Classic Love

Remember those biggies we loved in high school English? Well, here they are again performed by award-winning narrator Mike Vendetti. You'll hear "Chicago" by Carl Sandberg, "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning" by John Donne, "Because I Could Not Stop for Death" by Emily Dickinson, "Mending Wall" by Robert Frost, "Ode on a Grecian Urn" by John Keats, "Song VII ("My song has put off her adornments")" by Rabindranath Tagore, and who can ever forget "The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock" by T.S. Eliot.

"The Passionate Shepherd to His Love", known for its first line, "Come live with me and be my love," is a poem written by the English poet Christopher Marlowe and published in 1599 (six years after the poet's death). In addition to being one of the best-known love poems in the English language, it is considered one of the earliest examples of the pastoral style of British poetry in the late Renaissance period. The poem was the subject of a well-known "reply" by Walter Raleigh, called "The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd".

Where Love Is, There God Is Also is a short story by Leo Tolstoy written in 1885, about a shoemaker named Martin Avdeitch. Martin had lost his wife and children, and in his grief, he denied God. One day, after a visit from a missionary, Martin bought a Bible and read about a Pharisee who had invited Jesus into his house, and about the woman who anointed and washed Jesus' feet with her tears. That night, he dreamed that God told him that He would visit him the next day.

Welcome to Sleep Stories, relaxing stories that are engineered to help you fall asleep faster and stay sleeping through the night. You'll deeply relax your body and mind with our special sleep introduction, and then be lulled to sleep by the soothing voice of Rachael Meddows reading First Love. First Love is one of Russian literature's most renowned love stories. It's a vivid and sensitive account of adolescent love, about a 16-year-old who falls in love with a beautiful but older woman living next door.

Shakespeare was familiar with all beautiful forms and images, with all that is sweet or majestic in the simple aspects of nature and human life, of that indestructible love, and clear waters, and soft airs and sounds, and bright skies and woodland solitudes, and moon-light bowers. The writings of Shakespeare have been justly termed the richest, the purest, the fairest, that genius uninspired ever penned.

In What Love Can Do, two poor sisters share their modest Christmas wishes with each other, namely: a little money with which to buy gifts for their family members. Overhearing this, the kindly residents of a boarding house come together to make a lovely Christmas surprise for the two girls.

Down through the millennia the emotion of love has inspired countless poets to great heights of lyrical expression. In this volume listeners can sample great love poems by English and American poets. Spanning over four centuries of literary creation in the service of amour, the works include a selection of Shakespeare's sonnets, John Donne's "The Ecstasy", William Blake's "The Garden of Love", Robert Burns' "The Banks o'Doon" and "John Anderson My Jo", Lord Byron's "She Walks in Beauty", and more.

This anthology looks back over some of the great love affairs of literary history. It includes readings of poetry, letters and scenes from fiction written by British poets and authors from Shakespearian times to the twentieth century. Here are real-life romantic couples, such as Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley and Percy Bysshe Shelley, John Keats and Fanny Brawne, Lord Byron and Lady Caroline Lamb, Oscar Wilde and Lord Alfred Douglas, and Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Robert Browning.

Many of us are familiar with the epic stories and legends of the classical world. This anthology, the only one of its kind on audiobook, gives an insight into a more lyrical and tender aspect of Greek and Roman literature. From Homer's lofty lines on the loves of the gods to the earthier verse of Catullus to his mistress Lesbia, this recording encompasses the major love poetry written between the 8th century B.C. and the 2nd century A.D.

Laura confronts many difficulties and disappointments with fainting spells and delirium. Other romantic epistolary short stories add to the fun and the joy of this remarkable collection.

Leo Tolstoy is widely regarded as one of the greatest of all novelists for such works as War and Peace and Anna Karenina. He also wrote a number of outstanding short stories. This is one of his best.

Der Dichter France Prešeren (1800–1849), im Ausdruck Klassizist und Romantiker im Geist, steht unbestritten an der Spitze der slowenischen Literatur. Als Visionär, getrieben von Hoffnung und Verzweiflung, schrieb er die meisten seiner Gedichte in den 1830er Jahren und hob die slowenische Poesie auf Weltniveau. Im Zentrum seiner Poesie stehen die Liebe, existenzielle Not, Nationalgefühl und poetisches Schaffen, doch auch seine satirische Seite ist nicht zu vernachlässigen. Die kosmopolitische siebte Strophe seiner Zdravljica ist heute die slowenische Hymne und könnte durchaus auch die Hymne der Vereinten Nationen sein.

"Ritter Toggenburg" ist eine im Juli des Balladenjahres 1797 entstandene Ballade von Friedrich Schiller. Nach Schillers Kalendereintrag schloss er sie am 31. Juli ab. Das in zehn trochäischen Strophen verfasste Gedicht erschien erstmals noch im gleichen Jahr im Musen-Almanach für das Jahr 1798 und wurde auch in die Gedichtausgaben von 1800 und 1804 aufgenommen.

Dies Gedicht entstand im Jahre 1796, vermutlich auf Anregung Goethes „Der Mythus“, welcher ihm zu Grunde liegt, ist der Raub der Proserpina, der auch schon von mehreren Dichtern des Altertums besungen worden ist. Proserpina war die Tochter des Zeus und der Ceres. Als sie herangewachsen war, tanzte sie einst in den Reihen der von Pallas und Artemis angeführten Nymphen. Aber angelockt durch liebliche Blumen, die dem Boden entsprossen, entfernte sie sich mit einigen Gespielinnen, und zuletzt auch von diesen.

"Der Handschuh" ist eine der bekanntesten Balladen Friedrich Schillers aus dem Jahr 1797, dem Jahr des freundschaftlichen Wettstreits um die besseren Balladen mit Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Die achtstrophige Ballade handelt vom Missbrauch einer Liebe. König Franz sitzt mit seinem Gefolge auf dem Balkon des Löwengartens, um einen Tierkampf zu sehen. Ein Löwe betritt die Arena, ein Tiger, zwei Leoparden. Daraufhin lässt Fräulein Kunigunde ihren Handschuh zwischen die Raubkatzen fallen und fordert den Ritter Delorges, welcher schon seit langem um sie wirbt, auf, ihn zurückzubringen.

What is love? What does it take to love? Let Hans Christian Andersen’s beloved characters show you what love could be, what it takes to love and how love can manifest itself in many different ways, shapes and form! A collection for the curious and empathetic young and adult readers.

"Annabel Lee" tells the story of young love cut short by tragedy. As the speaker (often assumed to be based on Poe himself, whose young wife died shortly before he wrote this poem) discusses his relationship with the now-deceased Annabel Lee, he presents the love between them as pure, eternal, and all-conquering. The love between the speaker and Annabel Lee may have been short-lived, but it remains too powerful to be defeated, even by death. Through describing this intensely idealized love, the poem argues that love is the strongest force on earth.

Fyodor Dostoevsky’s novella, White Nights, was originally published in 1848. The tender narrative is an appealing blend of realism and romanticism. A daydreamer, the hero is a lonely young man in Saint Petersburg who lives in a fantasy world. After a chance encounter, he falls in love with a young woman, Nastenka, whom he meets in the same place over four nights. Sharing a sense of alienation, they exchange information on their respective backgrounds and grow fond of one another in a short time.

A collection of classic literature that features erotic dreams including "The Eve of St. Agnes", "Erotica Romana", and "A Last Confession".

Many masters employed the form of the sonnet, including Petrarch, Spenser, Shakespeare, Keats, and Robert Bridges. However, the most celebrated, and oft quoted, examples are to be found in the collection by Shakespeare, first published in 1609. In the 154 poems, Shakespeare surveys and dissects the subject of love in all its guises, and its relationship with youth, age, illness, death, and memory.