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
How to Submit Poetry to Literary Magazines (Step by Step)
Sending poems out for the first time feels bigger than it is. Most literary magazines follow the same basic process: you read their guidelines, upload a few poems through an online form, add a short cover letter, and wait. The details matter, though, and small mistakes, like sending a poem that was already posted online, are the most common reasons good work gets passed … [Read more...] about How to Submit Poetry to Literary Magazines (Step by Step)
Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal, By: Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Now sleeps the crimson petal, now the white;Nor waves the cypress in the palace walk;Nor winks the gold fin in the porphyry font:The firefly wakens: waken thou with me. Now droops the milk-white peacock like a ghost,And like a ghost she glimmers on to me.Now lies the Earth all Danaë to the stars,And all thy heart lies open unto me.Now slides the silent meteor on, and leavesA … [Read more...] about Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal, By: Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Locksley Hall, By: Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Comrades, leave me here a little, while as yet 'tis early morn:Leave me here, and when you want me, sound upon the bugle horn. 'Tis the place, and all around it, as of old, the curlews call,Dreary gleams about the moorland flying over Locksley Hall; Locksley Hall, that in the distance overlooks the sandy tracts,And the hollow ocean-ridges roaring into cataracts. Many a … [Read more...] about Locksley Hall, By: Alfred, Lord Tennyson
The Kraken, By: Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Below the thunders of the upper deep;Far far beneath in the abysmal sea,His antient, dreamless, uninvaded sleep,The Kraken sleepeth: faintest sunlights fleeAbout his shadowy sides: above him swellHuge sponges of millennial growth and height;And far away into the sickly light,From many a wondrous grot and secret cellUnnumbered and enormous polypiWinnow with giant fins the … [Read more...] about The Kraken, By: Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Mariana, By: Alfred, Lord Tennyson
With blackest moss the flower-plotsWere thickly crusted, one and all:The rusted nails fell from the knotsThat held the peach to the garden-wall.The broken sheds look'd sad and strange:Unlifted was the clinking latch;Weeded and worn the ancient thatchUpon the lonely moated grange.She only said "My life is dreary,He cometh not," she said;She said "I am aweary, aweary;I would that … [Read more...] about Mariana, By: Alfred, Lord Tennyson