October 2026 packs a lot into thirty-one days for poets — first-book prizes, single-poem contests, translation awards, and a few big travel opportunities all close this month. Below is a curated roundup of poetry contests October 2026 and related calls we verified on official contest or publisher pages. Always double-check guidelines (fees, eligibility, and formatting) before … [Read more...] about Poetry Submission Deadlines October 2026
What Is I Hear America Singing About?
What is I Hear America Singing about? Walt Whitman's short poem celebrates ordinary working Americans. The speaker hears the country as a chorus made of many separate songs: the carpenter, the mason, the boatman, the shoemaker, the mother, the girl sewing. Each sings "what belongs to him or her and to none else," and together they make the music of America. Read the full text … [Read more...] about What Is I Hear America Singing About?
The Lamb Summary and Analysis
Here is The Lamb summary in brief: in William Blake's poem, a child asks a lamb who made it, gave it life, soft wool and a gentle voice, and then answers the question himself. The lamb's maker is God, who is also called a Lamb, who became a little child, and so the child, the lamb and God share one name. Read the full text of The Lamb on Poetry Catalog. The Lamb … [Read more...] about The Lamb Summary and Analysis
To Autumn Summary and Analysis
This To Autumn summary starts simply. John Keats's ode celebrates autumn in three stages: its ripe abundance, its slow work of harvest, and its quiet music as the season and the day draw to a close. Unlike his other odes, it does not wish for escape or argue with itself. It accepts change and finds beauty in endings. Read the full text of To Autumn on Poetry Catalog. To … [Read more...] about To Autumn Summary and Analysis
Paradise Lost: Book IX, By: John Milton
No more of talk where God or Angel GuestWith Man, as with his Friend, familiar us'dTo sit indulgent, and with him partakeRural repast, permitting him the whileVenial discourse unblam'd: I now must changeThose Notes to Tragic; foul distrust, and breachDisloyal on the part of Man, revoltAnd disobedience: On the part of Heav'nNow alienated, distance and distaste,Anger and just … [Read more...] about Paradise Lost: Book IX, By: John Milton
Paradise Lost: Book VIII, By: John Milton
THE Angel ended, and in Adams EareSo Charming left his voice, that he a whileThought him still speaking, still stood fixt to hear;Then as new wak't thus gratefully repli'd.What thanks sufficient, or what recompenceEqual have I to render thee, DivineHystorian, who thus largely hast allaydThe thirst I had of knowledge, and voutsaf'tThis friendly condescention to relateThings else … [Read more...] about Paradise Lost: Book VIII, By: John Milton