Classic Poetry

This program is read by Bradley Whitford, brother of the author and best known for his roles in The West Wing, The Handmaid's Tale, and Get Out. With its playful rhymed verse, this bedtime favorite from author Ann Whitford Paul, If Animals Kissed Good Night, is sure to delight time and again...

"L'Orlando furioso" (1516) è un poema cavalleresco che racconta le avventure del paladino Orlando, innamorato di Angelica, che impazzisce quando scopre che la sua amata ha una relazione con un altro uomo. L'opera ha una trama molto stratificata che si sviluppa sostanzialmente su tre narrazioni principali: quella militare, costituita dalla guerra tra i paladini, difensori della religione cristiana, e i Saraceni infedeli; quella amorosa, incentrata sulla fuga di Angelica e sulla pazzia di Orlando, e infine quella encomiastica, con cui si lodava la grandezza dei duchi d'Este.

The Epic of Gilgamesh is the oldest surviving literary work in the world. The epic poetry describes the ancient King Gilgamesh and his journey to discover the secret to eternal life.

A major new collection from one of our best loved, most celebrated, and most original poets. Deeply personal but also expansive in its imaginative scope, Nouns & Verbs brings together thirty-five years of writing from Campbell McGrath, one of America’s most highly lauded poets. Offering a hint...

The first of Homer's epic poems tells of the counsel of Nestor, Achilles' slaying of Hector, and the defeat of the Trojans by the Greeks.

Milton was to now publish his greatest works, which had been gestating for many years. Paradise Lost, perhaps the classic English epic poem was originally published in 10 books in 1667. This was followed by Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes in 1671. Because of his anti-monarchy views their reception was muted, but over the centuries since, Milton has established himself as second only to Shakespeare. He died of kidney failure on November 8th, 1674, and was buried in the church of St Giles Cripplegate.

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...

"The Iliad" is an epic by the ancient Greek poet Homer, which recounts some of the significant events of the final weeks of the Trojan War and the Greek siege of the city of Troy.

A memoir in verse from one of America's legendary poets In a New York Times review of Alice Notley’s 2007 collection In the Pines, Joel Brouwer wrote that “the radical freshness of Notley’s poems stems not from what they talk about, but how they talk, in a stream-of-consciousness style...

More than 60 stories, poems, and essays are included in this wide-ranging collection by the extravagantly versatile Raymond Carver. Two of the stories - later revised for What We Talk About When We Talk About Love - are particularly notable in that between the first and the final versions, we see clearly the astounding process of Carver's literary development.

Dante’s conception of Purgatory involves principles of comparative awareness and the possibility of change. To course over better waters the little boat / of my imagination raises her sails, / and leaves behind her that sea so cruel. The process of listening to Dante’s Comedy is a journey into not just literature but into the mysteries of human nature and its capacity for unhappiness and happiness, folly and wisdom, rejection and wonder over the miracles of creation and existence.

The Works of Edgar Allan Poe (1809 – 1849), The Raven Edition, presents his complete literary output in five volumes. Although best known for his works of macabre fiction, Poe also had a deep interest in scientific discovery and speculative philosophy. This volume contains stories about wild and wonderful experiments and other objects of public curiosity, and essays about language and thought.

This chilling tale of a gruesome monster unleashed into the world by an unthinking scientist was first conceived by 19-year-old Mary Shelley on a dark, rainy night on Lake Geneva. Lord Byron and Percy Shelley challenged their friends to see who could come up with the most horrifying story imaginable. Mary Shelley did, terrifying them all with her nightmare-inspired tale. It is followed by "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" by Coleridge which was an early haunting influence on the young Mary Shelley.

Robert Browning's intensely romantic love affair with Elizabeth Barrett inspired some of literature's most celebrated verse. His view that love is the key to the meaning of life and life's animating force is evident in these collected poems.

Surviving the Trojan War was just the beginning of the adventure for Odysseus. What lay ahead was a journey home that would last for years as he encountered gods and monsters before finally returning home - only to face the greatest threat to his happiness of all. This translation of Homer's classic tale captures all the timeless excitement and gripping drama that have made it a favorite for centuries.

This insightful look into one of mankind's favorite artists traces the magic and melancholy of Vincent Van Gogh. Out of Vincent's letters to his brother Theo, as collected by Irving Stone, we have selected an exciting and sensitive series of quotations. The quotations in My Life and Love Are One revolve around three themes - love, art, and turmoil. Centered around emotion and creation, Vincent's writing and philosophy is as expressive as his art.

Libidinous, licentious, salacious and very, very funny, The Satyricon is one of the most remarkable documents from ancient Rome. It tells the ribald story of Encolpius, a man of active and varied appetites (powered notably by his passion for his favourite lover, the handsome Giton), who plunges without inhibition into the life of Roman pleasures: orgies of food, feasting, abundant sex and escapades. The kind of hedonism found occasionally in Roman mosaics is here brought to life.

From the Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom, a poem sequence that considers our use of the land that surrounds him, and recounts the personal tales of beauty and loss that play out on it A few years ago, in the poet’s home county of West Yorkshire, the Local Authority began converting a...

Little children need tales and stories, for they play an essential part in their development by awakening their imagination, introducing them to symbolic imagery, and bringing forth emotions in a healthy, constructive way. Our audiobook collection brings together the fairy tales, stories, myths and legends, which have fed the imagination of children of many generations in the years when the imagination is awakening and craving stimulus and material to work upon.

From award-winning poet and novelist Phillip B. Williams, an astonishing new collection that revels in the possibility of creating one's own light Captivating for both its grandeur and intimacy, Lift Every Voice explores the capacity for the past to be both a source of dread and empowerment, an...