The world’s great poets not only wrote poetry still read and studied today, but they also helped shape the culture of their countries and indeed what we call Western civilization. Consider the greats of Greece and Rome – Homer, Virgil, Ovid and others. The great poets of English include Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Milton. Germany has its Goethe. Russia has Pushkin. And Italy has Dante.
Many others belong to the category of “great poets,” of course, but as poet and author Paul Krause points out in his Dante’s Footsteps: Poems and Reflections of Poetry, it was poets and their works of poetry who led the way in language, culture, and ways of thinking and expression.
One brief example cited by Krause: The word agape is well known in historic Christianity. It is the highest form of love. It is love that is selfless, sacrificial, and unconditional. The word come from the Greek, and it was Homer who first used it and perhaps invented it.
To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.
Some Tuesday Readings
This Craft of Verse – Alexander Fayne.
Putting the Poetry Back into Homer – James Sale at The Epoch Times.
“Autumn,” poem by David Baird – Malcolm Guite.
“The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” (excerpt), poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge – Every Day Poems.
Horses Moving on the Snow – poem by David Whyte.
“Nativity,” poem by John Donne – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.
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