Showing titles in Poetry

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.

Mirabai was a Rajput princess born to the Rathore clan in 1498 in Kudaki, Rajasthan, in northern India. Despite being one of the most significant saints in the Bhakti tradition and an immensely popular Hindu mystic and religious poet, very few facts are actually known about her life including her date of birth. It is clear that her mother died when she was very young and she was greatly influenced by her father, also a worshipper of Krishna. From a young age, Mirabai’s devotion to Krishna was absolute surrender and complete devotion.

Like his great contemporaries, John Keats and Lord Byron, Shelley suffered an untimely death, but still managed to stun the world with a wide-ranging body of work, including poetry, drama, and criticism. His poetry is that of a young man, a lover of nature and fiercely critical of institutionalized corruption, and virtuosic in his use of language and imagery.

Gerard Manley Hopkins is undoubtedly one of the greatest poets in the English language. Under the influence of Cardinal John Henry Newman, Hopkins became a Jesuit priest. Now celebrated as a masterful poet, he inspires people throughout the world with his words and example. Hopkins was not only a brilliant poet but also a deeply spiritual man whose works explored religious themes such as Jesuit spirituality and the presence of God in nature.

Kabir, meaning "Great" and one of the 99 names of God in Arabic, was a mystic and poet, born around 1440 in Varanasi to poor Muslim parents. Another account claims he was the child of a Brahmin widow. He himself said he was "at once the child of Allah and Ram". Kabir grew up learning his father’s craft of weaving and overcame many obstacles to become a disciple of Saint, or Swami, Ramananda, the leading pioneer of the Bhakti movement, which promoted salvation for all.

The Iliad, set 9 years into the Trojan War, tells the story of the wrath of Achilles. The Odyssey tells the story of Odysseus as he wearily travels home from the war. The two epics provide the basis of Greek education and culture in the classical age. They have long remained among the most significant poems of European tradition. Produced here in full cast arrangement and narrated by Rob Goll, one can experience these age-old stories in a brand new way.

Percy Bysshe Shelley was born at Field Place near Horsham, Sussex, England, on August 4th, 1792, and was drowned in the sea off Leghorn on July 8th, 1822, within a month of completing his 30th year. Here, Margaretta Scott reads a selection of his finest work.

Walt Whitman said, "...poetry is the voice of the nation, expressing its deepest concerns, ambitions and longings," which is certainly true of the great classic poetry of America. This wide-ranging anthology, from the earliest poets of the 16th century to the present day, reflects the changing preoccupations and visions of Americans, including Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Edgar Allan Poe, Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, E.E. Cummings, and more.

Marie de France visse nel XII secolo, e di lei si sa pochissimo, solo quello che scrive di se stessa: "Il mio nome è Maria e sono di Francia. Visse probabilmente alla corte di Enrico II d'Inghilterra e di Eleonora d'Aquitania, ed è la più antica narratrice nelle letterature volgari d’Occidente. Questa è una collezione di storie cortesi (originalmente in lingua d’oïl ) – famose novelle d’amore tutte tramandate da canzoni bretoni.

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)

As the Enlightenment movement was gathering strength in the early 18th century, various challenges to established religious faith were launched. In response, a number of celebrated commentators produced defences of religion and morality, and among these was Alexander Pope, who was inspired to write "some pieces on Human Life and Manners." The result was a collection of poems in rhyming couplets, designated "Epistles", which were published in instalments.

Omar Khayyám (1048–1122) was a Persian mathematician, astronomer, and a philosopher who was not known as a poet in his lifetime. Later, a body of quatrains became attached to his name, although not all were his works. These verses lay in obscurity until 1859, when Edward FitzGerald (1809–1883), an English country gentleman, published a free adaptation of this Persian poetry. After its discovery by D. G. Rossetti and others, the verse became extremely popular.

Here are some of the finest poems by Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), a unique voice in American poetry. She is known for her short poems, full of acute observations, and deft use of language. This careful but imaginative selection shows the remarkable variety she produced, despite the miniature nature of her medium.

The 12 Lays of Marie de France offer one of the most striking collections of short narrative poems of the 12th century - two centuries before Chaucer. Written in Anglo-French, they contain beguiling and entertaining stories of love and romance, of chivalry and adventure with sometimes even a magical twist. They are especially unique in early literature by being ascribed to a female poet, Marie de France: in the very first Lay - 'Guigemar' - is the introductory line: ‘Hear my Lords, what Marie says, who does not wish to be forgotten in her time.’ 

One of the great icons of mysticism, by the Persian poet who has captured today’s spiritual audience - now in a first-ever English translation by his premier interpreter. In an intriguing and deeply personal introduction to the exquisitely packaged The Glance, Coleman Barks interprets this love that transcends time, gender, sex, and age. This program features 12 sensational poems enhanced with music to intensify the mystical Rumi experience.

Frederick Lazarus Light's resolve to write a greater Iliad in English than Homer composed in Greek is manifest. This translation impersonates Homeric Greek. It runs with Achilleus and like man-shattering Hector in the shock of arms is resolutely sharp. As unrelenting as sublimity, not yielding lyrically, unprosaically vindicating Homer's vision, the brightest labor has been attempted and is brought over as a consummate attempt.

Li Po (AD 701-762) lived in T'ang Dynasty China, but his influence has spanned the centuries: the pure lyricism of his poems has awed readers in China and Japan for over a millennium, and through Ezra Pound’s translations, Li Po became central to the modernist revolution in the West. However ethereal in spirit, his poems remain grounded in the everyday experience we all share. He wrote 1,200 years ago, half a world away, but in his poems we see our world transformed.

Le Metamorfosi di Ovidio, insieme all'Iliade, l'Odissea e l'Eneide, è il libro più famoso ed importante che ci sia arrivato dall'antichità. Diviso in 15 libri, contiene circa 250 miti che hanno in comune il tema della trasformazione. Molti dei protagonisti di questi miti sono alla base della nostra cultura. Solo per fare qualche esempio: Eco, Narciso, Europa, Medea, Arianna, Pigmalione, Prometeo, Pan, Ermafrodito, Dedalo ed Icaro, Venere ed Adone.

The Georgics was published in 29 BCE, and is the second major work by the Latin poet Virgil. Its a fascinating insight into rural life and farming of the time.

The Völsunga saga is a legendary saga, a late 13th-century poetic rendition in Old Norse of the origin and decline of the Völsung clan (including the story of Sigurd and Brynhild and the destruction of the Burgundians). It is one of the most famous legendary sagas and an example of a "heroic saga" that deals with Germanic heroic legend. The saga covers topics including the quarrel between Sigi and Skaði, a huge family tree of great kings and powerful conquerors and the quest led by Sigmund and Sinfjǫtli to save princess Signý from the evil king Siggeir.