English Poetry Literature

Night Monkey and Day Monkey's worlds are as different as … night and day! What one fears, the other loves, what one understands only confuses the other. But in learning about each other's opposite worlds, they also learn to be the best of friends. Boisterous and rhythmic fun from Julia Donaldson, the creator of The Gruffalo. Read by Imelda Staunton.

Over the years, and through the release of more than a dozen studio albums, Leonard Cohen gained a reputation as a dazzlingly literate and consistently daring songwriter. His status as a cult artist grew and solidified, all over the world. Now, Stranger Music brings together, for the first time in one volume, a generous selection of Leonard Cohen's song lyrics and poetry. Stranger Music reveals the range and depth of Cohen's work. It is a long-overdue celebration of his extraordinary gift for language that speaks with rare clarity, passion, and timelessness.

Paradise Lost is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton (1608–1674). The first version, published in 1667, consists of ten books with over ten thousand lines of verse. A second edition followed in 1674, arranged into twelve books (in the manner of Virgil's Aeneid) with minor revisions throughout. It is considered by critics to be Milton's major work, and it helped solidify his reputation as one of the greatest English poets of his time.

The largest collection of poetry ever assembled in English by “the most important Spanish-language writer since Cervantes” (Mario Vargas Llosa) A Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition with flaps and deckle-edged paper Though universally acclaimed for his dazzling fictions, Jorge Luis Borges...

Through rendering of Rumi’s poems and stories, Coleman Barks has established himself as perhaps the leading voice for Rumi’s work. His warm and sensitive reading combines with the world-renowned musicianship of Hamza El Din and Steve Coughlin to create an enthralling listening experience.

This collection of Japanese poetry was compiled and translated into English from an anthology known as The Collection of Myriad Leaves, and from a number of other anthologies made by imperial decree between the tenth and fifteenth centuries. This period has come to be considered the golden age of Japanese literature. These examples of Japanese poetry exhibit the most exquisite polish, allied with an avoidance of every shocking or perturbing theme; they combine the enduring luster of a precious metal with the tenuity of gold-leaf.

Even if you’ve never heard his name, you’ve probably met someone with his words tattooed on their skin or heard them sung at a music concert. Atticus, the anonymous young New York Times bestselling author, has taken the world by storm with his beautiful poetry and powerful, simple themes of love and strength of the human spirit. His fourth poetry collection, LVOE., is a study into himself. Using his instantly recognizable lyrical style and relatable themes, Atticus will once again dazzle listeners, inspiring them to also look within.

In her heartfelt second poetry collection, Sophia Thakur takes us on an emotionally charged journey through the lives of women in the past and considers what it means to be a woman today. Exploring topics such as identity, race, politics, mental health, and self-love, she weaves together the voices of a grandmother, mother, and daughter and examines how previous generations have given us the freedom to speak out.

In 1945, the great American poet Ezra Pound was deemed insane. He was due to stand trial for treason for his fascist broadcasts in Italy during the war. Instead, he escaped a possible death sentence and was held at St. Elizabeths Hospital for the insane for more than a decade. While there, his visitors included the stars of modern poetry: T. S. Eliot, Elizabeth Bishop, Charles Olson, and William Carlos Williams, among others. They would sit with Pound on the hospital grounds and discuss everything from literary gossip to past escapades.

Following the success of several recent inspirational and practical books for would-be writers, Poemcrazy is a perfect guide for everyone who ever wanted to write a poem but was afraid to try. Writing workshop leader Susan Wooldridge shows how to think, use one's senses, and practice exercises that will make poems more likely to happen.

Titled Smokes and Whiskey, the book is a collection of 42 poems on relationships, the ups and downs that come along with it, falling apart like rubble, but then finding oneself, gathering that strength back and building yourself up, back from that same rubble. I hope that this book makes everyone feel what I felt while writing it, and that love is a universal thing, and my story is not unique. And I hope that this makes them see that there is a beyond and that they can come out happy and clean.

Painter and writer Calef Brown pours his boundless creative energy into his poetry. In Flamingos on the Roof, Brown crafts 29 nonsense poems conjuring mythic and contemporary images of everything from gatorflies to light-bulb-topped birthday cakes. Kids will revel in the lively wordplay, while parents and teachers will recognize the value in teaching kids alliterative and assonant sounds.

Kate Coombs’ children’s books have garnered rave reviews from School Library Journal and been ALA Notable Book selections. Filled with imagery sure to inspire wonder in young listeners, Water Sings Blue is a delightful collection of poems celebrating the beauty of the ocean.

Teenage girls have a lot to say, and poet Betsy Franco shares some of it in this unique work. In both poetry and prose, the young voices here share their thoughts on topics all teens are familiar with—from self-confidence to body image, from sexuality to loneliness, and everything in between.

The Old English epic poem Beowulf, recorded in its original Saxon dialect for the first time. Performed by Icelandic poet, playwright, professional storyteller and performer Svanur Thorkelsson, Audible’s production gives listeners the opportunity to experience how it might have felt to hear bards recite sections of the 3000-line poem from memory in Anglo Saxon dining halls. Audible’s Beowulf recaptures the heroic style and vast scale of what can be considered ‘England’s first native audiobook’.

Bhaskar Chakrabarti’s poetry is synonymous with the romantic melancholia inherent to Calcutta. His trenchant poetic voice was one of the most significant to emerge in the 1960s and ’70s—perhaps the most prolific period of modern Bengali poetry.

In the early 1960s, the Hungry Generation revitalized Bengali poetry in Calcutta, liberating it from the fetters of scholarship and the fog of punditry and freeing it to explore new forms, language, and subjects. Shakti Chattopadhyay was a cofounder of the movement, and his poems remain vibrant and surprising more than a half century later. In his ‘urban pastoral’ lines, we encounter street colloquialisms alongside high diction, a combination that at the time was unprecedented.

In the days of Samuel, Israel’s worst enemy is the Philistines: bloodthirsty worshippers of Dagon the fish god. Goliath is but one member of an elite warrior cult of six giants, The Sons of Rapha, whose sole ambition is to kill the promised messiah king of Israel. As David rises, he must flee the demon-possessed King Saul, avoid assassination, withstand the seduction of a Philistine queen, conquer the last of the giants in Israel and overcome his own weakness for many wives.

A collection of poetry that takes one on a trip through the emotional growth of the human spirit, When I Was Not Myself covers the sorrow, joy, grief, and confusion that comes from being human.

In Wade in the Water, Tracy K. Smith boldly ties America's contemporary moment both to our nation's fraught founding history and to a sense of the spirit, the everlasting. These are poems of sliding scale: some capture a flicker of song or memory; some collage an array of documents and voices; and some push past the known world into the haunted, the holy. Smith's signature voice - inquisitive, lyrical, and wry - turns over what it means to be a citizen, a mother, and an artist in a culture arbitrated by wealth, men, and violence.