Hello Friendly Reader,

Yes, it's true: some of my best friends are poetry editors. Let me tell you, they complain about their submission piles a lot.  What I hear most is, “wow, some of these people just don’t read contemporary poetry.” Rejection letters fly, and those unfortunate poets– who may be well versed in, say, the poetry of the 18^th century -- stare at their in-boxes in disbelief. 

Let me clarify: There is INESTIMABLE VALUE in being well versed in poetry of the 18^th century, or 12^th, or 6^th century BC. The work of poets who have no love for the history of their art appear frothy and soulless when it crosses an editor’s desk.  Even on the bleeding edge of modern poetry, the poet’s skill at writing a Sapphic or a sonnet will reveal itself. On the other hand, a poet who submits nothing but Donnesque odes to Poe-Killz Annual will smother in rejection slips.

Contemporary writers, even those working in traditional forms, approach them differently than did their predecessors. (Take a gander at A.E. Stallings' work and then the classic poets she follows.) Reading libraryfuls of poetry -- ancient and modern, in original languages as well as translation -- is the only way to absorb the tradition in a way that will deepen your writing.

In the following set of articles we will read the work of contemporary writers who use traditional forms in modern ways.  We will begin with the revival of the epic form or, in modern terms, the “book-length narrative poem.”