Ancient Poetry

“A rare feat for any book of poems, let alone a debut, in that the lines, wrought with such deft precision and care, mark the sum total of a life richly lived and felt at the seat of poetry...These poems care, first and foremost, for what they write of and through, which is a much...

A new collection of poetry from an American literary legend, her first in twenty-five years Joyce Carol Oates is one of our most insightful observers of the human heart and mind, and, with her acute social consciousness, one of the most insistent and inspired witnesses of a shared American...

A collection of poetry from the 2019 winner of the National Poetry Series, selected by Rosanna Warren In her remarkable and assured debut, Alexandria Hall explores the boundaries and limits of language, place, and the self, as well as the complicated space between safety and danger, intimacy and...

A piercing debut collection of poems exploring gender, race, and violence from a sensational new talent. In her arresting collection, urgently relevant for our times, poet Emily Jungmin Yoon confronts the histories of sexual violence against women, focusing in particular on Korean so-called...

Multiple poems designed to connect to form a story as a heart's breath are included in this audiobook.

A collection of eclectic poetry penned by three kings of Pulp fiction from the 1930s. Songs of Giants: The Poetry of Pulp is a collection of 26 poems by writers H.P. Lovecraft, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and Robert E. Howard. Inspired by the illustrated book of the same name by artist Mark Wheatley.

Kabir, meaning "Great" and one of the 99 names of God in Arabic, was a mystic and poet, born around 1440 in Varanasi to poor Muslim parents. Another account claims he was the child of a Brahmin widow. He himself said he was "at once the child of Allah and Ram". Kabir grew up learning his father’s craft of weaving and overcame many obstacles to become a disciple of Saint, or Swami, Ramananda, the leading pioneer of the Bhakti movement, which promoted salvation for all.

Mirabai was a Rajput princess born to the Rathore clan in 1498 in Kudaki, Rajasthan, in northern India. Despite being one of the most significant saints in the Bhakti tradition and an immensely popular Hindu mystic and religious poet, very few facts are actually known about her life including her date of birth. It is clear that her mother died when she was very young and she was greatly influenced by her father, also a worshipper of Krishna. From a young age, Mirabai’s devotion to Krishna was absolute surrender and complete devotion.

Universally admired and quoted, Shakespeare’s Sonnets have love, beauty and the passing of time at their heart. Featuring some of the best-known and best-loved lines in the history of poetry (‘Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?’, ‘Love is not love which alters when it alteration finds’), these evocative sonnets explore passion, the fleeting nature of beauty and the essence of true and everlasting love.

Purgatory is the second part of Dante's The Divine Comedy. The listener finds the Poet, with his guide Virgil, ascending the terraces of the Mount of Purgatory inhabited by those doing penance to expiate their sins on earth. There are the proud - forced to circle their terrace for eons bent double in humility; the slothful running around crying out examples of zeal and sloth; while the lustful are purged by fire.

Marie de France visse nel XII secolo, e di lei si sa pochissimo, solo quello che scrive di se stessa: "Il mio nome è Maria e sono di Francia. Visse probabilmente alla corte di Enrico II d'Inghilterra e di Eleonora d'Aquitania, ed è la più antica narratrice nelle letterature volgari d’Occidente. Questa è una collezione di storie cortesi (originalmente in lingua d’oïl ) – famose novelle d’amore tutte tramandate da canzoni bretoni.

Contrairement aux imitateurs qui ne faisaient que caricaturer grossièrement Aristide Bruant, Paulo du "lapin Agile" est entré réellement dans l'esprit des textes et a appris à les dire à la grande satisfaction du chansonnier qui l'a reconnu comme "son seul élève". Après cette passation, Paulo transmit tout naturellement le témoin à son beau fils Yves Mathieu. Connaissant les textes sur le bout des doigts, Yves a apporté à l'œuvre de Bruant son propre son, sa verve, sa force de conviction et son amour de la langue.

When sleep was at its deepest, night at its blackest, up from the mist-filled marsh came Grendel stalking. Thus begins the battle between good and evil, for lying in wait and anxious to challenge the ogre Grendel is a young man, strong-willed and fire-hearted. This man is Beowulf, whose heroic dragon-slaying deeds were sung in the courts of Anglo-Saxon England more than a thousand years ago.

Homer's Odyssey is the thrilling and moving tale of the wanderings of the hero Odysseus after the end of the Trojan war. For ten years he experiences storms, shipwrecks, and seductions as he tries to find a way home to Ithaca, contending with the wrath of Poseidon but protected by Pallas Athena. Meanwhile, his wife Penelope is beset by suitors who believe him dead.

The words of Kahlil Gibran give his book The Prophet a broad range of inspiration and philosophy. They provide exceptional insight into human desires and understanding. The vivid observations are vibrant with feeling and acceptance of life’s many questions and hopes. One review saluted the story as being untouched by the harshness of life. Gibran’s other two books, The Forerunner and The Madman, are of deep assistance in the same manner.

Der Dichter selbst verspricht: "Wir werden sicheren Liebesgenuss und erlaubte Heimlichkeiten besingen, und in meinem Gedicht wird kein Verbrechen gelehrt." Ob das 2000 Jahre alte Lehrgedicht über die Liebe heutzutage noch praktisch hilfreich ist, müssen Jüngere beurteilen. Die ältere Generation mag jedenfalls ihr ästhetisches Vergnügen daran haben. Oder wird man mich schelten, weil ich ein Frauenbild verbreiten helfe, das so gar nicht in unsere Zeit passt (und das ja auch gar nicht meines ist)?

In Denmark, a very prosperous and popular ruler, King Hrothgar, has built a large mead hall and encouraged all of his soldiers to be jubilant and merry. The commotion from the festivities has greatly upset a horrible demon, Grendel, who lives in the swamp. Every night the demon terrorizes the community forcing the Danes to suffer at the hand of the beast for many years until a young Geatish warrior, Beowulf, hears of the plight King Hrothgar has endured.

Acerbic wit and stinging satire are contrasted with delicate sensibility and passionate desire in the work of the Latin poet Catullus. Armed with an urbane sophistication and an aristocratic circle of friends, Catullus moved about easily in the upper ranks of Roman society and was acquainted with Cicero, Caesar, and Pompey among others.

New Hampshire is a collection of poems by Robert Frost first published in 1923 by Henry Holt. It contains a number of his best known poems, including "Fire and Ice", "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening", "Nothing Gold Can Stay", and “For Once, Then, Something”. The collection is organized into three sections: the poem “New Hampshire”, a group of poems labeled “Notes”, and a second group labeled “Grace Notes”.

Sappho is widely recognized as one of the great poets of world literature, an author whose works have caused her readers to repeat in many different forms Strabo's amazed epithet when he wrote that she could only be called "a marvel." The reception of Sappho's poetry even through the twentieth century offers a case study of the conflicts induced by the sexual preferences she seemingly alludes to in her verse. Little is known with certainty about the life of Sappho, or Psappha in her native Aeolic dialect. She was born probably about 620 B.C. to an aristocratic family on the island of Lesbos during a great cultural flowering in the area.