English Poetry Literature

African American literature is the body of literature produced in the United States by writers of African descent. It begins with the works of such late 18th-century writers as Phillis Wheatley. Before the high point of enslaved people narratives, African-American literature was dominated by autobiographical spiritual narratives. The genre known as slave narratives in the 19th century were accounts by people who had generally escaped from slavery, about their journeys to freedom and ways they claimed their lives.

The Iliad stands as the blazing cornerstone of all Western storytelling, an ancient epic that captures the violent splendor, tragic heroism, and unbearable human cost of the Trojan War. Attributed to Homer but shaped by generations of oral poets, it plunges listeners directly into the final, furious weeks of a ten-year siege, where gods interfere in mortal affairs, armies clash on the dusty plains beneath Troy’s towering walls, and the fate of empires turns on the choices of men driven by pride, rage, love, and grief.

A collection of the finest work of one of America's best-loved poets. Despite Dickinson's prolific writing, fewer than a dozen of her poems were published during her lifetime. Critics now consider Dickinson to be a major American poet. Read by Julie Harris.

These have been called the most famous and beloved letters of the past century. Rainer Maria Rilke himself said that much of his creative expression went into his correspondence, and here he touches upon a wide range of subjects that will interest writers, artists, and thinkers. This luminous translation of Rainer Maria Rilke's classic offers brilliant inspiration to all people who seek to know and express their inner truth.

In 2007, when a new edition of the Oxford Junior Dictionary - widely used in schools around the world - was published, a sharp-eyed reader soon noticed that around 40 common words concerning nature had been dropped. Apparently they were no longer being used enough by children to merit their place in the dictionary. Ten years later, Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris set out to make a “spell book” that will conjure back 20 of these lost words and the beings they name, from acorn to wren.

A collection of Christina Rossetti's finest poetry including Goblin Market.

When words of love do not come to you on their own, then listen to these letters. Complete, actual love letters of great men like Lord Byron, John Keats, and Voltaire. Leaders like Henry VIII, George Washington, and Napoléon, who wrote to his beloved Joséphine, "I awake consumed with thoughts of you...." Artists like van Gogh, Mozart, and Beethoven, who famously penned, "Though still in bed, my thoughts go out to you, my Immortal Beloved...."

Seeds Planted in Concrete is Bianca Sparacino's raw testament to the beauty that is found within the contrasts of life. Speaking truthfully about the intricacies of both love and loss, Sparacino's first collection of work will speak to the very depths of those who hear it, inspiring a will to love and live. This collection is a manifesto of the journey every human being takes throughout life - an assembly of words that celebrates the resilience of the human heart through stages of hurting, feeling, healing, and loving.

Edgar Allan Poe was one of the greatest lyric poets of the English language. But his early work as a writer went unrecognized, and he was forced to earn his living in the newspaper business, working as an editor in Richmond, Philadelphia, and New York. Although he was respected as a literary critic, his poetry and short stories were neglected until the publication of The Raven and Other Poems in 1845, which propelled him to instant fame.

Jay Semko, a poet and songwriter from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, is an award-winning solo recording artist and music composer for film and television. He is best known for his work as bassist/vocalist with the band "The Northern Pikes" and has been acclaimed worldwide for his music composition on the syndicated TV series "Due South.” In his book, “The Poetry and Lyrics of Jay Semko,” Jay openly shares his personal experiences with mental health, addiction challenges, recovery, bipolar disorder, faith, spirituality, love, relationships, and the abstract realm.

After the bestselling I Wish I Knew, Donna Ashworth has now produced an extraordinary three-volume collection of poems that will touch and inspire every listener in the ups and downs we all face in love, in life and in loss. These brilliantly accessible poems bring delight, comfort and strength in the height of romance, the darkness of grief and the endlessly unpredictable moments in between.

After a painting triggers strange memories, Ben Martin comes to Paradise, Pennsylvania, in search of answers. Although Annie and this enchanting outsider are from different worlds, she wonders why Ben's kindness seems so familiar and his presence so calming to her - and to the troubled husband of her best friend.

In this middle grade novel-in-verse by the Newbery Medal-winning and Coretta Scott King Honor Award-winning author of The Crossover, soccer, family, love, and friendship take center stage as 12-year-old Nick learns the power of words when he wrestles with problems at home, stands up to a bully, and tries to impress the girl of his dreams. Helping him along are his best friend and sometimes teammate, Coby; and The Mac, a rapping librarian who gives Nick inspiring books to read.

One of the finest German medieval epic poems, The Lay of the Nibelungs is perhaps best known now as one of the principal sources for Wagner’s four-part music drama The Ring of the Nibelung. It is easy to see how Wagner was enthralled by the story and the poetry for the power of the tale drives the narrative: intense love, loyalty, jealousy, murder, duty, honour and massacre are all interwoven into a classic.

“The poet is endemic with life itself,” Will Alexander once said, and in this searing pas de trois, Refractive Africa: Ballet of the Forgotten, he has exemplified this vital candescence with a transpersonal amplification worthy of the Cambrian explosion. “This being the ballet of the forgotten,” he writes as diasporic witness, “of refracted boundary points as venom.” The volume’s opening poem pays homage to the innovative Nigerian-Yoruban author Amos Tutuola; it ends with an encomium to the modernist Malagasy poet Jean-Joseph Rabearivelo.

This new audiobook features a collection of Service's very best and most beloved verses from his time living in and writing about the Klondike.

A poetic portrait of faith, futility, and the joy of this mortal life. In this astoundingly unique audiobook, best-selling author N. D. Wilson reminds each of us that to truly live, we must recognize that we are dying. Every second we create more of our past. Then, we must see the future. We stand in the now. God says create. Live. Choose. Shape the past. Etch your life in stone, and what you make will be forever.

Everyone knows something of Shakespeare's sonnets, even if only in memorable fragments like "the darling buds of May", or "remembrance of things past", or "the marriage of true minds". For centuries these wonderfully crafted, intense lyrics have stood for something valued about youth, love, and the emotional complexities belonging to that time of life. This new recording presents all 154 of Shakespeare's sonnets, using the New Cambridge Shakespeare texts.

Growing Brave by Donna Ashworth is a powerful collection of wisdom and poetry that inspires strength and courage during life's most challenging moments. This book is a guiding light for anyone seeking to overcome fear and self-doubt, embracing life and love in the process. Perfect for those searching for meaningful gifts for her. Finding strength in vulnerability. Growing Brave, bestselling author Donna Ashworth’s new book, offers a heartening collection of poetry that speaks directly to those feeling lost or overwhelmed.

Part manifesto, part memoir, This Wound Is a World is an invitation to “cut a hole in the sky / to world inside”. Belcourt issues a call to turn to love and sex to understand how Indigenous peoples shoulder their sadness and pain without giving up on the future. His poems upset genre and play with form, scavenging for a decolonial kind of heaven where “everyone is at least a little gay”.