Classic Poetry

Award-winning narrator and internationally acclaimed writer/comedienne Alison Larkin brings depth and wit to this rich, hugely entertaining audio production of Jane Austen's last two great novels Northanger Abbey and Persuasion. The novels are followed by The History of England, a short satirical piece in which the teenage Austen writes about the kings and queens of England with less respect (and more wit) than any British newspaper, and Poems, a selection of lesser known, mostly comic verses that Austen wrote to entertain family and friends.

Juanita di Perli was a young woman when she decided to live the rest of her life on a table-top. She called it God's will, but for the order of nuns that sprang up around her, Juanita's devotion was a curse. For decades they did the bidding of the holy grouch, and the entire island of San Juan el Pirata sighed with relief when she died. Twenty years later, the islanders fight for Juanita's canonization - not because they liked her, but because a local saint would be a tourist boon. The only thing keeping the island poor is the Archduke, who refuses to ask Rome to consider Juanita for sainthood.

The "Aeneid" is a Latin epic poem, written by Virgil between 29 and 19 BC, that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Trojan who travelled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Romans. It is composed of 9,896 lines in dactylic hexameter. The first six of the poem's 12 books tell the story of Aeneas's wanderings from Troy to Italy, and the poem's second half tells of the Trojans' ultimately victorious war upon the Latins, under whose name Aeneas and his Trojan followers are destined to be subsumed.

Von einer sicheren Deckung im Gebirgshang suchen zwei Kommandeure einer bewaffneten Partisaneneinheit durch den Feldstecher ein Dorf über dem Lago Maggiore ab. Zwischen den Hütten finden sie schließlich die Frau, die sie beide lieben - in der Gewalt der SS. Aber die beiden haben einen Befehl: sich zu schonen für die spätere Herausforderung...

Paradiso (Italian: [paraˈdiːzo]; Italian for "Paradise" or "Heaven") is the third and final part of Dante's Divine Comedy, following the Inferno and the Purgatorio. It is an allegory telling of Dante's journey through Heaven, guided by Beatrice, who symbolises theology.

Poems inspired by the strong women in award-winning poet Amit Majmudar’s life, celebrating the influence and energy of the ones who nurtured him, loved him, and made possible his journey as person and poet This marvelous collection opens with the practical wisdom and unforgettable wit of the...

America’s beloved Julia Alvarez returns to her first form, poetry, in her latest collection, with scintillating poems drawn from across her life like stars from the sky. As I approach the closing stanzas of a long life practicing my craft, I feel the need to collect the many loose poems I've...

Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Carl Dennis explores the expansiveness and complexity of universal virtues within the realm of the everyday in this thought-provoking new collection Though most of the virtues that interest Carl Dennis in Earthly Virtues have traditional names, they are provided with...

From an award-winning poet praised for his “rhapsodic, rigorous” work (The New Yorker) comes an immersive meditation on kindship, collectivity, and environmental thought We (The People of The United States) is a book-length poem made to the measure of the modern world. Composed of 55...

After storming the scene with Stereo(TYPE), the PEN America Award–winning poet makes his highly anticipated return—with a virtuosic sophomore collection that plunges the reader into the tenebrous realm between dreams and reality and firmly establishes him as an essential voice in American...

A delightful account of the seasons in a house and its garden near the sea, a domestic idyll of hardy plants and neighbors, outer and inner weather, love and loss, and taking stock of the life we’ve made The delicious long-form poem “The Vineyard” is set in and around the quasi-fictional...

Parzival is a medieval epic poem written by the knight-poet Wolfram von Eschenbach. It is divided into 16 books, each composed of several 30-line stanzas of rhyming couplets. Regarded as one of the literary masterpieces of the Middle Ages, the romantic poem commonly dated to the early part of the 13th century. The verse narrative focuses on the Arthurian hero Parzival and his long quest for the Holy Grail after his initial failure to achieve it.

Most of the great Greek stories and epic tales are initiated over women, which is exactly what happens in the very beginning of The Iliad by Homer. The Trojan War has been waging for nearly a decade, and really erupted when Helen, the wife to Menelaos, was kidnapped and thus launched the "thousand ships" in pursuit of her. This is the reason that the Achaians and the Trojans have been fighting each other for so long. Achilles, who has become hero to the Greeks, is given the present of a slave girl for his excellence in battle.

The Iliad is an epic Greek poem written by philosopher Homer, and is considered one of the oldest pieces of western literature still in existence. The story takes place during the last weeks of the 10-year Trojan War, with a focus on the quarrels between King Agamemnon and the legendary warrior Achilles. However, this tale's most famous scene is when the Greek's give a gift to the Trojans of a large wooden horse, but one that is filled with soldiers, that allows the Greeks to infiltrate the high walls of the city of Troy.

Die "Metamorphosen" - Verwandlungsgeschichten - des Publius Ovidius Naso gehören zum Grundbestand abendländischer Kultur...

Wolfram von Eschenbach, a knight and a poet from 13th century Germany, is the author of this Arthurian romance. Parzival is the revival and completion of a narrative left incomplete by its initiator Chrétien de Troyes. It follows Parzival from his boyhood and career as a knight at the court of King Arthur to his ultimate achievement as King of the Temple of the Grail. This is both a tale of chivalry, and an epic quest for spiritual insight, as the hero Parzival must overcome his pride, and learn to be humble before he can finally win the Holy Grail.

American poet, critic, and short-story writer Edgar Allan Poe is universally recognized for his cultivation of the macabre in fiction. His stories are characterized by an original kind of supernatural horror, often using the awareness of death as a catalyzing force in its own right. His tales and poems brim with psychological depth and intense imagery, made vivid through his musical language and hypnotic rhythms, which are especially captivating when heard aloud.

"Poets live the lives all of us live," says Bill Moyers, "with one big difference. They have the power--the power of the word--to create a world of thoughts and emotions other can share. We only have to learn to listen." In a series of fascinating conversations with thirty-four American poets...

The most famous of the three canticles that compose The Divine Comedy, "Inferno" describes Dante's descent into Hell midway through his life, with Virgil as a guide. As he descends through nine concentric circles of increasingly agonizing torture, Dante encounters doomed souls that include the pagan Aeneas, the liar Odysseus, the suicidal Cleopatra, and his own political enemies, damned for their deceit.

Widely known as the master of horror, Edgar Allan Poe has held the world enraptured for more than 150 years with his dark and powerful works. This collection will sweep you away into a world of literary brilliance.