The Poetry Hall of Fame has brand new walls.

Back to Back Issues Page

The Poetry Hall of Fame has brand new walls.
September 11, 2008

Hello Poets and Poetry Lovers

I've been talking about the future of poetics a lot lately. But I've also been remodeling the World Class Poetry Hall of Fame. You're going to love the new look!

Poetry Video Of The Week - Walt Whitman Voices in Wartime
Updated World Class Poetry Pages
American Life in Poetry by Ted Kooser
New World Class Poetry Blog Posts
LitMixx Pix - New!
Poetry Book Of The Week
Duotrope's Daily Digest
Are You Subscribed?
World Class Poetry Networking

Poetry Video Of The Week - Walt Whitman

Walt Whitman is a favorite poet of mine and appropriate for the discussion of epic poetry that I've been involved in at the World Class Poetry Blog. Enjoy this short reading of a Whitman poem. Though not an epic, it is a good sampling of Whitman's wartime verses:

Can't view this video from the Voices in Wartime collection? Click here.

Updated World Class Poetry Pages

The World Class Poetry Hall of Fame has new walls. This week I went through the entire collection and updated anyone who hadn't already been updated. Check 'em out:

That's one heck of a crew, eh? And that's not even all of the Hall of Famers in the WCP Hall of Fame. There are more, and we're adding new members all of the time. Keep up with Hall of Fame updates on the WCP Hall of Fame page, or download the World Class Poetry Toolbar.

American Life in Poetry: Column 180

BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE, 2004-2006

What's in a name? All of us have thought at one time or another about our names, perhaps asking why they were given to us, or finding meanings within them. Here Emmett Tenorio Melendez, an eleven-year-old poet from San Antonio, Texas, proudly presents us with his name and its meaning.

My name came from. . .

My name came from my great-great-great-grandfather.
He was an Indian from the Choctaw tribe.
His name was Dark Ant.
When he went to get a job out in a city
he changed it to Emmett.
And his whole name was Emmett Perez Tenorio.
And my name means: Ant; Strong; Carry twice
its size.

American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation (www.poetryfoundation.org), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright (c) 2000 by Emmett Tenorio Melendez. Reprinted from "Salting The Ocean: 100 Poems By Young Poets," Greenwillow Books, 2000, by permission of the editor. Introduction copyright (c) 2008 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction's author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006. We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.

New World Class Poetry Blog Posts

Last week I started a series on epic poetry, starting with its history and moving toward its future. I've broken down epic history into three epochs:

Pre-Literate
Literate
Post-Literate

The Literate Age of poetics is further broken down into pre-Gutenberg and post-Gutenberg, with special emphasis on the 20th century. Why don't you check it out. It's a four-part series. Here are the parts:

LitMixx Pix

Literary stories of the week:

Poetry Book Of The Week

History is full of grand old epics, but no epic stands as tall on the pages of history as Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass. You don't hear Leaves of Grass referred to as an epic too often. You'll hear of certain poems in the collection referred to as epics, but the collection itself? No. Hardly. But I like to call it an epic of form and if you read my blog post series (noted above) on the subject of epics then you'll know why.