Only the Classics
The roots from which poetry as we know it has flourished. Taking you back to the classical era, one stanza at a time.
"Leda and the Swan": a poem by W B Yeats
W B Yeats’s poem “Leda and the Swan” was published in his 1928 collection “The Tower”, although the poem itself is dated 1923, the year in which he won the Nobel Prize for Literature. It is therefore a poem written at the height of his powers (he was 58 in 1923) and belongs to the period when he was exploring the occult and attempting to explain national and world events within a mystical and symbolic context.
By John Welford5 years ago in Poets
"The Poems" by Propertius
The poet Propertius was an Latin Elegiac of the Augustan Period and his only surviving works are those of his four books of “Elegies”. This totals around 92 surviving poems and his more romantic side of poetry is dominated by a character named “Cynthia”. The romantic affair between Propertius and Cynthia takes wild turns and often turns either violent and turbulent or graphic and passionate. Common themes in the poems include: passion, romance, jealousy, violence, standards of love and courtship, lament, death and the afterlife, mythology, religion and ghosts. Propertius’s unconventional use of the Latin language have often made his texts and allusions within texts difficult to translate and edit. The surviving manuscripts of his poetry have led translators to often alter the texts and therefore corrupting them before the editing stage. Propertius’s boldness has often been said to exacerbate the problem of translation due to the way in which the syntax of the poetry is often incorrect. Be that as it may, themes, symbols and motifs are still clearly visible throughout the anthology. Propertius, being popular within his own lifetime but also a poet considered to be a scandal was also not really enjoyed by the other poets of his time and period. Horace had once stated a veiled attack on him and Callimachus as did Quintilian who states that the poet was not as popular as he made himself out to be.
By Annie Kapur5 years ago in Poets
Let the Winged Fancy Roam...
At times, it is very difficult to appreciate life and all its possibilities because, let’s face it, it can be hard. Often our old enemy "time" gets in the way and we suddenly realise we are years older and no happier. However, the poetry of John Keats reminds us to always treat our moments, however small they are, with the highest quality.
By Eleanor Thirlway8 years ago in Poets
