I read a considerable amount of poetry. I read all kinds of poetry – ancient, modern, Romantic, Victoriam, contemporary, poetry in translation, Japanese haiku. I’ve read The Odyssey, The Iliad, The Aeneid, Beowulf, Canterbury Tales, Sir Gawain and Green Knight, Paradise Lost, Shakespeare’s sonnets. I can invariably find something to like, in whole or in part, of virtually everything I read.
Then I encountered The Song of Roland.
It’s a famous poem, author unknown. It’s called the national poem of France. It’s the story of Charlemagne’s nephew who falls in battle against the invading Saracens at the Battle of Roncevaux Pass in 778. It’s a story of courage, betrayal, and ultimate victory. For centuries, it’s inspired playwrights, writers, poets (contemporary poet Mark Jarman wrote a poem about it), novels, stories, and even a rock song and a video game.
To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.
Some Thursday Readings
Finding Poetry in Unexpected Places – Lucille Lang Day at Writer’s Digest.
He Who Saw the Abyss: The Immortality of Gilgamesh – Elijah Perseus Blumov at New Verse Review.
Ulysses – poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson at The Imaginative Conservative.
The Case of Jacob W. – poem by Maureen Doallas at Writing Without Paper.
The Poetry of Injury: Inside Down Syndrome & Kimani – T.S. Poetry Press.
“The Old Ships,” poem by James Elroy Flecker – Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern.
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