Classic Poetry

An anthology of over 50 classic children's poems, read by some of our finest actors. Full of fun, excitement, and magic, the poems in this collection are guaranteed to spark the imagination and open up a world of wonder. Favourites from authors such as Edward Lear, Lewis Carroll, and Robert Louis Stevenson are all here, as well as less familiar but nonetheless hugely entertaining poems such as" The Camel's Complaint"and "The Elephant, or The Force of Habit".

Aristotle’s Poetics is the earliest-surviving work of dramatic theory and the first fully intact philosophical treatise to focus on literary theory. The respected Greek sage offers an account of what he calls "poetry" (which the Greeks understood to literally mean "making"), examining its "first principles" and identifying its genres and basic elements, including what he terms drama-comedy, tragedy, and the satyr play - as well as lyric poetry, epic poetry, and iambic pentameter, which he always associates with wit.

The publication of a new translation by Fagles is a literary event. His translations of both the Iliad and Odyssey have sold hundreds of thousands of copies and have become the standard translations of our era. Now, with this stunning modern verse translation, Fagles has reintroduced Virgil's Aeneid to a whole new generation, and completed the classical triptych at the heart of Western civilization.

This Collection of 63 poems by various authors including Christina Rossetti, Thomas Ken, John Nelson Darby, Richard Baxter, Isaac Watts, Gerhardt Ter Steegan, Anne Ross Cousin and many others has been brought together in order that these spiritual truths and impressions, presented in poetical form, will comfort and edify God's people as they wrestle daily with the world, the flesh, and the devil.

Dating to the ninth century BC, Homer’s timeless poem still vividly conveys the horror and heroism of men and gods wrestling with towering emotions and battling amidst devastation and destruction, as it moves inexorably to the wrenching, tragic conclusion of the Trojan War. Renowned classicist Bernard Knox observes in his superb Introduction that although the violence of the Iliad is grim and relentless, it coexists with both images of civilized life and a poignant yearning for peace.

"Abandon all hope you who enter here." ( "Lasciate ogne speranza voi ch’intrate.") Dante’s Hell is one of the most remarkable visions in Western literature. An allegory for his and future ages, it is, at the same time, an account of terrifying realism. Passing under a lintel emblazoned with these frightening words, the poet is led down into the depths by Virgil and shown those doomed to suffer eternal torment for vices exhibited and sins committed on earth.

This remarkable poem, dedicated to Queen Elizabeth I, was Spenser's finest achievement. The first epic poem in modern English, The Faerie Queene combines dramatic narratives of chivalrous adventure with exquisite and picturesque episodes of pageantry. At the same time, Spenser is expounding a deeply-felt allegory of the eternal struggle between Truth and Error....

Ovid's sensuous and witty poetry brings together a dazzling array of mythological tales, ingeniously linked by the idea of transformation - often as a result of love or lust - where men and women find themselves magically changed into new and sometimes extraordinary beings. Beginning with the creation of the world and ending with the deification of Augustus, Ovid interweaves many of the best-known myths and legends of Ancient Greece and Rome, including Daedalus and Icarus, Pyramus and Thisbe, Pygmalion, Perseus and Andromeda, and the fall of Troy.

One of the great innovators in American letters, Walt Whitman created a daringly new kind of poetry that became a major force in world literature. Leaves of Grass is his masterpiece, written in a pure, uninhibited style, combining sensual and mystical sensibilities. Its bold, joyous voice, its expansive optimism, and its transcendental vision made it uniquely American.

"Le poète est semblable au prince des nuées / Qui hante la tempête et se rit de l'archer ; / Exilé sur le sol au milieu des huées, / Ses ailes de géant l'empêchent de marcher." (L'Albatros)

Nine complete Dr. Seuss stories at a great price, featuring performances by Jason Alexander, Michael McKean, and David Hyde Pierce.

A collection of three medieval English poems, translated by Tolkien for the modern-day reader and containing romance, tragedy, love, sex and honour.

Majestic in its own simplicity. Inscribed above the portal, from afar. Conspicuous as the brightness of a star. Legible only by the light they give. Stand the soul-quickening words - believe, and live....

These poems have been brought together in order that these spiritual truths and impressions, presented in poetical form, will comfort and edify God's people as they wrestle daily with the world, the flesh, and the devil. To know that others have felt what we have felt, 'Through all the changing scenes of life, In trouble and in joy' to hear the feelings in our hearts echoed back to us, to be reminded of our Lord's love, will comfort the soul and bring encouragement.

Mother Goose has been charming audiences for centuries, and this Classic Treasury of Nursery Rhymes features many beloved poems as well as some new favorites. Sit with little Miss Muffet on her tuffet, climb the hill with Jack and Jill, and baa with the black sheep in this timeless classic. This beautiful collection brings all of your favorite nursey rhymes to life for story time. A treasury of nostalgic tales from Mother Goose, this collection will encourage even the youngest of listeners to laugh and giggle as you read aloud some fun and sometimes silly rhymes.

A mouse took a stroll through the deep dark wood. A fox saw the mouse and the mouse looked good. Walk further into the deep dark wood, and discover what happens when a quick-witted mouse comes face to face with an owl, a snake...and a hungry Gruffalo!

In Paradise Lost, Milton produced a poem of epic scale, conjuring up a vast, awe-inspiring cosmos and ranging across huge tracts of space and time. And yet, in putting a charismatic Satan and naked Adam and Eve at the centre of this story, he also created an intensely human tragedy on the fall of man....

Robert Fitzgerald's translation of The Odyssey has been the standard translation for more than three generations of students and poets. Macmillan Audio is delighted to publish the first ever audio edition of this classic work, the greatest of all epic poems. Fitzgerald's supple verse is ideally suited for audio, recounting the story of Odysseus' long journey back to his wife and home after the Trojan War. Homer's tale of love, adventure, food and drink, sensual pleasure, and mortal danger reaches the English-language listener in all its glory.

When Walt Whitman self-published "Leaves of Grass" in 1855, he rocked the literary world and forever changed the course of poetry. In subsequent editions, Whitman continued to revise and expand his poems - but none matched the raw power and immediacy of the first edition. This volume presents the 1855 "Leaves of Grass" in its entirety, unchanged, along with Ralph Waldo Emerson's famous letter to Whitman.

The power and the beauty of The Iliad resound again across 2,700 years in Stephen Mitchell's exciting new translation, as if the lifeblood of its heroes Achilles and Patroclus, Hector and Priam flowed in every word. And we are there with them amid the horror and ecstasy of war, carried along by a poetry that lifts even the most devastating human events into the realm of the beautiful.