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WINNERS ANNOUNCED HERE.
“Select, all ye who write, a subject fit,
A subject not too mighty for your wit!
Before you lay your shoulders to the wheel,
Weigh well their strength, and all their weakness feel!”
First Prize:
$2,000. Publication on the Society’s website and Journal.
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Submission Fee:
$20 (The fee comes with a free subscription to our monthly e-Newsletter.)
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Submit:
One to three poems on any topic. All together, the poems should total 108 lines or less. First click here to pay the submission fee, then email as a Word file or in the email body to [email protected]. Put “Poetry Contest Submission” in the subject line of the email. Poems must contain meter (beginners and students may simply count syllables). Rhyme and other traditional techniques are encouraged as well, but not required. (To learn how to write poetry with meter, see a brief beginner’s guide on common iambic meter here or a more elaborate beginner’s guide to many kinds of meter here. See a guide to poetry forms here.) You may alternatively mail a check made out to the Society of Classical Poets to Evan Mantyk, Society of Classical Poets, 11 Heather Ln. Mount Hope, NY 10940.
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Deadline:
December 31, 2021, 11:59 p.m. EST. Winners announced February 1, 2022 on our e-Newsletter and on the Society’s homepage.
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High School Prize:
$200. See details here.
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Translation Prize:
$100. See details here.
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Judges:
Joseph S. Salemi, acclaimed New Formalist poet, editor of TRINACRIA, essayist for Expansive Poetry Online, professor, New York University, Hunter College
James Sale, poetry critic, award-winning British poet, Arts columnist, The Epoch Times
Evan Mantyk, editor of the Society of Classical Poets Journal and website
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Judges Sale, Salemi, and Mantyk (L-R)
Who May Participate?
Anyone from any country of any background. If you are outside the United States, you would need to have a PayPal account to receive the prize money should you win First Place.
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Additional Details
The poem should be written in 2021. They may be previously published. Simultaneous submissions are accepted.
Past First Place winners and the Society’s executive staff are prohibited from participating.
You do not have to be a Member of the Society to participate.
You will retain ownership of your submitted poetry. By submitting it to the Society for publication or for inclusion in the contest, should it rank among winners or receive an honorable mention, you give the Society permission to publish it online on this website, in the Society of Classical Poets Journal, and in publications promoting the SCP’s mission or this annual contest, but the SCP would not be able to sell your individual poem on its own or have any further rights over it beyond these purposes. You could publish it anywhere else or sell it to any publication as desired.
You can enter up to three submissions, each containing one to three poems, not exceeding 108 lines in total per submission. Each submission requires the standard entry fee of $20.
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Past Winners
2020
2019
2018
2017
2016
2015
2014
2013
2012
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Poetry Writing Resources
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- A Simple Guide to Forms and Examples from the Society of Classical Poets
- “Freeware Prosody” by Expansive Poetry Online
- How to Write Classical Poetry by the Society of Classical Poets
- “The Hard Edges of a Poem” by Joseph S. Salemi
- The Prosody Handbook: A Guide to Poetic Form by Robert Beum and Karl Shapiro
- Writing Metrical Poetry by William Baer
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OK, I’m not about to fudge:
I’d enter this, but I’m a judge!
You…are divinely hysterical,
And write a pen, ah, so poetical!
Patricia Redfern
9/2/2021
Patricia, thanks so much, that’s great to know!
For Jim Sale
Every poem that you enter
You must, as a judge, ignore.
For, as poet and presenter
You have won this prize before.
Maybe if you used a pen name
You could slip one past Doc Joe
And Evan, too, there’d be no blame
Since neither of the two would know.
We’re glad that you’re ineligible
And cannot send your poems in.
They would be so intelligible
That once again, no doubt, you’d win.
I guess we all must now assume
That James will use a nom de plume,
And with a little judge’s grease,
Submit the contest’s winning piece!
Michael: A nom de plume I’ll not;
Too happy with the name I’ve got!
The Poets taking liberties with names!
It’s Jim Sale, then? Hell it is – call me James.
But still The Tweedie means well indeed:
So glad my work’s intelligible to read!
Dear James Sale —
No matter what a state I’m in —
New York, PA, Midwest, West Coast, —
Depressed, elated, or confused,
You’ll find no adjective misused,
No awkward line whence I begin,
No weeping, and no foolish boast,
Consider my work just perfection —
A joy for your august inspection,
A fine creation meant to last
With rhyme and reason tight and fast.
Should you not like it, think it’s wrong
I’ll make for you a better song.
Thanks Sally – I can see my simple ditty is inspiring poets across the USA – perhaps further? – to sharpen their saws: practising their technical skills in order to push further forward towards that tempting prize!!! Hmmm!!! God bless you all.
‘Tis time to poetically shine;
on my word-perfect verse you shall dine.
It’s like diamonds and gold,
or the finest joint rolled,
or a bottle of Cabernet wine.
Cabernet great, Paul – but never been a ‘finest joint rolled’ kind of a guy!!! Thanks for the thought, though.
Hi, One of my poem for submission is a Glose or Glosa, a Spanish form. It starts with an epigraph of four lines taken from another poet’s work. These four lines act as a refrain in the actual poem.
Now my query is, will you count these four epigraph lines as part of the overall 108 lines count?
No. Epigraphs do not count.
What A Summer Day! It’s Very Hot In A Blustery Way! School’s Out! And There’s Bar B Cues Swimming Pools To Get Cool And Traveling To Beaches And Picnics And Parks Playing All Day Till Dark. Oh, I Love A Summer Day! And It’s So Fun In A Great Way!
I Would Like To Write Poetry
Lord Pattens’s Newman Society Address
Lord Patten spoke the truth his courage exalts
Parties fear the fervor his staunch faith invokes
Purple in his faith his words tell blood red faults
Proffering a spirit that unties ox yokes
Behind doors they worship a firm resistance
Piety that must hide Lord Patten’s voice stokes
Many sit and ignore he opts persistence
History sculpts the truth that ends all parties
It won’t stand hands idling at a blunt distance
Hammer and chisel gripped its work never halts
The chips fall to the floor the artist assaults
I have a mauscript with over a hundred rhymed poems. How can I submit it for possible publication? To whom can I submit it? I would appreciate your help. I have lived for many years in Brazil and, now, in Ecuador, so I am isolated from literary milieu. My book, which I call Songs of an Alien Wave, is ready for publication. It only lacks a publisher. Thank you for your attention. My name is David Lukashok. My desired nom de plume is Davilikas.