New Classic Poems – Contemporary Verse That Rhymes

New Classic Poems
Appendix A
Appendix A
“Contemporary Formal Poetry” on-line contest rules
M
ost of the poems that appear in this collection
were submitted in response to the following
invitation, posted on the Internet between
April and October 2004, soliciting entries for
Contemporary Formal Poetry’s first on-line contest. The
contest closed on 31 October 2004. Only one in six
(approximately) of the many submissions received
complied with all of the contest rules. The remaining
majority of poems that we received did not qualify for
inclusion in this contest, and were therefore declined,
even though some of them were potentially worthy
works within their own genres.
Poetry Contest
Formal Poetry only!
IS POETRY DEAD
If Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Robert Service, Keats,
Shelley, or Alfred Lord Tennyson were alive today, they
might have trouble getting a masterpiece published. Of
course there are brilliant exceptions, but frankly, we
think that the predominating free verse genre,
considered avant-garde in our Grandparents’ generation,
is getting pretty stale. We’re tired of pretentious free
verse that leaves the reader struggling to figure out what
the author was really trying to communicate. We dislike
choppy prose masquerading as “poetry.”
Purely to encourage the noble tradition, resonance and
grandeur of classical, formal poetic form, “Contemporary
Formal Poetry” is pleased to announce our first on-line
poetry contest. You may get a place to post your own
masterpiece with us on the Internet; you might even
win some money.
YES, PLEASE
• If it rhymes and scans perfectly, is easy to read, and
sounds good when read aloud, then this contest is
for you!
• AIM FOR A HIGH STANDARD. By way of
examples, we’re looking for the next great poet in
the formal, “Western” tradition – the next
Wordsworth, the next Shelley, the next Longfellow,
Rudyard Kipling, Edgar Allan Poe, or Coleridge.
• Within reason, we also welcome “longer” poems –
300 words or more.
• Ballads, narrative poetry, elegy, sonnets, epigrams,
villanelles, epics, odes, rondeaus, sestinas, alphabet
poetry, acrostics and other formal genres all
welcome.
• The genre may range from children’s bedtime
poems to gothic; from heroic to nonsense verse;
from “fireside poetry” to “cowboy poetry” – as
long as the work is formal in structure.
• If you expect to win anything, use formal
punctuation.
• If your poetry is serious, have something serious to
say. Think of Longfellow and the other “fireside
poets.” Aim for the big picture, the moral of the
story.
• No special consideration for youthful poets, but all
ages are welcome.
• Poems in English only. Contest open to persons of
all nationalities.
• Previously published and simultaneous submissions
welcome. In such cases it is the poet’s
responsibility to ensure that he or she has the right
to allow us to post their work on the Internet.
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