The order of a vitamin
Simply, life, a hair is for fun
Spoken worth, a willing shade to climb?
Into your lap, a wholer smile for any who would innocence
Spare me the details, in a cup of frequent spirits
High as a kite, with a reach to the stars, somewhere over the rainbow
I see your shared shall, if not the coolness of a remembered wit
Silver bells to come, an avidness of a problem we both know....
Toenails?
Simple rhythm of a bliss for ideology to bloom
Sakes without a created pain, to inform my clash with strength
Continue with a silent night, misery, promises to few, with soon
Could ink have an unexpected owe?
Silly accusations of windy deeds I have a saved repose
Lucky as this would seem, I have a question for adding a quiet mouse
Live and let live, or a sweet sincerity I should know, in the smile of a prose
Here goes kiddo...
Smile at the song of a fruity share, in a distant house
Walls of livid kindness, a God of asking a reason of a flower?
Lizards with a wisdom's tooth don't, promise us a spill of cleverness from Gods?
Hi, hell
Hello from a smile I hid
Or didn't, the lie of a bravado?
That I claim like the sense to live
You smile to...
But I've only seen it in my imagination
Hell's stink, and the season of response in loves who
To admit an apology is mine, for another purposes silence
Shade me from a severity
Stoic and furious story's, to collect as a person was
Simple rational, to have a babe's vanity
Privilege before passion, passion before peace, peace before purpose
How did this all happen?
Children on the verge of losing patience, do know a prayer was...
Find out, curses of persuasion, the fate of youth is to come in the hands of laughter
With the integrity of more, and the seed of promises, uncertain of a future cause...
Morwarra wa bophelo,
the breath that once did clasp
Life's glowing warmth hath fled;
the frame that used to run with heat
now lies unmoving, cold, and still.
This mortal dust of him who hath forsaken us—
The late departed, newly reft of vitality—
hath vanished from the earth,
no longer bearing the quickening spark.
He hath no breath, yet he inspires no fear;
He hath a shape, yet he cannot tire.
He walked the earth, but now he stays
A silent house of cold, pale clay
About
To Dust
Upon the plains of Babylon he raised
A mountain wrought of gardens for his queen,
Where dolphins swam in frescoed halls, and spring
Did wear a diadem of endless green.
Thus love became an architect of stone,
And pledged to conquer time with patient hands.
Yet desert drank the brick, and ages passed.
The earthquake spoke. The fire from heaven breathed.
Soft-footed time came forth and made his claim,
Till marble learned the humility of sand.
The Black Taj fell before its arches rose.
Knossos beheld her painted lovers fade.
And ink, once sovereign on the crumbling wall,
Now spells no word but what the wind recalls.
What then remains? The column and the name,
Both borrowed by the air and given back in dust.
Empires are footprints which the tempest erases,
And mortal crowns return unto the earth.
But love, enduring, doth refuse decay.
Though siege may burn and river may devour,
Though centuries may grind and tombs conceal,
That which was built of heart shall not be lost.
I gather, therefore, this pale dust as writ,
And read therein the proof that love outlasts its house.
Every day my soul shines a little brighter,
And my self-image grows stronger,
My mind goes on less of a wander,
I no longer get cold feet,
when the people I meet,
think my company is hard to beat.
Beautiful people,
With souls a wonderful shade of purple,
That shine brighter than the sun,
And are twice as much fun.
Well, here is the truth for you all,
since you had no idea you are a
part of one big scam called Poetry Soup
which charges you for the anthology
just so you can see your own poem,
so that means don't be upset because
you were not accepted into Anthology that
has close to a 1000 poets in it and even more poems,
they take everything and anything and pretend
like they had to read all of the works and then decide,
it is a nonsense and be happy that you did not get accepted!
My poem got accepted and i cant read it, because they want me to buy
the book just so i can see my poem in it.
Now this whole place could be a scam,
because if they can scam us through Anthology
that means they do not give three s about what we write!
Diverse Voices is a scam, Poetry soup is a scam,
the whole internet is a scam, and the only way
you will be able to accept this fact is to stop posting here,
and for over 20 years this scam has been taking our poetry
in exchange for profit of which we get 0. How is this poem for a change?
Truth hurts that is why nobody wants to hear it.
DIVERSE VOICES MY ASS!
The Only One
Motionless moments,
Unfading scenes,
Dreams that refuse to depart,
Flowers that never bloom.
A world that does not turn,
Wine that has lost its taste,
Endless longings,
Poems that will not reveal their meaning.
My fingers write and write—
Yet the silent veena I do not touch.
“Play,” it cries,
“Let music rise!”
That music alone
Set me into motion.
I walk and walk,
Yet the road does not grow shorter;
Weariness grows with every step,
And stretching my tired limbs,
I seek a place to rest.
Wherever I pause,
Carved paintings of exquisite beauty appear;
But I do not sit—
I lose myself
In their silent splendor.
With both eyes
Filled with the beauty of Kasini,
When I open them—
There is no world,
No time,
No poetry…
The anticipation should have
been conveyed to the audience
his audience was observant to
his developing character which
allowed him to move through
obstacles to become the champion we
believed him to be
Movements that are fluent and
convincing: pose to pose
Never overlapping the staging
In sequence spares those who
marvel performance over character
drawing lines to speak the story told
Spoiling the audience with familiar
Moves and exciting them with
difference in opposition to
boredom with a reality of self
preservation under the
guise of being extraordinary
stands a sporting
professional eager to be
seen as best !
Written by:
Talus Jove Masculinta
Of Aria,Aria
Circa When Inc.
(I ponder) farther, somewhere, refrain, patsy churn
Mon Ami, a solo, a heart song, alone , aspiration
the breathing brethren , and the ghastly wind,
lamenting with an aubade and a strumming play
The highway led to heaven, Aurora borealis and the urging faded
This Jocund soul shall sail on a voyage lofty high to a never land
Riding in the plane
Above the clouds
So beautiful so powerful
Imagining about angels
Where they live everyday?
The white thick clouds melting
Ascend from heaven
It felts scary to think
When we fall from heaven
The tears of Goddess
The smile of angels
The presence of white horse
In the play ground of heaven
Amen
Now it is time we sat down for supper
and manage the distance we will cover
before learnt fellows bite our dead soma
with foolish teeth borrowed from myxoma.
Nobody is happy at this table
I wait for the first step to be stable.
You have named your daughter Sappho
you have named the hills with halo.
We take the next walk to a room
fed with different hues about blume
its chaining unbridled powers
bring the central motif in hours.
What do I wish for my wild heart?
In this trail is the finest art.
That is why I am almost there
With Lydian lyre and lore, or more
Cher sings her effectuated soul,
Discerning hearts excite the whole.
I will not repeat myself in a song
Or among rumbles, crinkles, or prolong
My Tuesday remaining mostly cloudy
I am wet beyond pants and a hoodie
I give anyone the ear from the stage
Because I cannot tell which path is phage
Immortal shadow
That will not show how
It will be erased
I crush and persuade
Myself around here
Having you my dear
Introduction
The pleasure of reading classicist poems often begins in a productive contradiction: passion is present, yet it is shaped by composure. Grief may enter through a measured address, political anger through disciplined argument, or desire through mythic distance. As you read the community poems, notice how restraint can intensify feeling rather than suppress it. A carefully balanced sentence, elevated image, or controlled turn may make the emotional disturbance beneath the surface feel even more urgent.
Side-by-side reading reveals how many paths can lead toward a classical sensibility. One poet may adopt a public, ceremonial voice; another may make an intimate experience seem archetypal. Some writers may draw on myth, ruins, civic life, philosophy, pastoral scenes, or ideals of proportion. Others may create the effect through lucid reasoning, rhetorical balance, formal dignity, or tension between order and human frailty. These choices can produce solemn meditation, heroic resolve, satire, lament, praise, or quiet moral inquiry.
One isolated poem can make Classicism appear to be a single tone or costume. Browse the poems in this collection and that impression becomes more complicated. Compare how different writers negotiate inherited ideals without surrendering personal experience. Look for the point at which control becomes expressive, an allusion opens into a contemporary concern, or an apparently finished design admits doubt. Reading beyond the first example helps distinguish surface decoration from a poem whose voice, imagery, movement, and thought are genuinely organized by a classical imagination.
Reading Guide
Read a classicist poem as an arrangement of pressures rather than as a museum display. The central question is not simply whether the poet uses elevated language, ancient references, or an orderly design, but what those choices accomplish. A composed surface may contain grief, desire, indignation, or uncertainty; a mythic figure may serve as argument, mirror, mask, or warning. As you read the community poems, attend to the relationship between intellectual order and emotional disturbance. The most revealing comparisons often arise when two poets use similar materials but create very different degrees of distance, urgency, authority, or vulnerability.
- Follow the speaking posture. Notice whether the voice sounds civic, philosophical, dramatic, devotional, satirical, or privately reflective. Classical poise changes meaning depending on who claims it. Ask: does the speaker earn authority through insight, or merely assume an elevated tone?
- Examine balance in the sentences. Parallel clauses, contrasts, and carefully staged qualifications can make thought feel architectural. They may also dramatize a mind trying to master disorder. Ask: where does symmetry clarify the argument, and where does a poet deliberately disturb it?
- Test the work of allusion. A mythological name or ancient setting should do more than signal cultural knowledge. It can compress a story, enlarge a private conflict, or create ironic distance. Ask: what would disappear if the reference were removed?
- Listen for disciplined music. Read aloud for cadence, consonance, vowel patterning, and the placement of emphatic words. Sound may lend ceremony to praise or make satire feel devastatingly controlled. Ask: does the music deepen the emotional action or simply decorate the language?
- Watch the movement of reasoning. Many effective examples unfold through proposition, counterargument, comparison, or moral reconsideration. Ask: does the poem discover something, or does it merely restate an idea it possessed from the beginning?
- Study restraint and release. Look for moments when controlled diction gives way to an exclamation, question, broken expectation, or intimate admission. Ask: how does the poet prepare that release, and why does it arrive at that particular point?
- Consider the ending as judgment. Closure may reconcile competing values, preserve a dignified uncertainty, sharpen an irony, or return an individual life to a larger pattern. Ask: does the ending feel inevitable, overly neat, or productively unresolved?
Compare several poets' approaches before deciding what the form can hold. The differences among voices, uses of antiquity, and degrees of formal control will teach more than any single representative poem can.
Writing Tips
Begin with a conflict that genuinely needs both intensity and discipline. Classicist writing becomes persuasive when order is not a costume placed over the subject but the means by which the speaker confronts it. In workshop, ask what the poem is trying to govern: grief, ambition, civic disorder, desire, vanity, mortality, or a dispute between private impulse and public duty. The draft should make that struggle perceptible in its voice, imagery, and movement.
- Choose material with ethical or intellectual pressure. A small occasion can work, but it should open toward a larger question of conduct, beauty, power, fate, responsibility, or proportion. Do not inflate an ordinary incident artificially. Find the serious question already concealed within it.
- Decide what antiquity contributes. If you use myth, historical figures, temples, statues, ruins, or pastoral imagery, assign each element a dramatic task. An allusion might expose pride, complicate sympathy, or provide a counterexample. Avoid references included only to make the poem appear learned.
- Build rhetorical architecture. Arrange the poem as a sequence of claims, contrasts, examples, reversals, or recognitions. Let each section alter the reader's understanding. Formal balance is most alive when the ideas themselves are in tension, not when sentences merely repeat the same thought in matching shapes.
- Make elevation proportionate to the speaker. Dignified language can create gravity, but relentless grandeur soon becomes mannered. Mix abstract thought with exact physical details: worn stone, controlled breath, a hand withdrawn, light crossing an empty room. Concrete images give philosophical language something to answer to.
- Use restraint as stored energy. Do not explain every emotion at its first appearance. Allow syntax, image, and implication to contain pressure until a turn or admission releases it. The risk is emotional coldness; the reward is an intensity produced by resistance rather than declaration.
- Shape sound without becoming mechanical. Cadence, echo, and sonic balance can support authority and memorability, but obvious patterning may make the poem sound manufactured. Read aloud to hear whether stresses carry thought naturally and whether emphatic sounds gather around the words that matter.
- Let the contemporary self remain visible. Classical materials need not erase individual experience. A recognizably modern anxiety, place, relationship, or moral dilemma can enter into dialogue with inherited images. Avoid period diction unless the dramatic voice truly requires it; imitation alone rarely creates conviction.
- Resist the perfectly packaged conclusion. Beginners sometimes force a maxim, moral, or polished final declaration because it sounds suitably authoritative. Instead, let closure arise from the poem's developed conflict. A final image, qualified judgment, or unresolved opposition may carry more lasting weight than a pronouncement.
During revision, mark every abstraction, allusion, tonal elevation, and balanced phrase. Ask what each one does to the reader's experience. Replace ornamental references, vary pacing where composure has become monotony, and sharpen images where argument floats free of the senses. Then read the poem aloud twice: once for musical authority and once for emotional truth. If the voice sounds impressive but the conflict remains remote, revise until structure and feeling become inseparable.
Interesting Facts
- Restraint can increase emotional force. When a speaker refuses immediate confession, readers begin to feel the pressure behind the composure. A single breach in that control-a question, cry, or exposed doubt-can become more memorable than sustained emotional declaration.
- Ancient subject matter is not sufficient by itself. Gods, heroes, columns, and ruins can remain decorative. A stronger classicist character emerges when proportion, reasoning, public responsibility, or conflict between impulse and order shapes the poem's actual movement.
- Symmetry can communicate instability. Balanced clauses do not always imply peace. A poet may use them to show a speaker repeatedly weighing irreconcilable choices. The more exact the verbal balance, the more painfully equal the alternatives may appear.
- Allusion can create intimacy as well as grandeur. A familiar myth may allow a speaker to approach shame, desire, or loss indirectly. The cultural distance becomes a protective mask, while the reader gradually recognizes the private experience beneath it.
- Plain diction can still produce classical dignity. Elevated vocabulary is only one resource. Lucid syntax, proportioned development, exact imagery, and a controlled moral intelligence may create greater authority than ornate language.
- Closure need not provide certainty. A poem can preserve classical composure while ending with a qualified judgment or unresolved tension. What matters is that the uncertainty has been shaped, not that every contradiction has been solved.
- Comparison reveals where the form truly resides. Browse several community interpretations and notice that similar effects may arise through different means: myth in one poem, civic argument in another, or disciplined meditation in a third. The identity lies in the relationship among choices, not in one isolated ornament.
Popular Themes
Subject and form interact most fruitfully when a theme creates a need for measured thought, rhetorical control, or dialogue with inherited ideals. The following subjects are literary possibilities rather than statistical rankings. Each can support a classicist poem because it invites tension between individual feeling and a larger moral, civic, philosophical, or aesthetic order.
- Duty and desire. Conflicts between obligation and private longing benefit from a composed voice. Restraint allows both claims to retain dignity, while a carefully placed turn can reveal which pressure the speaker cannot finally contain.
- Mortality and lasting achievement. Monuments, artworks, reputations, and ruined places can set human ambition against time. Concrete images keep the meditation from becoming abstract, while proportioned development lets the poem test what endurance actually means.
- Public leadership and civic responsibility. Praise, warning, counsel, and satire all gain force from rhetorical balance. The form can examine authority without relying on uncontrolled outrage, allowing irony or moral contrast to perform the criticism.
- Beauty and imperfection. Ideals of harmony become more interesting when placed beside bodily frailty, damaged objects, compromised conduct, or unfinished understanding. The gap between ideal and actual supplies the poem's emotional energy.
- War, heroism, and consequence. Heroic language can honor courage, question glory, or expose the cost hidden by ceremony. A disciplined structure helps the poet hold admiration and skepticism in the same field.
- Love under constraint. Separation, forbidden attachment, loyalty, and renunciation suit a style in which feeling presses against decorum. Mythic parallels may enlarge the relationship, but precise personal detail keeps it human.
- Reason confronting fate. A speaker may analyze events carefully yet remain unable to control them. This conflict permits philosophical inquiry without requiring a simple answer, especially when the ending preserves tension between acceptance and resistance.
- Art in conversation with the present. Statues, dramas, legends, and inherited figures can become lenses for contemporary questions. The strongest treatment creates an active exchange rather than using the past as a decorative backdrop.
As you read the community poems, compare how writers transform similar themes through different speakers, images, tonal distances, and kinds of closure. One poet's dignified acceptance may become another's irony, protest, or unresolved argument.
Editorial Insights
The central artistic tension in Classicism lies between composure and necessity. A technically recognizable poem may possess elevated diction, balanced phrasing, philosophical reflection, or references to antiquity, yet still feel external to its own materials. A memorable poem makes restraint seem necessary because the subject threatens to exceed it. The reader senses that order has been chosen under pressure: the speaker must reason because passion is dangerous, invoke an inherited figure because direct confession is inadequate, or shape an argument because experience has resisted easy meaning.
Structure becomes expressive when every proportion has a consequence. A parallel sentence may weigh rival obligations; a ceremonial cadence may dignify someone whom history or society has overlooked; a controlled progression may reveal the stages by which certainty gives way to doubt. Editors notice when craft and subject reinforce one another in this way. They also notice when an image participates in the poem's thinking rather than merely illustrating it. Marble, laurel, ruin, flame, sea, or battlefield imagery gains value only through the particular relationships the poem creates around it.
Common weaknesses usually arise from mistaking visible signals for achieved character. Predictable mythological references can reduce complex figures to labels. Forced archaism may make a living speaker sound borrowed. Mechanical balance can flatten pacing, while excessive grandeur gives every moment the same weight. Some drafts announce their moral before the poem has earned it; others explain an allusion so fully that its imaginative resonance disappears. Insufficient development is another risk: a polished premise is not yet a dramatic or intellectual journey. The poem must test its first position, encounter resistance, and arrive somewhere altered.
Individuality remains visible through selection, angle, and pressure. Two poets may address the same legend, yet one may focus on civic consequence while another notices an abandoned gesture, a silence, or the perspective of a neglected witness. Personal voice can inhabit shared conventions through exact syntax, contemporary detail, humor, skepticism, tenderness, or an unusual moral question. Comparing multiple community poems sharpens judgment because it separates durable artistic principles from superficial resemblance. Readers begin to hear when dignity is earned, when an allusion opens rather than closes meaning, and when a formal calm contains a genuinely unsettled human mind.
Read, Write & Share
Read several community poems before settling on a single idea of what Classicism can accomplish. Compare how poets handle authority, restraint, allusion, argument, emotional pressure, and closure. A thoughtful comment might identify a revealing turn, an image that deepens the poem's reasoning, or a moment when composure makes feeling more intense.
Then try your own interpretation. Choose a subject that demands both passion and control, revise until its structure feels necessary, and publish the finished poem on PoetrySoup. Your approach can extend the conversation while giving future readers another example to examine beside the rest of the collection.
Collection Statistics
This collection contains 1236 poems, offering readers substantial room to compare voices, subjects, uses of allusion, and degrees of rhetorical restraint. Within a collection of this size, poets may follow familiar conventions, adapt them to contemporary experiences, or challenge expectations while retaining a classical dialogue. Reading across multiple entries helps reveal how differently shared artistic principles can be interpreted.
Classicism Categories
Definition | What is Classicism in Poetry?
Looking for the formal definition, structure, and history of this poetry form? Visit the Poetry Dictionary entry below. Then return to explore how PoetrySoup members bring the form to life through their own poems.