Classic Poetry

The English language has grown into the world’s pre-dominant spoken language, containing over one million words. Its sources are rich and diverse, having absorbed words from other cultures and times without hesitation. With such talents as Shakespeare, Keats, Shelley, Kipling, Blake, and many other classic poets using this most flexible language to render their thoughts and visions, it is no wonder that the beauty and reach of English entrances us.

Young children can spy familiar nursery characters hiding in this tale. There's Tom Thumb, Jack and Jill, and the Three Bears as well as Baby Bunting and a host of others.

An anthology of verse by women poets writing in Persian, most of whom have never been translated into English before, from acclaimed scholar and translator Dick Davis. From Rabe'eh in the 10th century to Fatemeh Ekhtesari in the 21st, the women poets found in The Mirror of My Heart write across the millennium on such universal topics as marriage, children, political climate, death, and emancipation, recreating life from hundreds of years ago that is strikingly similar to our own today and giving insight into their experiences as women.

These masterly poems span the whole of Nabokov's career from "Music", written in 1914, to the short, playful "To Vera", composed in 1974. The works are newly translated by Dmitiri Nabokov, and include "The University Poem", an extraordinary autobiographical poem in which Nabokov recalls his life in Cambridge, with its crooked alleys and age-old gates, teas at the vicar's and British girls. Included to are such poems as "To Russia" ("Will you leave me alone! I implore you!), the enchanting "Eve", and verse about America, sport, love, and poetry itself.

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.

This beloved nursery rhyme tells a story that is both a bit scary (she lost her sheep!) and funny (they lost their tails!). The poor tiny girl, trying to do a job that is quite hard for her with her short legs, becomes bewildered. But help is there in the shape of an old lady who plays a trick on her, telling her that her sheep have lost their tails which she must find and somehow put them back on. Will the distraught little BoPeep find the missing tails? And if she does will she be able to re-attach them? Listen and learn!

September - the ninth month of the year in our Gregorian calendar and with it arrives the autumn equinox and the first glimpses of the new season. there is much for our poets, including Browning, Kingsley, Yeats, Lanier, and Lindsay, to say and write about.

Beatrice Lillie, Boris Karloff and Cyril Ritchard amongst others read Lewis Carroll's finest poetry including Jabberwocky, The Hunting of the Snark and The Mock Turtle's Song

Perhaps the first great and truly "American" poet, Walt Whitman's writing reflected the idealism and turbulence of the mid-19th century. His poetry broke new stylistic ground with its unconventional meter and rhyme schemes, yet celebrated democratic values, the beauty of nature, and the complex variety and vitality of American life.

Climb up the beanstalk with Jack, march with the Duke of York and visit the bears with Goldilocks in Nursery Stories and Rhymes! These popular tales and rhymes read and sung by well-known children's TV presenters Floella Benjamin and Derek Griffiths, with added sound effects and music, will keep children listening again and again, at home or in the car.

Um dos maiores clássicos da literatura universal, A Divina Comédia escrita por Dante Alighieri no século XIV narra a odisseia espiritual do próprio personagem de Dante.

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.

A collection of classic erotic poetry including "The Kiss", "A Woman Waits for Me", and "Between Your Sheets".

This award-winning anthology of poetry and prose takes a new look at being a woman - particularly an aging woman - in a society that prizes and glorifies youth. The works are by both younger writers looking forward in time and writers who have experienced the joys and challenges of growing older. This international best seller was put together by editor Sandra Martz who selected the collection's pieces from thousands of submitted manuscripts.

This selection of Hardy's poetry does full justice to its humanity, integrity, humour and evocative power, ranging from charming anthology pieces such as Weathers to the great love poems he wrote after the death of his first wife and his meditations on war and phillosophy.

The Iliad of Homer is the earliest work of European literature that we have. Created in the eighth century BC it has continued to arouse interest for over 2000 years. The author intended it to be heard, as delivered by a bard or rhapsode who had made the presentation of Greek epic poetry his profession, and who had command of the vocal resources and the dramatic power to move his audience.

Paradise Lost is a well-known part of the English literary canon. Told as an epic poem in blank verse, Paradise Lost is John Milton’s retelling of the biblical story of Satan’s fall from grace and the beginning of humanity. In the beginning of Paradise Lost, Satan has been banished to Hell and is working to organize the angels who fell with him and create his new kingdom. While a constant angelic war rages, Satan begins to wield his influence on the first humans created on Earth, and soon tempts them into defying God by using wit and logic to tempt Eve.

This is a tribute to the work of Emily Dickinson and Sara Teasdale, two of the greatest representatives of female American literature. It is a carefully crafted selection of 150 poems, all of them eight lines in length, which are presented face-to-face in pairs—one per author—and with matching themes. In this way, the listener can compare and enjoy the magic of these poets.

This follow-up to The Bippolo Seed and Other Lost Stories features familiar Seussian faces and places - including Horton the Elephant, Marco, Mulberry Street, and a Grinch - as well as an introduction by renowned Seuss scholar Charles D. Cohen. Seuss fans will learn more about Horton’s integrity, Marco’s amazing imagination, a narrowly avoided disaster on Mullbery Street, and a devious Grinch.

Dylan Thomas made several recordings in the early 1950s of other poets' works. Captured here is a collection of poems written by William Butler Yeats.