Showing titles in Biological Sciences

Hours of Idleness was Byron's first book of poems published when he was only 19. In it he experiments with various poetic styles and provides translations of, and poems written in imitation of, earlier mainly classical poets. The book received strong criticism on publication to which Byron responded with his poem English Bards and Scotch Reviewers. (Summary by Alan Mapstone)

An investigation into how zoos fail to protect the animals they work to save. Few places on Earth force us to reckon with the power we wield over the natural world quite like the modern zoo. Yet, for all our handwringing over the Anthropocene, and at a time of unprecedented concern for animals...

The author worked as a dude wrangler Glacier National Park and lived on his ranch near Eureka, Monatana. This is the first book of his poems, which he often recited for the tourists. His other books include, "Giggles from Glacier Guides" and "Mountain Memories." - Summary by Larry Wilson

Siegfried Sassoon was one of the first to write poetry about the brutal reality of war, based on his real-life experiences in the trenches. He served in World War I on the Western Front and was awarded the Military Cross for bravery under fire. However, he later became a convicted pacifist, threw his Military Cross into the Mersey river, and continued to write and publish poems and political statements against the war. His poems capture the despair he felt towards the war overall, and he paints vivid word pictures that make the reader "pray you'll never know, the hell where youth and laughter ...

These are the original, tender and thoughtful poems of a young female artist who lived and died in seventeenth century London -- only 70 years after William Shakespeare. Her diction is readily accessible to listeners after almost 350 years and the subjects on her mind we can imagine on the minds of educated young women today. She writes often of love, broken hearts and the beauty of reason and self-control -- as if she knew the Age of Enlightenment was just around the corner. She also opines intelligently and optimistically on death and the soul although she mentions God seldomly. More ...

From the author's preface: I wished to do something for my country, and chose this method of doing it. The literature of this country is in its infancy. It must not always remain so, or the expectations we have in regard to making it a great nation, will never be fulfilled. Literature gives life to a nation, or rather it is the reflection of a nation's life and thought, in a mirror, which cheers, strengthens and ennobles those who look into it, and study what is there displayed. Literature must grow with our nation, and, when growing, it will aid the latter's progress in no small degree...I ...

Mountain Interval is a 1916 poetry collection written by American writer Robert Frost. It is Frost's third poetic volume and was published by Henry Holt. It was republished in 1920. Frost made several alterations in the sequencing of the collection and released a new edition in 1921. Five lyrics of the earlier collection were compiled next under the title "His Wife". In this volume only three poems are written in dramatic monologue. Summary by Wikipedia

A collection of poems by Madison Cawein. It has been said that his vocation to poetry was irresistible. - Summary by Michele Eaton

The unique poetry of Lewis V.F. Randolph is brilliantly brought to life in this wide-ranging collection of some of his best work. A businessman by profession and poet by avocation, Randolph developed his unique perspective on life from both the practicality of an entrepreneur and the creativity of a writer. This perspective is skillfully enhanced and deftly interpreted in these poems, which illustrate both the poet's quest for meaning, "Ah, life is all so like this turbid stream! / And frowning walls hem our imperilled path", and his carefully considered assertions of worldly sagacity, "But, ...

This second volume of verse by Grace Hazard Conkling -- American poet, author and musician -- ranges in theme from close observations of the natural world to the loss and desolation of World War I. Having taught English for 34 years at Smith College, Conkling remains honored to this day with an annual poetry residency in her name. - Summary by Nemo

Robert Service was born in Lancashire, England, but at age 21 moved to Canada and eventually ended up in the Yukon during the gold rush. His poems "The Shooting of Dan McGrew" and "The Cremation of Sam McGee" helped secure his reputation as the “Bard of the Yukon.” During World War I, Service was an ambulance driver and stretcher bearer for the Red Cross. This volume of poems springs from these experiences during the war. - Summary by Larry Wilson

The superb poetic skill and exquisite sensitivity of John Keats is brilliantly illustrated in this collection of meticulously selected sonnets. Keats had a passion for poetry as he had for life itself. His own life, although cut short at an early age, was one of creativity, productivity and one ornamented with immense poetic skill. His was a life that left an indelible mark of wonder on the world, an enduring legacy, a mark of greatness. Keats would write of his heroes, "How many bards gild the lapses of time!" - other poets and writers whose plight he often lamented, whose talent he always ...

These are three stories that will delight your heart and soul. The little girl Ruth in the first story is very privileged young lady with everything she could wish for except,of course, for companionship. Her mother has passed away and her father is a very busy lawyer who barely notices she is there. But then Ruth finds a scruffy, skinny and mostly ugly cat; the cat who lives in the kitchen and cellars,hence The Kitchen Cat. Her attempts to befriend this stray despite insurmountable obstacles make this story a really heart warming tale. She does eventually find the best kind of companionship ...

John Gould Fletcher (1886 – 1950) is considered by many literary scholars to be among the most innovative twentieth-century poets. He enjoyed an international reputation for much of his long career and earned the Pulitzer Prize in poetry in 1939. Fletcher lived in England from 1909 to 1932 and while in Europe he associated closely with Amy Lowell, Ezra Pound, and other Imagist poets. In addition to being an adherent of Imagism, which used free verse and was dedicated to replacing traditional poetics with new rhythms, concise use of language, and a concrete rather than symbolic treatment of ...

In this collection of short stories by Anthony Trollope: A Viennese musician courts a much younger woman. A young man must choose between pursuing his literary aspirations and supporting his wife and child. Two brothers on opposing sides of the American Civil War compete for the same woman's affections. A man recounts the unfortunate manner he first met his long-time friend. A young woman and a young man argue over the rights to a local cove and its seaweed crop. A bride struggles to find the perfect sacrifice to make to support charity. A Venetian woman falls in love with an Austrian soldier,...

A collection of poetry by the Boston poetess. Sections are nature, love, miscellaneous, sonnets and 'for my nieces and nephews'. - Summary by Lynne Thompson

"Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War" is the first book of poems by the American author Herman Melville. Published in 1866, the volume is dedicated "To the Memory of the Three Hundred Thousand Who in the War For the Maintenance of the Union Fell Devotedly Under the Flag of Their Fathers" (Summary by Alan Mapstone)

Onions wrote several collections of ghost stories, of which the best known is Widdershins (1911). It includes the novella The Beckoning Fair One, widely regarded as one of the best in the genre of horror fiction, especially psychological horror. On the surface, this is a conventional haunted house story: an unsuccessful writer moves into rooms in an otherwise empty house, in the hope that isolation will help his failing creativity. His sensitivity and imagination are enhanced by his seclusion, but his art, his only friend and his sanity are all destroyed in the process. The story can be read ...

Genevieve Taggard was an American poet, teacher and socialist. This collection was first published in 1922 and deals with topics such as personal relationships, nature and independence. - Summary by Newgatenovelist

A mix of short works written by Anna Cora Mowatt Ritchie during her residence in Florence from 1864-65, this collection was edited and prepared for publication by her sister, Mary Thompson, wife of artist, Cephas Giovanni Thompson, after her death. It contains short stories, legends, historical sketches, profiles of noted Italian performers and foreign literati, and even an account of a devastating flood of the Arno that the author witnessed. - Summary by Kelly S. Taylor