Classic Poetry

Beowulf is an epic poem that has withstood the test of time. It has been translated and studied for centuries and is a hallmark of academic curricula. It is both an adventure and a tragedy and despite some difficult language is a beautiful story of loyalty and courage in the midst of danger.

Hören Sie die zehn berühmtesten Stücke Shakespeares: Die Dramen: Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello, Romeo und Julia...

Achilles has quarrelled with Agamemnon and sulks in his tent while Hector brings his Trojans to the brink of victory; but fate will have the last word. While the heroes fight before the walls of Troy the gods have also drawn up battle lines, and it is their disagreements as much as the heroes' efforts which will decide the conflict. Despite the poem's antiquity, the very real, human qualities of the protagonists and their dilemmas make The Iliad immediately accessible.

En un entresòl del carrer Torrent de l'Olla, a Gràcia, neix una criatura excepcional, un autèntic "fenomen": una nena que pesa set o vuit quilos. Ben aviat els pares - en Giordano Bruno, lliurepensador, i la Narcisa, catòlica - no saben què fer per educar i per alimentar la filla. Com més va, la noia menja més i plora més, i la sola cosa que l'interessa és llegir els fulletons, les novel·les per entregues que reparteix en Giordano per guanyar-se la vida, en el sentimentalisme tràgic dels quals descobreix l'única vida que per a ella té sentit.

Where does inspiration originate? Some find it in flowers, true love, the ocean, or perhaps a scenic mountain. For Thomas Gray the inspiration for this story poem originated - elsewhere. In this piece Thomas wrestles with his mortality and invites the listener to join the journey. Narrated by Glenn Hascall.

Poet Jean Toomer’s short-story and poetry collection.

Considered by many to be the greatest epic poem ever written, this biblical tale relates the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Despite God's prohibitive warning, Satan entices Eve to eat of the forbidden fruit. Dire consequences ensue.

Diese Gedichtsammlung braucht jeder Liebhaber feinster Lyrik!

This translation with its admirable projection of the various moods throughout the poem can be recommended to both classicist and non-classicist. -( The Classical World)

Fritz Reuter (1810-1874) wurde auch durch seine vergnüglichen Gedichte populär. Dieses Hörbuch enthält alle 137 "heiteren Geschichten und Reimereien"...

In a series of fascinating conversations with eighteen American poets, and in dozens of poems, The Language of Life celebrates language in its "most exalted, wrenching, delighted, and concentrated form," and its unique power to recreate the human experience: falling in love, facing death, leaving home, losing faith, finding God.

Die schönsten deutschen Gedichte und Balladen sind in diesem Hörbuch versammelt. Ob Goethes "Über allen Gipfeln", Rilkes "Rose, oh reiner Widerspruch" oder Morgensterns "Galgenlieder" - sie haben eines gemeinsam: sie sind Meisterwerke der Dichtkunst.

Award-winning narrator and internationally acclaimed writer/comedienne Alison Larkin brings depth and wit to this rich, hugely entertaining audio production of Jane Austen's last two great novels Northanger Abbey and Persuasion. The novels are followed by The History of England, a short satirical piece in which the teenage Austen writes about the kings and queens of England with less respect (and more wit) than any British newspaper, and Poems, a selection of lesser known, mostly comic verses that Austen wrote to entertain family and friends.

This epic poem by Edmund Spenser is the longest poem in the English language. It is an allegorical work, written in praise of Queen Elizabeth I. Michael MacLiammoir reads a selection from Book III.

The "Aeneid" is a Latin epic poem, written by Virgil between 29 and 19 BC, that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Trojan who travelled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Romans. It is composed of 9,896 lines in dactylic hexameter. The first six of the poem's 12 books tell the story of Aeneas's wanderings from Troy to Italy, and the poem's second half tells of the Trojans' ultimately victorious war upon the Latins, under whose name Aeneas and his Trojan followers are destined to be subsumed.

Von einer sicheren Deckung im Gebirgshang suchen zwei Kommandeure einer bewaffneten Partisaneneinheit durch den Feldstecher ein Dorf über dem Lago Maggiore ab. Zwischen den Hütten finden sie schließlich die Frau, die sie beide lieben - in der Gewalt der SS. Aber die beiden haben einen Befehl: sich zu schonen für die spätere Herausforderung...

There have been many translators of Chinese literature and poetry over time, but Arthur Waley stands out as one of the best known and most loved. This is perhaps because he had an attribute that most others lacked, which is his poetic abilities. Waley was as much a poet himself as a translator, and while his scholarly erudition was matched by a few others at his time, none ever managed to bring out the true character of Chinese poetry quite so well.

Dispute over land and kingdom may lie at the heart of this story of war between cousins - the Pandavas and the Kouravas - but the Mahabharata is about conflicts of dharma. These conflicts are immense and various, singular and commonplace. Throughout the epic, characters face them with no clear indications of what is right and what is wrong; there are no absolute answers. Thus every possible human emotion features in the Mahabharata, the reason the epic continues to hold sway over our imagination.

American poet, critic, and short-story writer Edgar Allan Poe is universally recognized for his cultivation of the macabre in fiction. His stories are characterized by an original kind of supernatural horror, often using the awareness of death as a catalyzing force in its own right. His tales and poems brim with psychological depth and intense imagery, made vivid through his musical language and hypnotic rhythms, which are especially captivating when heard aloud.

Most of the great Greek stories and epic tales are initiated over women, which is exactly what happens in the very beginning of The Iliad by Homer. The Trojan War has been waging for nearly a decade, and really erupted when Helen, the wife to Menelaos, was kidnapped and thus launched the "thousand ships" in pursuit of her. This is the reason that the Achaians and the Trojans have been fighting each other for so long. Achilles, who has become hero to the Greeks, is given the present of a slave girl for his excellence in battle.