Dear Reader,
In the six months since we’ve launched Poems Ancient and Modern, we’ve reached more than 5,000 new subscribers and followers. That’s over 5,000 readers interested in a daily poem. And a classic painting, related to the poem’s topic. And a few paragraphs of helpful discussion.
It takes time and effort to produce these postings five days a week, and here’s where we can use your help — since most of our readers are unpaid subscribers, and we need support to continue publishing quality material.
Won’t you upgrade to being a paid subscriber? As a special offer, to celebrate our first half-year, we’re offering a limited-time rate of half off. For our thousands of free readers, that’s a year’s subscription for only $30. At five times a week, for 52 weeks, that’s 260 daily postings, for only $30.
We will soon be adding new features available only to paid subscribers. Some of our postings — our Wednesday postings of lighter verse, for example — will be need a paid subscription. Having solved some of the technical difficulties, we will be attaching sound files of the day’s poem read aloud. And we’re starting to arrange recorded podcasts of discussions about poetic forms with some of the great critics of the day. Meanwhile, we are planning scheduled Zoom sessions for readers to present their own favorite classic poems.
Like us, you believe in poetry’s power to delight the ear, instruct the mind, and inspire the soul. Like us, you believe that the English poetic tradition is a cultural treasure, which we reclaim and sustain by every act of attention to it. That’s our mission at Poems Ancient and Modern: reclamation of, sustenance for, and attention to poetry as a living tradition. And we’re glad to call you our friend in this mission.
We’re asking you to consider translating your belief in our mission to active support.
Sincerely Yours,
Joseph Bottum and Sally Thomas
Founders of Poems Ancient and Modern