English Poetry Literature

The Kalevala provides a compelling insight into the myths and folklore of Finland. Compiled by Elias Lönnrot in the 19th century, this impressive volume follows a tradition of oral storytelling that goes back some 2000 years, and it is often compared to such epic poems as Homer's Odyssey. However, The Kalevala has little in common with the culture of its Nordic neighbors: It is primarily poetic, it is mythical rather than historic, and its heroes solve their problems with magic more often than violence.

Charged with sensuality and passion, Pablo Neruda's love poems are the most celebrated of the Nobel Prize winner's oeuvre, captivating listeners with earthbound images and reveling in a fiery reimagining of the world. Mostly written on the island paradise of Capri (the idyllic setting of the Oscar-winning movie Il Postino), Love Poems embraces the seascapes surrounding the poet and his love, Matilde Urrutia, their waves and shores saturated with a new, yearning eroticism.

Raised in South Carolina and New York, Woodson always felt halfway home in each place. In vivid poems, she shares what it was like to grow up as an African American in the 1960s and 1970s, living with the remnants of Jim Crow and her growing awareness of the Civil Rights movement. Touching and powerful, each poem is both accessible and emotionally charged, each line a glimpse into a child's soul as she searches for her place in the world.

Down in the big construction site, tough trucks work with all their might. But now it's time to say goodnight! Little truck drivers will drift off to sleep to this soothing good-bye to the day.

Travis Campbell has been at this hockey thing for a while. He knows his days on the ice are numbered, but he’s happy with the Moncton Ice Cats and he’s still got some time to figure out what comes next. He’s been taking college classes online and thought he knew what he was doing, but then he made the ultimate rookie mistake. It turns out the poetry class is not the easier way to get his required English credits.

The second title in this new series about a lovable wizard, featuring a charming rhyming story. In the faraway village of Snottington Sneeze lived a wizened old wizard with knocketty knees. Woozy the Wizard loves his old broom - not too small, not too big - but it is a little rusty. So when he spies a shiny new shop with hoovers he can't believe his luck! If only he could make his new hoover go zoom.... Magic and mishap ensue with Woozy and his pet pig. A bold, funny and heartwarming story from the uniquely talented Elli Woollard.

A very clever, funny story from the author of the prize-winning The Gruffalo. Can butterfly help little monkey find his mum? Yes, finally, but only after a lot of trial and error as butterfly misunderstands monkey's descriptions and leads him to all sorts of unsuitable animals.

In Wade in the Water, Tracy K. Smith boldly ties America's contemporary moment both to our nation's fraught founding history and to a sense of the spirit, the everlasting. These are poems of sliding scale: some capture a flicker of song or memory; some collage an array of documents and voices; and some push past the known world into the haunted, the holy. Smith's signature voice - inquisitive, lyrical, and wry - turns over what it means to be a citizen, a mother, and an artist in a culture arbitrated by wealth, men, and violence.

Sing along with Julia Donaldson and her latest collection of songs - fun for kids and parents alike. As well as being the UK's most successful picture book author, Julia Donaldson is a gifted songwriter for children. This volume includes nine of her best-loved songs. The songs will be familiar to anyone who has heard them on TV or radio, or enjoyed one of Julia's hugely popular live performances. All nine songs are sung by the author. Now everyone can sing along!

The Odyssey is the greatest adventure story ever written, and one of the great epic masterpieces of Western literature For almost 3,000 years, it has been a storehouse of ancient Greek folklore and myth. It is also our very first novel, if we think of it in terms of romantic plot development, realistic characterizations, frequent change of scene, and heroic dramatic devices.

Wordsworth's The Prelude is the consummation of his achievement as the great founder of English romanticism. An autobiography in verse, it tells of his childhood in the Lake District, his student days in Cambridge, his passion for the French Revolution and his later disenchantment with it. It also tells of his personal journey to a belief in Nature as the great moral and spiritual force which shapes human life, but on which human society all too often turns its back.

Even if you’ve never heard his name, you’ve probably met someone with his words tattooed on their skin or heard them sung at a music concert. Atticus, the anonymous young New York Times bestselling author, has taken the world by storm with his beautiful poetry and powerful, simple themes of love and strength of the human spirit. His fourth poetry collection, LVOE., is a study into himself. Using his instantly recognizable lyrical style and relatable themes, Atticus will once again dazzle listeners, inspiring them to also look within.

Catherine Cohen, the one-woman stand-up chanteuse who has electrified the downtown NYC comedy scene in her white go-go boots, has been posting poignant, unfiltered poems on social media since before Instagram was a thing. A self-proclaimed self-obsessed millennial on the prowl with her beaded bag, she ponders guys who call you "dude" after sex, English-major dreams, true love during the pandemic, and other weighty matters in these captivating short lyrics.

Gathering inspiration from a life of travel, hope, long-distance relationships, healing, and adventure, Frayne invites listeners into her world. The Gravity Inside Us is an ode to whatever it is we carry that pulls us in and out of place, and speaks so insistently of fate. Through writing about her own experiences, this book is a reach into that space.

From bestselling author Alexi Lubomirski comes Talk to Me Always. Pairing his iconic photography with his hypnotic and dreamy poetry, this book is an ode to all art-lovers. With an incredibly curated platform, those interested in poetry and those interested in the high-growth artistic medium of “Photopoetry” and fashion photography will find Talk to Me Always mesmerizing.

From Calvin Arsenia, one of Kansas City’s most exciting singers, comes a debut book of poetry and prose: Every Good Boy Does Fine. Named for the classic mnemonic used to teach the lines of the treble clef (EGBDF), his collection speaks to his passion as a musician and also his deep and tumultuous history in the Evangelical community. Arsenia includes elements of queer poetry, writings on racial awakening, Christian de-conversion, and sexual awakenings in a homophobic community with the hopes that listeners will feel ready to start their own journey of self-expression.

Poetry, like religion, is the practice of wonder—a way of being open, a way of reaching out to touch the hem of the world’s garment. Like the great spiritual teachers, poetry invites us to be radically present, to inhabit the world a little more closely, to attend a little more lovingly, with an awareness beyond the mere mind. The numinous shines right before our eyes, nonchalantly hidden, poorly disguised. God lurks in the shadowy places.

Welcome to the world of Runny Babbit and his friends Toe Jurtle, Skertie Gunk, Rirty Dat, Dungry Hog, Snerry Jake, and many others who speak a topsy-turvy language all their own.

A collection of over 200 pieces of poetry and prose, The Secret of You focuses on the thoughts and feelings that we might not share and have trouble expressing, the things that we need to let go in order to heal. Thomas’s newest volume asks and answers vulnerable questions on themes of love, loss, identity, shame, and more. This audiobook features original commentary by the author, reflecting on his writing and his process.

"Abandon all hope you who enter here." 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.