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SUBMISSION DEADLINE EXTENDED!
The deadline to submit work for the September issue of Polyphony has been extended to Aug. 28.

The Possessed
Captain Lebyadkin, a Falstaffian character made up of part buffoon and part folk philosopher, comes to woo Liza in this excerpt from a dramatic adaptation of Dostoevky's "The Possessed."

On Dostoevsky as Poetic Drama
Benjamin Sher argues that Dostoevsky's prose novel, "The Possessed," translates fundamentally better as a poetic, mostly blank-verse drama than prose.

Exil'd from Light
In this moving excerpt from "Samson Agonistes," John Milton reflects on being blind.

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Book Reviews and Articles of Interest

Write poetry, die young. We suspected that anyway. But should Intro to Poetry classes come with a warning?	The Green Knight could loose his head and stay cool. Poor Gawain and that darned Camelot code of chivalry.
Ovid's description of Philomela's tongue twitching on the ground after her rapist  had sliced it out of her mouth may be a bit over the top. But we read on anyway.	"I envy those who have not yet read The Iliad, if such there are. They have a profound experience in store," notes Alan Sillitoe's essay.
She wrote 27 plays as well as four adaptations of Molière, yet Augusta Lady Gregory is primarily remembered for her relationship with W.B. Yeats.	Today, the most interesting thing about Browning is his wife. His contemporaries, however, worried about his obscurity, the roughness, his impacted syntax, and his preoccupation with cruelty.
Does Shakespeare's Lear have a spiritual side? That's modern, New Age drivel, says Jonathan Miller. The New York Times seems to agree.	Dr. Seuss is probably the best-selling writer of narrative poetry of the last 100 years. Are we taking it all too seriously? Maybe. I wish I could sell out....
Never has such a great work arisen out of a huge pile of such unpromising material. Such was Yeat's life.	Narrative poetry isn't old-fashioned or pointlessly archaic, says Dorothy Porter of her award-winning verse novel.
We like biography to conform to archetypes, and ever since Shelley drowned while sailing in Italy, his dramatic end has framed our perceptions of his life and poetry.	Critics unwilling to give Pound high honors as a poet usually concede that he is an accomplished translator. A new collection helps make the case. Here's more. And yet some more.
Christopher Marlowe was accused of sodomy, atheism, felonious assault, forgery, espionage, defection to Rome and subversion. Small wonder we find him so interesting.	Do we read Shakespeare as poetry on the page? Or do we explore the experience of the plays as performances?
Shakespeare has a way of complicating multicultural assumptions. All great artists should.	See an online article, review, essay or resource related to narrative and dramatic poetry? Share it with Polyphony’s readers.

Editor's Letter

Somewhere in Between

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