November 2026 is the season's big book-prize month for poets. Yale, BOA, Georgia, Nightboat, Fordham's Poetic Justice prizes and Beloit's Chad Walsh chapbook all close, plus a handful of single-poem contests, broadsides and paying journal calls. Below is a curated roundup of poetry contests November 2026 and related calls we verified on official contest or publisher pages. … [Read more...] about Poetry Submission Deadlines November 2026
Poetry Submission Deadlines December 2026
December is the year-end rush for poets. The Poetry Society of America's annual awards, the $20,000 Four Quartets Prize, Mslexia's women's competitions, The Moth Poetry Prize and Tupelo's Dorset Prize all close this month, along with several chapbook contests and a few free and paying journal calls. Below is a curated roundup of poetry contests December 2026 and related calls … [Read more...] about Poetry Submission Deadlines December 2026
What Is On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer About?
What is On First Looking into Chapman's Homer about? John Keats's sonnet is about the thrill of discovering a great book. Keats had read widely in poetry, but he had never truly experienced Homer until he read George Chapman's translation. The poem compares that moment to an astronomer spotting a new planet, or an explorer seeing the Pacific Ocean for the first time and falling … [Read more...] about What Is On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer About?
A Noiseless Patient Spider Summary and Analysis
This A Noiseless Patient Spider summary begins with a small creature on a ledge. Walt Whitman's speaker watches a spider standing alone, sending out thread after thread into the empty space around it. Then he turns to his own soul, which also stands alone in "measureless oceans of space," endlessly reaching out, hoping that one of its threads will catch somewhere and form a … [Read more...] about A Noiseless Patient Spider Summary and Analysis
There’s a Certain Slant of Light Summary and Analysis
This There's a Certain Slant of Light summary begins on a winter afternoon. Emily Dickinson describes a particular angle of light that falls at that time of year and brings a heavy, wordless sadness. It weighs on the spirit like solemn church music. It leaves no visible wound, only an inner change "Where the meanings are." When the light arrives, the landscape seems to hold its … [Read more...] about There’s a Certain Slant of Light Summary and Analysis
L’Amitié est L’Amour sans Ailes, By: Lord Byron
Why should my anxious breast repine,Because my youth is fled?Days of delight may still be mine;Affection is not dead.In tracing back the years of youth,One firm record, one lasting truthCelestial consolation brings;Bear it, ye breezes, to the seat,Where first my heart responsive beat,--"Friendship is Love without his wings!" Through few, but deeply chequer'd years,What … [Read more...] about L’Amitié est L’Amour sans Ailes, By: Lord Byron