Classic Poetry

Simon Cliffe reads some of the greatest Christmas poems for the 12 days of Christmas. Day 1 - Merry Christmas by Louise May Alcott. Day 2 - Christ's Nativity by Henry Vaughan. Day 3 - Ceremonies for Christmas by Robert Herrick. Day 4 - New Prince, New Pomp by Robert Southwell. Day 5 - Christmas Cheer by Thomas Tusser. Day 6 - Ring Out, Wild Bells by Lor Alfred Tennyson. Day 7 - The Oxen by Thomas Hardy. Day 8 - Nativity by John Donne. Day 9 - A Christmas Carol by G.K. Chesterton.

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.

"The Charge of The Light Brigade" - written in 1854 by one of the great representative figures of the Victorian age, Lord Alfred Tennyson - celebrates the heroism of a British cavalry unit mistakenly ordered to attack a vastly superior Russian stronghold amidst the Battle of Balaklava during the Crimean War (1853-1856), a military conflict between Russia and a coalition of Great Britain, France, the Kingdom of Sardinia, and the Ottoman Empire.

A collection of recordings written and read by one of the greatest literary and cultural figures of the 20th. The collection is accompanied by a special 64 page booklet containing the poems. Upon the release of his first published work, Howl and Other Poems (1956), Allen Ginsberg became the...

Beloved and acclaimed poet Naomi Shihab Nye is the current Young People’s Poet Laureate, serving until August 2021. This celebratory book collects in one volume her most popular and accessible poems from the past forty years. Featuring new, never-before-published poems, an introduction by...

Everyone's getting the bus but where are they going?

In this classic epic chronicle of the Greek Hero on his travels home from the Trojan War, Odysseus survives storm and shipwreck, the cave of the Cyclops, and the isle of Circe. He withstands the lure of the Sirens’ song and a trip to the Underworld, only to find his most difficult challenge at...

A celebration of love from the author of Ottoline, Poems to Fall in Love With sees Chris Riddell select his very favourite classic and modern poems about love. This beautiful collection explores love in all its guises, from silent admiration through passion to tearful resignation. These poems...

Magnificent in scope, internationally lauded, and transcendent, the novel in verse that inspired the sensational West End and Off-Broadway play of the same name. The Lehman Trilogy follows the epic rise and fall of three generations of that infamous family and through them tells the story of...

Pushkin began writing his first major work, Ruslan and Ludmila (1820), a kind of fairy story in verse, in 1817. It was based on Russian folktales told by his old nurse Arina Rodionovna. "On seashore far a green oak towers/ And to it with a gold chain bound/ A learned cat whiles away the hours/ By walking slowly round and round. To right he walks, and sings a ditty; To left he walks, and tells a tale...." Please note: This audiobook is in Russian.

Jack London was an outstanding American writer, publicist and public figure, the author of numerous adventure stories and tales. Jack London is famous for his short stories and novels, but he also enthusiastically studied poetry and even made an attempt to establish a reputation for himself as a poet.

This Collection of 62 Poems by various authors including William Cowper, Thomas Kelly, Willie Mullan, Robert Murray McCheyne, Charlotte Elliott, George Herbert, Charitie Lees De Chenez and many others, has been brought together in order that these spiritual truths and impressions, presented in poetical form, will comfort and edify God's people as they wrestle daily with the world, the flesh, and the devil.

Since 1998, the Alfred A. Knopf Publishing Group has celebrated National Poetry Month by emailing a poem-a-day throughout the month of April to over 25,000 devoted poetry fans. In April 2006, Knopf introduced the Poem-a-Day podcast, which featured poets including Kevin Young and James Merrill...

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.

В сборник Русская поэзия для детей вошли стихотворения знаменитых русских писателей, которые изучаются в школе по программе для начальных классов.

Here are the most exciting and essential parts of two historic, epic poems: the "Iliad" and the "Odyssey". The ancient words of Homer find a new home in today's world - spoken aloud, just as Homer intended. Translated by Stanley Lombardo.

Educated in Lebanon, United States, and France, Gibran was influenced by the European modernists of the late 19th century, but even more by Francis Marrash, who introduced poetic prose and prose poetry in the Arab world. Gibran's style of writing and ideas he wrote about are believed to have been greatly influenced by Marrash, particularly the concept of universal love.

A paperback original A vibrant collection of the lasting, essential work of the Nobel Prize–winning poet Wislawa Szymborska Wislawa Szymborska’s work is known for its precision, cleverness, deceptive simplicity, and the way the poet plays out domestic and human concerns against the tapestry...

Petronius’ Satyricon is a rampant and vivacious Roman adventure dating back to the first century, during the reign of Nero. It follows the exploits of Encolpius, an impoverished ex-gladiator, and his boy-lover Giton. The action is fleet and the narrative sweeping: over the course of their journey we meet a host of lewd and comical rogues, including beggars, prostitutes, poets, sodomites, and pedants, and witness many strange and curious events, including a remarkably vulgar multi-course feast, hosted by the pompous nouveau riche Trimalchio

“If music be the food of love, play on" was one of Shakespeare’s finest lines. If music is food then poetry is the wine. In this volume of classic love poetry the flavoured capture of words and rhythms makes us think more carefully of words and their value to us. They also surprise us with their structure and meaning, layering in thoughts and emotions that we might otherwise shy away from. Poems are wonderful ways to express what we feel for a very special someone.