Ancient Poetry

The Theogony "the genealogy or birth of the gods" is a poem by Hesiod (8th – 7th century BC) describing the origins and genealogies of the Greek gods, composed c. 730–700 BC. It is written in the Epic dialect of Ancient Greek and contains 1022 lines. Hesiod's Theogony is a large-scale synthesis of a vast variety of local Greek traditions concerning the gods, organized as a narrative that tells how they came to be and how they established permanent control over the cosmos. It is the first known Greek mythical cosmogony.

The Epic of Gilgamesh relates the tale of the fifth king of the first dynasty of Uruk (in what is modern-day Iraq), who reigned for 126 years, according to the ancient Sumerian list of kings. Gilgamesh was first inscribed in cuneiform writing on clay tablets by an unknown author during the Sumerian era and has been described as one of the greatest works of literature in the recounting of mankind's unending quest for immortality.

Ce livre audio donne à entendre 25 textes dits par les plus grands interprètes de Prévert, dont certains intimes comme Simone Signoret. Les textes de Prévert résonnent encore fortement aujourd'hui, touchant toutes les générations. Simples, ses mots viennent du cœur et vont au cœur. Ainsi, l'auteur porte un regard sincère et incisif sur le monde. Révolté, il donne la parole à tous ceux "qui ont trop à dire pour pouvoir le dire".

Arthur Rimbaud est une fulgurance dans le paysage de la poésie moderne. Né le 20 octobre 1854, mort le 10 novembre 1891, il écrivit ses premiers poèmes à quinze ans et demi et ses derniers à 20 ans. Poète maudit, tourmenté et aux idées marginales, il laisse une œuvre dont la densité fait de lui une figure majeure de la littérature française. Plongez dans la poésie de Rimbaud, le poète "voyant", pour découvrir sa sensualité lumineuse au travers d'une interprétation juste et limpide.

Verlaine n'est pas qu'un musicien du verbe. Il sait nous raconter de petits événements intimes, surgis du souvenir ou bien nous décrire un amour impossible en son exigence.

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.

A famous poem by Ella Wheeler Wilcox dealing with the topic of fair weather friends. When things are good, everyone is around you. When times are rough you are often alone.

The Epic of Gilgamesh is the oldest surviving literary work in the world. The epic poetry describes the ancient King Gilgamesh and his journey to discover the secret to eternal life.

Paradise Lost is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton (1608–1674). The first version, published in 1667, consists of ten books with over ten thousand lines of verse. A second edition followed in 1674, arranged into twelve books (in the manner of Virgil's Aeneid) with minor revisions throughout. It is considered by critics to be Milton's major work, and it helped solidify his reputation as one of the greatest English poets of his time.

Kae Tempest is one of the most exciting and innovative performers to have emerged in spoken-word poetry in many years; her dramatic poem "Brand New Ancients" won the prestigious Ted Hughes Prize for innovation in poetry. Tempest's wholly unique blend of street poetry, rap, and storytelling - combined with the spellbinding delivery of an open-air revivalist - has won her legions of followers all over the UK. Her remarkable stage presence is wholly audible in this poem, a spoken story written to be told with live music.

Martial was a Latin poet from Hispania best known for his 12 books of Epigrams, published in Rome between A.D. 86 and 103, during the reigns of the emperors Domitian, Nerva and Trajan. In these short, witty poems, he cheerfully satirises city life and the scandalous activities of his acquaintances, and romanticises his provincial upbringing.

I first read Edward Fitzgerald’s celebrated, if controversial, version of Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat when I happened upon it in my father’s extensive library when I was a sophomore at Notre Dame High School. While there is much debate about Omar Khayyam’s philosophical outlook (is his message Sufi-oriented or existentially hedonistic?), there is no doubting its beauty and its profundity of thought.

Mort de tuberculose à vingt-cinq ans, John Keats eut une carrière poétique d'une fulgurante brièveté, suffisamment intense pour faire de lui un des poètes romantiques anglais les plus importants de sa génération. Nourries de la perte d'un amour premier dont Keats ne put jamais faire le deuil, ses écritures se placent sous le soleil noir de la Mélancolie, que la prescience de la mort exacerbe jusqu'à toucher au sublime. Une immense richesse symbolique transparaît sous la lumière de ses accents intemporels.

Paradise Lost is one of the most brilliant works of poetry ever written in the English language. With ease and grace, John Milton's words paint a picture of the fall of man, epically layering his words with all the innocence and treachery that such a fantastic tale deserves. Through Milton's words we witness the downfall of Adam and Eve as well as the epic battle between good and evil.

Li Po (AD 701-762) lived in T'ang Dynasty China, but his influence has spanned the centuries: the pure lyricism of his poems has awed readers in China and Japan for over a millennium, and through Ezra Pound’s translations, Li Po became central to the modernist revolution in the West. However ethereal in spirit, his poems remain grounded in the everyday experience we all share. He wrote 1,200 years ago, half a world away, but in his poems we see our world transformed.

These poems describe mysteries about different ancient artifacts from various types of cultures.

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”.

The Nature of Things was written in the 1st century BC by Roman polymath Lucretius. It is written as a didactic poem, and explains Epicurean physics.

Llewelyn Morgan explores Ovid's immense influence on later literature and art, spanning from Shakespeare to Bernini. Throughout, Ovid's poetry is revealed as enduringly scintillating, his personal story compelling, and the issues his life and poetry raise of continuing relevance and interest.

Dante's Inferno by Dante Alighieri. The first part of Dante's Divine Comedy , the "Inferno" (or "Hell"), begins on the night before Good Friday in the year 1300, "halfway along our life's path". Dante is thirty-five years old, half of the biblical life expectancy of 70, lost in a dark wood, assailed by beasts he cannot evade, and unable to find the straight way to salvation. Conscious that he is ruining himself and that he is falling into a deep place where the sun is silent, Dante is at last rescued by Virgil, and the two of them begin their journey to the underworld.