Tweetspeak Poetry

  • Home
  • FREE prompts
  • Earth Song
  • Every Day Poems—Subscribe! ✨
  • Teaching Tools
  • Books, Etc.
  • Patron Love

Poets and Poems: James Sale and “StairWell”

By Glynn Young 1 Comment

Korea temple Sale StairWell

James Sale continues his marvel of a Dante-like epic poem

I’ve never said that I’m eagerly awaiting the publication of a new poetry volume or collection. I have said it about a novel by a favorite author, or a new mystery in an enthralling series. Perhaps it’s because poetry has always been something more cerebral or quietly emotional.

Then came poet James Sale and his contemporary epic structured like (and written in open homage to) Dante and his Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso, the three parts of The Divine Comedy. Sale began writing what he called The English Cantos in 2017, and the first volume, HellWard, was published in 2019. Then came the COVID pandemic and Sale’s own health issues.

Four years after HellWard, we now have StairWell, Vol. II of the English Cantos, corresponding to Dante’s Purgatorio. And, yes, I’d heard it was coming. I can now say I eagerly anticipated a work of poetry. I can also say it fully justified my eagerness. StairWell is a marvel of imagination, insight into the human condition, and social commentary.

Dante and Virgil Sale

Dante and Virgil in Purgatory by Hippolyte Flandrin – Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon

The journey is a stairwell in the sense of rising upward. Each stair is not so much a step as it is almost a physical place or area, bringing its own challenges and residents for the narrator to meet and understand. He must experience and understand each to find the next upward stair.

Dante included friends, acquaintances, and commentary on Italian society in The Divine Comedy, and Sale follows his example in both HellWard and StairWell. He also follows Dante’s example of a guide for the journey; Dante used the Roman poet Virgil, while Sale uses both Virgil and Dante in StairWell. As the epic poem proceeds, it becomes clear that Sale sees Dante as a superior force. The Florentine poet often takes the lead in various confrontations on the journey, sometimes while both Virgil and narrator Sale cower in fear.

To a significant extent, StairWell is autobiographical. We meet professors, friends, and even Sale’s ex-wife (and he is rather kind to her; this is no “revenge poem”). We find historical and mythological figures. We discover historical and religious allusions.

And we also see the underlying theme of the work to be the bankruptcy of postmodernism. In this scene, the poet and his guides have ascended to the third stair, where they discover a high-tech edifice with postmodernist thought at its heart. A former business colleague of the poet occupies the space. At first friendly, the colleague slyly offers a trap.

From Canto 4: Peer

StairWell James SaleAs I approached, my Dante turned to say:
‘Timely, my son, you come to see this rot—
See here—who’d think this structure (strong to stay)

Might through the slightest wind fall into Not?
All this is sweet philosophy awry;
From human minds whose principles forgot

The first. We go and soon will see just why
Every civilisation mankind’s made,
No matter how glorious or how high,

Descends from high vision to paltry trade,
And last becomes a racket and a cheat
Through which its own citizens dig their grave.’

I looked just where the earth on metal ate
Its root—and where the dingy rust, like red
Slime, penetrated its pristine state.

Forebodings, I felt, of what lay ahead,
As something Preference would like not to see:
All dreams of mankind in ruins, quite dead,

A litter of carnage—called history—
Which cut down to size all the vaunting up;
But I too was human, this too was me!

James Sale

James Sale

Sale has been writing poetry for more than 50 years. One might say he’s also been living and breathing poetry for at least that long. In addition to his own writing and readings, he’s been a poetry publisher, a promoter of poets and poetry events, a judge in poetry competitions, a guest poet, a guest writer on poetry, and winner of numerous poetry competitions himself. His poems have been published in magazines and journals in the U.K., Canada, and the U.S. He’s also co-authored three books on poetry for U.K. schools and is a member of the advisory board of the Society for Classical Poets.

StairWell is every bit as good as its predecessor HellWard. It’s almost staggering to see what Sale is accomplishing here — a contemporary epic shaped by Dante but fully its own work. The story is engaging and often riveting; the commentary on culture is sharp and insightful. You will likely never read anything quite like it. Except, perhaps, the epic that inspired it.

Related:

James Sale and Hellward – Writing an Epic Poem in English

Photo by Giuseppe Milo, Creative Commons, via Flickr. Post by Glynn Young

Browse more book reviews

How to Read a Poem by Tania Runyan

5 star

Buy How to Read a Poem Now!

How to Read a Poem uses images like the mouse, the hive, the switch (from the Billy Collins poem)—to guide readers into new ways of understanding poems. Anthology included.

“I require all our incoming poetry students—in the MFA I direct—to buy and read this book.”

—Jeanetta Calhoun Mish

  • Author
  • Recent Posts
Glynn Young
Glynn Young
Editor and Twitter-Party-Cool-Poem-Weaver at Tweetspeak Poetry
Glynn Young lives in St. Louis where he retired as the team leader for Online Strategy & Communications for a Fortune 500 company. Glynn writes poetry, short stories and fiction, and he loves to bike. He is the author of the Civil War romance Brookhaven, as well as Poetry at Work and the Dancing Priest Series. Find Glynn at Faith, Fiction, Friends.
Glynn Young
Latest posts by Glynn Young (see all)
  • A History of Children’s Stories: “The Haunted Wood” by Sam Leith - May 20, 2025
  • World War II Had Its Poets, Too - May 15, 2025
  • Czeslaw Milosz, 1946-1953: “Poet in the New World” - May 13, 2025

Filed Under: article, book reviews, Books, Epic Poetry, Poems, poetry, poetry reviews, Poets

Try Every Day Poems...

Comments

  1. Michael Pietrack says

    May 23, 2023 at 6:24 am

    Exciting, can’t wait! James Sale is a master poet and the pre-eminent epic poet of our times. Not only that, but he is a very generous man, who helps move the spotlight onto others. We are all behind you James!

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Take How to Read a Poem

Get the Introduction, the Billy Collins poem, and Chapter 1

get the sample now

Welcome to Tweetspeak

New to Tweetspeak Poetry? Start here, in The Mischief Café. You're a regular? Check out our May Menu

Patron Love

❤️

Welcome a little patron love, when you help keep the world poetic.

The Graphic Novel

"Stunning, heartbreaking, and relevant illustrations"

Callie Feyen, teacher

read a summary of The Yellow Wallpaper

meet The Yellow Wallpaper characters

How to Write Poetry

Your Comments

  • Glynn on World War II Had Its Poets, Too
  • Sandra Fox Murphy on World War II Had Its Poets, Too
  • Glynn on Poets and Poems: Kelly Belmonte and “The Mother of All Words”
  • Bethany R. on Poets and Poems: Kelly Belmonte and “The Mother of All Words”

Featured In

We're happy to have been featured in...

The Huffington Post

The Paris Review

The New York Observer

Tumblr Book News

Stay in Touch With Us

Categories

Learn to Write Form Poems

How to Write an Acrostic

How to Write a Ballad

How to Write a Catalog Poem

How to Write a Ghazal

How to Write a Haiku

How to Write an Ode

How to Write a Pantoum

How to Write a Rondeau

How to Write a Sestina

How to Write a Sonnet

How to Write a Villanelle

5 FREE POETRY PROMPTS

Get 5 FREE inbox poetry prompts from the popular book How to Write a Poem

Shakespeare Resources

Poetry Classroom: Sonnet 18

Common Core Picture Poems: Sonnet 73

Sonnet 104 Annotated

Sonnet 116 Annotated

Character Analysis: Romeo and Juliet

Character Analysis: Was Hamlet Sane or Insane?

Why Does Hamlet Wait to Kill the King?

10 Fun Shakespeare Resources

About Shakespeare: Poet and Playwright

Top 10 Shakespeare Sonnets

See all 154 Shakespeare sonnets in our Shakespeare Library!

Explore Work From Black Poets

About Us

  • • A Blessing for Writers
  • • Our Story
  • • Meet Our Team
  • • Literary Citizenship
  • • Poet Laura
  • • Poetry for Life: The 5 Vital Approaches
  • • T. S. Poetry Press – All Books
  • • Contact Us

Write With Us

  • • 5 FREE Poetry Prompts-Inbox Delivery
  • • 30 Days to Richer Writing Workshop
  • • Poetry Prompts
  • • Submissions
  • • The Write to Poetry

Read With Us

  • • All Our Books
  • • Book Club
  • • Every Day Poems—Subscribe! ✨
  • • Literacy Extras
  • • Poems to Listen By: Audio Series
  • • Poet-a-Day
  • • Poets and Poems
  • • 50 States Projects
  • • Charlotte Perkins Gilman Poems Library
  • • Edgar Allan Poe Poems Arts & Experience Library
  • • William Blake Poems Arts & Experience Library
  • • William Shakespeare Sonnet Library

Celebrate With Us

  • • Poem on Your Pillow Day
  • • Poetic Earth Month
  • • Poet in a Cupcake Day
  • • Poetry at Work Day
  • • Random Acts of Poetry Day
  • • Take Your Poet to School Week
  • • Take Your Poet to Work Day

Gift Ideas

  • • Every Day Poems
  • • Our Shop
  • • Everybody Loves a Book!

Connect

  • • Donate
  • • Blog Buttons
  • • By Heart
  • • Shop for Tweetspeak Fun Stuff

Copyright © 2025 Tweetspeak Poetry · FAQ, Disclosure & Privacy Policy