A Second-Century B.C. Homer
Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem
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Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse
A coin struck in Smyrna shows the king
Of poets in a Zeus-like pose. He holds,
Though, not a thunderbolt that he will fling.
Instead he wields a scroll. When it unfolds,
The roll will flash and rumble evermore
Through all our human eras. Lightning peals
Reverberate for seconds. Zeus’s score
Is just a ricocheting bang. It reels
Away to nothingness in fractions of
A moment. Homer modulates through keys
Of music playing every age in which men’s love
And hate continue. He is more a frieze
Of unharmed marble than a slash of light.
His poetry makes Zeus’s prattling slight.