transferred to a Metropolitan roof garden...
by phillipw | Jul 20, 2020 | AL, FR, SA, TH, UN
Thucydides: Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem “Because of the Human Thing” We forecast both the worst and best because The human thing is settled in the crux. Set there like...
by phillipw | Jul 19, 2020 | AT, BU, CO, EL, LA, LO, NI, OL, SA, SO, SP, TH, VI
They Loved Sovereignty and Liberty Most “And the Lacedæmonians offer sacrifices to Love before they go to battle, thinking that safety and victory depend on the friendship and those who stand side by side in the battle array. And the Cretans, in their line of battle,...
by phillipw | Jul 16, 2020 | CO, GO, JA, ME, OD, PE, SA, SO, WI
The Big Exceptions The women move in caged in places both In life and plays. In poetry they are Curtailed to Sappho and Corinna. Troth Constricts Penelope. It hems. No spar To take her seas away, she sits at loom, Is trapped at night unpicking her trapped work,...
by phillipw | Jul 16, 2020 | PH, PO, SA, SO
Socrates versus Sappho One wonders if poor Socrates might just Have been much happier if he had made Up poems, not philosophy. A gust Of inspiration from Apollo swayed The poets into rhapsody of thrill. While lost in love for some young person’s hair, The writers...
by phillipw | Jul 14, 2020 | BO, BU, CE, SA
Sappho Wrote about Twelve Thousand Lines of Poetry Twelve thousands lines of poetry were torched By time and Christians. Piety increased The ravages, all this because she scorched With love for girls. Bishops made a feast Of male disgust that Sappho caused by fire...