Modern Epic Poetry

Diane Seuss's signature voice—audacious in its honesty, virtuosic in its artistry, outsider in its attitude—has become one of the most original in contemporary poetry. Her latest collection takes its title, Modern Poetry, from the first textbook Seuss encountered as a child and the first poetry course she took in college, as an enrapt but ill-equipped student, one who felt poetry was beyond her reach. Many of the poems make use of the forms and terms of musical and poetic craft and contend with the works of writers overrepresented in textbooks and anthologies and those often underrepresented.

Sound Mind is a collection of poetry inspired by the struggles we face to embrace our true colours. The first half is a short novel written in rhyme and verse. The Second half is a collection of poems written by the author during the creative process. “Sound Mind”; Aura, a wolf born of many colours finds himself fighting to live his dreams as a singer/songwriter while maintaining the old traditions of his pack. This narrative poem stretches ninety-two pages and includes paintings created by the author. Excerpt from Sound Mind: The Valley As the pup’s tip toe, they notice the rituals ...

Unwittingly, we weave the fabric of our lives to perfection, like the spider mindlessly spins the perfect web. There is great beauty in the process, a beauty which is only perceived in retrospect; towards life's end. Way of the Wise follows one man's journey from youth's blinding impetuousness to the enveloping clarity of maturity's hindsight, only to arrive at the inescapable: The realization that each of us has but one course to follow, a course that we alone must navigate. Soon there will come upon that incessant wave of experience an encroaching weight of awareness...

Four more delightful tales from one of the most entertaining storytellers of all time. Though writing in the thirteenth century, Chaucer’s wit and observation comes down undiminished through the ages, especially in this accessible modern verse translation. The stories vary considerably from the uproarious Wife of Bath’s Tale, promoting the power of women to the sober account of patient Griselda in the Clerk’s Tale.

This is a story from the Canterbury Tales II: Modern Verse Translation collection.

Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, a collection of narratives written between 1387 and 1400, tells of a group of 30 people from all layers of society who pass the time along their pilgrimage to Canterbury by telling stories to one another, their interaction mediated (at times) by the affable host - Chaucer himself. Naxos AudioBooks’ third volume presents the tales of six people, here in an unabridged modern verse translation (by Frank Ernest Hill, 1935).

Pearl is the first of the four poems of the Pearl manuscript, a 14th century work contemporaneous with Chaucer, Langland and Gower. It is widely acknowledged as a masterpiece of medieval English literature. In the poem the grief-stricken protagonist describes the loss of a precious pearl in a garden. He falls asleep and in his dream sees a vision of a beautiful Maiden, who through complex imagery is gradually revealed as the pearl, a lost loved one, often interpreted as the Dreamer's young daughter, though never explicitly identified.

This is a story from the Canterbury Tales III: Modern Verse Translation collection.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is perhaps the best-known Arthurian romance in the English language. Its story is well-known: New Year celebrations at Camelot are disrupted by the fearsome and strange appearance of the Green Knight who challenges Arthur's court to a game consisting of an exchange of blows; the Green Knight's survival of the beheading that ensues locks Sir Gawain into a commitment to receive a return blow a year later, bound by his honor to fulfill the terms of the game.

Cleanness is the second of the four poems of the Pearl manuscript, a 14th century work contemporaneous with Chaucer, Langland and Gower. Cleanness tells several stories, all related by theme “ the disastrous consequences of uncleanness, and the good fortune to be had by being clean. The poet carefully constructs a complex accumulation of stories and examples, whose main source is the Old Testament. The three major stories are the Flood, then Sodom and Gomorrah, followed by Belshazzar's Feast.

Patience is the third of the four poems of the Pearl manuscript, a 14th century work contemporaneous with Chaucer, Langland and Gower, and acknowledged as a minor masterpiece in its own right. The poet's usage of the word patience reflects two broad senses: that of accepting misfortune and submitting to physical or mental suffering, and that of waiting, holding back, and exercising moderation and self-control.