Category Archives: Literature and Poetry
Literature and Poetry
Works of poetry and literature, works on poetry and literature — whether they be classical, medieval, Renaissance, baroque, etc. — If they are on this site, they are in this section.
The word “literature” is taken from the Latin word littera, which means “letters,” not as in the alphabet, but as in the words that letters spell. Latin also has the word verbum, which means “word,” not as in the material definition: the four-letter monosyllable, w-o-r-d, but as in the formal definition, what the term means. Verbum, in its formal sense, can be translated as “idea.” When you predicate one idea or concept of another, you have a proposition, or judgment. When man reasons, he is always linking propositions in order to arrive at conclusions. That’s logic, not literature.
Literature is written composition. It is the telling of a story on paper. The story can be either fiction or non-fiction, a novel, history, or drama. Bad writing can never qualify as literature, no matter how moving the story line. Good writing can never qualify as literature if there is no story in the writing, no development of a theme, no touching of the soul, just facts. Scientific writing is not literature, but science fiction certainly can be. Historical composition is not literature, but when the author brings adventure and great events to life, as in an inspiring biography, or a saga, that certainly can be classified as literature — that is, if the writing flows in style and grace.
It is hard to define the word literature. We all know what a well written book is, or a well written article, or essay, but we often differ when it comes to explaining what exactly it is that makes a book “a good read.”
Poetry, on the other hand, is easier to define. There must be meter and rhythm in the composition, and the composition must be divided into lines, verses, and stanzas. Poems do not necessary have to have rhyming verses, but usually they do. Epic poems, on the other hand, all have meter and rhythm, but not all have rhyming verses. A poem is a painting in words. Poesis, the Greek word for poetry, means “something made.” So, in the Greek tradition, poets did not just tell a beautiful story, they built it with the symmetry and harmony of meter and rhythm.
Joseph Pierce on Roy Campbell
Joseph Pearce recalls the extraordinary life of Roy Campbell, who hid St John of the Cross’s letters from anticlerical Spanish militiamen. As you read Pierce’s piece, recall that here in the good old U S of A, people were led to believe that the good guys in this war were the ones that murdered priests, brothers, nuns, and Catholic laity. The bad guys, according to … More →
UN Consultant Group Aims to Get Dante Banned
Rome A world-renowned work of literature, Dante’s epic poem Divine Comedy, has been described as racist, homophobic, anti-Islamist and anti-Semitic by Gherush 92, a human rights organization that acts as a consultant to United Nations groups. More here.
Monsignor Joseph Clifford Fenton’s Review of ‘The Leonard Feeney Omnibus’
THE AMERICAN ECCLESIASTICAL REVIEW, Feb, 1944. THE LEONARD FEENEY OMNIBUS. A Collection of Prose and Verse Old and New. New York, Sheed and Ward, 1943. Pp. xiv + 399. $3.00.
The Pygmies
I count my pygmies, one by one, The nearly finished, half-begun, Bedraggled poems I have written, Companioned by a clock and kitten, On littered desk, by candle-light, Locked in my chamber late at night,
Finale
When the Angel has blown on his trumpet a rat-a-tat-tat, And the final encounter of armies is finished and fought;
Three Soldiers
Three soldiers rose up from their tents And went to join their regiments. And one said: “Captain, I report Because I think the war is sport!”
Miserere
One’s faith has little nightmares It easily survives: — Divorcing lust and Luther, Henry and lots of wives.
The Duel
One of us must surrender Ere this affair is done. I beg You — for it could not be — That You be not the one.
Memento For My Mourner
Think you, if this were I, You would be let to cry? Were it I, for your sake, Think you I would not wake?
To One Created
There are three persons I admire tremendously and love the most, And these are God, The Father, The Son and The Holy Ghost. I admire them the most because beyond all others they are
A Prayer For Protestants
May God be kind to captive fish Who dwell in little bowls and wish To swim, and can’t, and have no notion
Good News
The night before Our Lord was born Saint Joseph went about forlorn, Knocking at doors from left to right, Knocking at every door in sight,
Pianissimo
My meager brightness must I dim: Curtail my scanty skill; My little well, below the brim,
In Praise Of Electrons
Lest I should ever be mistaken for a mad Manichaean, Who am enamored of realities maybe not three-dimensioned enough, I hereby praise God loudly for all measurements and materials, Foliage, flesh, fabric and fiber, substance and stuff.
Refusal To Cast The First Stone
If in the sin you now confess There was one tithe of tenderness;
