Classic English Style

When sleep was at its deepest, night at its blackest, up from the mist-filled marsh came Grendel stalking. Thus begins the battle between good and evil, for lying in wait and anxious to challenge the ogre Grendel is a young man, strong-willed and fire-hearted. This man is Beowulf, whose heroic dragon-slaying deeds were sung in the courts of Anglo-Saxon England more than a thousand years ago.

The Merchant of Venice (by William Shakespeare) starring David Serero as Shylock. Adapted in a Jewish Sephardi style.

Paradise (Paradiso) is the third canticle of Dante Alighieri's world-renowned narrative poem describing the poet's journey through the realms of the afterlife. Here Dante is guided by his beloved Beatrice through the nine celestial regions of Paradise, leading to the last, Empyrean Heaven, the dwelling place of God and the angels.

This collection was published in 1923 and won the Pulitzer Prize for the author in the following year. It is laid out in three main sections. The first is a lengthy poem, titled New Hampshire, the name being given to the entire collection. The second section bears the title "Notes", and consists of 14 poems, including the mini drama, "The Witch of Coös". The final section, which contains 30 poems, many of which are very short, is titled "Grace Notes."

Peter Hartley wrote the poems in this book in a little over a year but they represent many of the joys and some of the sorrows of a lifetime. They reflect a love of Labrador retrievers and penguins, cryptic crosswords, mountains and travel, wild and lonely places, the poetry of Hopkins, baroque music (especially Handel), a dislike for most modern art and architecture, and an extremely odd attitude towards cats. While nearing completion the author’s partner was struck down by motor neuron disease.

Paradiso is the third and final part of The Divine Comedy, Dante's epic poem describing man's progress from hell to salvation. In it, the author progresses through nine concentric spheres of heaven. Corresponding with medieval astronomy, the Moon, Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn deal with the four cardinal virtues Prudence, Fortitude, Justice, and Temperance. The remaining two spheres are the fixed stars and the Primum Mobile, containing the purely virtuous and the angels, followed by the Empyrean, or God itself.

"Ex Oblivione" is a prose poem by American horror fiction writer H. P. Lovecraft, written in late 1920 or early 1921 and first published in The United Amateur in March 1921, under the pseudonym Ward Phillips. It is written in first person and tells of the dreams of a presumably dying man. In his dreams, the man is walking through a valley and encounters a vine-covered wall with a locked bronze gate therein. He longs to know what lies beyond the gate.

In this haunting poem, a guest on his way to a wedding reception is stopped by the Ancient Mariner. With his "glittering eye" he transfixes the guest and then relates a compelling tale of a sea voyage fraught with strange happenings. The Mariner tells of journeying through tyrannous storms to ice mast-high, through mist and snow to the deadly inertia of the doldrums. There are unearthly visitations, ill omens, and supernatural happenings - all leading to the revelation of the Mariner's strange fate.

The Iliad of Homer is the earliest work of European literature that we have. Created in the eighth century BC it has continued to arouse interest for over 2000 years. The author intended it to be heard, as delivered by a bard or rhapsode who had made the presentation of Greek epic poetry his profession, and who had command of the vocal resources and the dramatic power to move his audience.

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.

This is a story from the Chilling Ghost Stories collection. The Raven, by Edgar Allan Poe, tells of a talking raven's mysterious visit to a distraught lover, tracing the man's slow fall into madness. First published in January 1845, the poem is often noted for its musicality, stylized language, and supernatural atmosphere.

Perhaps Poe's most famous work, "The Raven" was first published in 1845 in the New York Evening Mirror. Known for its tight rhymes and rhythm and the repetitive response given by the eponymous raven - "nevermore" - the poem focuses on that raven and a forlorn man who is distraught over his lost lover, Lenore.

Book four of Vergil's Aeneid follows the tragic love and death of Dido, Queen of Carthage—an unfortunate casualty in Aeneas' fated quest to find a new home for the Trojans and become a founder of the Romans. This audiobook is narrated in Latin according to the Calabrese Classical Reconstruction, with careful attention to historical features such as phonemic vowel quantities, geminated consonants, and nasalized final m.

A collection of classic erotic poetry including "The Kiss", "A Woman Waits for Me", and "Between Your Sheets".

This is a story from the Canterbury Tales II: Modern Verse Translation collection.

Drum-Taps is a collection of poetry written by Walt Whitman during the American Civil War and first published in 1865. Drum-Taps contains poems that bear witness to the violence of war.

Theogony & Works and Days by Hesiod are foundational texts of ancient Greek literature, offering a powerful blend of myth, morality, and early philosophical thought. In Theogony, Hesiod presents the first systematic account of Greek mythology, tracing the origins of the cosmos and the genealogy of the gods—from Chaos and Gaia to Zeus and the Olympian order.

Caliban is a major character in The Tempest by Shakespeare. He is a deformed monster, the offspring of Sycrorax, a witch. Prospero, a magician who presides over the island where Caliban dwells, has made him a servant. This galls Caliban's spirit, as he believes himself to be the rightful ruler of the island. Setebos is the deity who was worshipped by Sycorax and is mentioned by Caliban in two scenes.

The Witch of Atlas is a poetic narrative, written in 1820 and published posthumously in 1824. The witch is the daughter of the Pleiades, the seven daughters of Atlas and Pleione. The plot is built around her adventures, during which she creates an androgynous creature, Hermaphroditus, who is both the companion of and the servant to the witch. She plays a series of pranks upon mankind, with the ultimate aim of revealing the essential foolishness of oppression and conflict and enabling the realization of a final Utopia.

"Annabel Lee" tells the story of young love cut short by tragedy. As the speaker (often assumed to be based on Poe himself, whose young wife died shortly before he wrote this poem) discusses his relationship with the now-deceased Annabel Lee, he presents the love between them as pure, eternal, and all-conquering. The love between the speaker and Annabel Lee may have been short-lived, but it remains too powerful to be defeated, even by death. Through describing this intensely idealized love, the poem argues that love is the strongest force on earth.