English Poetry Literature

Hundreds of people submitted recordings of Shakespeare, Wordsworth, and Roger McGough in an attempt to win a prize: Participation in the recording of this new poetry collection by Christina Hardyment, historian and audiobook reviewer for The Times. This collection covers a wide range of classics by Shakespeare, Keats, Clare, Blake, and others, as well as modern poems by Roger McGough, among others. They are read mainly by the male and female first-prize winners, but also by the runners-up.

Born in Sri Lanka during the Second World War, Ondaatje was sent as a child to school in London, and later moved to Canada. While he has lived here since, these poems reflect the life of a writer, traveller and watcher of the world—describing himself as a “mongrel,” someone born out of diverse cultures. Here, rediscovering the influence of every border crossed, he moves back and forth in time.

Adopting the methodology of the music charts, The Classic Hundred Poems presents the "top 100" poems of all time. The selections are illuminated by the informative notes of editor William Harmon and read by an ensemble of contemporary poets including Alfred Corn and Rita Dove.

Ovid's sensuous and witty poem brings together a dazzling array of mythological tales, ingeniously linked by the idea of transformation, often as a result of love or lust, in which 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.

George wished he wasn't the scruffiest giant in town. So when he sees a new shop selling giant-size clothes, he decides it's time for a new look: smart trousers, smart shirt, stripy tie, shiny shoes. Now he's the smartest giant in town...until he bumps into some animals who desperately need his help - and his clothes! Perfect for listening to at home, in the car, at bedtime - or any time at all!

Know the enemy. Anticipate his attack. Expert linguist Dr. Andrew Farley encounters a device containing thousands of archived files revealing a worldwide spiritual conspiracy. Operation Screwtape is the largest of these files and details the intelligent scheme to steal, kill, and destroy.

The period of English romantic poetry occurred roughly between 1800 and 1850 and was represented by poets such as William Blake, Lord Byron, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, John Keats, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and William Wordsworth. All of these poets are featured in this collection of more than 50 poems read by award-winning actors that include Joan Allen, Julie Christie, Stephen Fry, Glenda Jackson, and Jude Law.

The Chicago Race Riot of 1919, the most intense of the riots comprising the nation's Red Summer, has shaped the last century but is not widely discussed. In 1919, award-winning poet Eve L. Ewing explores the story of this event - which lasted eight days and resulted in 38 deaths and almost 500 injuries - through poems recounting the stories of everyday people trying to survive and thrive in the city. Ewing uses speculative and Afrofuturist lenses to recast history and illuminates the thin line between the past and the present.

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.

According to biographer D. J. Taylor, the young Orwell displayed 'an enthusiasm for poetry that in [his] formative years seems to have been as least as strong as any desire to write fiction'. Orwell's poetry is not among his best known – or most highly praised – work, but nonetheless shares similar concerns to (and displays the dry sense of humour present in) his prose. Mere foothills in the range of Orwell's work perhaps – but building up to the summits later scaled. Contents:. Awake young men of England. The Italian soldier shook my hand. Kitchener. Romance.

The Song of Roland is acknowledged today as the first masterpiece of French vernacular literature and one of the world’s greatest epic poems. Written down around the year 1090, The Song of Roland finely crafted verses tell of the betrayal and defeat of Charlemagne’s beloved nephew at the Pass of Roncevaux in the Pyrenees and of the revenge subsequently sought on his behalf.

How do we find steadiness within ourselves in the midst of dizzying personal and global change? At a time when many of us feel overwhelmed by fear and isolation, Cleo Wade’s Remember Love offers intimate, uplifting words that anchor, nurture, and make us feel less alone. She shares that the heart work we do for ourselves is not done to avoid the tough stuff—periods of lostness, self-doubt, depression, grief, heartbreak, and anxiety.

The Gruffalo is a familiar and much-loved figure in nurseries, schools and homes everywhere. Now he returns in his very own song to offer truly monster music sessions! As well as being the UK's most successful picture book author, Julia Donaldson is a gifted songwriter for children, and this volume contains ten of her best-loved songs, sung by the author herself.

Long before saving the earth became a global concern, Dr. Seuss, speaking through his character the Lorax, warned against mindless progress and the danger it posed to the earth's natural beauty.

This book is a collection of poetry that explores pain, love, and growth through the different phases of the moon: the new, the waxing, the full, and the waning. Each phase takes the listener through the stages of their own life, sparking an inner conversation. Each poem carries within it its own universe and its own whispers to the listener. It is simply planting the seedling of a constellation within all of those willing to taste the moonlight.

Subverting celebrated classics of poetry and mythology and examining horrors from contemporary film and cultural fact, National Book Award-winner Justin Phillip Reed engages darkness as an aesthetic to conjure the revenant animus that lurks beneath the exploited civilities of marginalized people. In these poems, Reed finds agency in the other-than-human identities assigned to those assaulted by savageries of the state. In doing so, he summons a retaliatory, counterviolent black spirit to revolt and to inhabit the revolting.

Here is a massive collection of poems from classics through contemporary, grouped by poetry subject, including: Romance; Inspiration and faith; Lust, betrayal and lost love; Eternity; Growing up and growing old; Children; Ghosts, evil and superstition; Loss and sorrow; Nature; the Human condition; Working; that Make a Statement; Choices; War and Peace; and Writing, art, and poetry.

Virgil's Aeneid, one of the greatest classical poems, tells the story of Aeneas, son of Priam, after the fall of Troy. His quest is to find the site "in the west" where he will found a new town prophesied to be the seat of a world empire: Rome.

Under the order of King Pelias, Jason embarks on a perilous journey to steal the Golden Fleece from the Land of Colchis. Far from heroic, Jason is the typical everyman. Often compared with Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, Jason and the Argonauts is the only surviving poem from the Hellenistic period and was hugely influential on later literature, especially the Roman poetry of Virgil and Ovid.

An anthology of over 50 classic poems, read by some of our finest actors. This collection contains a selection of the very best poems, from verses inspired by love to war poetry, nature poems and children's rhymes.