Great Poetry

"In the middle of the road of my life I awoke in a dark wood, where the true way was wholly lost." When you find yourself suddenly without bearings, as Dante Alighieri voiced so well centuries ago, where will you look for guidance? Throughout the ages, teaches David Whyte, the language of poetry...

What is poetry? If music is sound organized in a particular way, poetry is a way of organizing language. It is language made special so that it will be remembered and valued. It does not always work - over the centuries countless thousands of poems have been forgotten. This little history is about some that have not. John Carey tells the stories behind the world’s greatest poems, from the oldest surviving one written nearly four thousand years ago to those being written today. Carey looks at poets whose works shape our views of the world.

An anthology of over 50 classic poems, read by some of our finest actors. This collection contains a selection of the very best poems, from verses inspired by love to war poetry, nature poems and children's rhymes.

With a dynamic spirit, these great English poets made a conscious return to nostalgia and spiritual depth. Each chose a different path, but they are united in a love of moods, impressions, scenes, stories, sights and sounds. In this collection of more than forty poems are some of the finest and most memorable works in the English language.

From the New York Times bestselling author of A Long Strange Trip and the publicist of the Grateful Dead, a riveting social history of everything that led up to the 1960s counterculture movement. Few cities represent the countercultural movement of the 1960s more than San Francisco. By that...

Ryokan (1758–1831) is, along with Dogen and Hakuin, one of the three giants of Zen in Japan. But unlike his two renowned colleagues, Ryokan was a societal dropout, living mostly as a hermit and a beggar. He was never head of a monastery or temple. He liked playing with children. He had no dharma heir. Even so, people recognized the depth of his realization, and he was sought out by people of all walks of life for the teaching to be experienced in just being around him.

The 200th anniversary of the birth of Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809 - 1892), one of the most popular of poets, is celebrated in 2009. Works such as The Charge of the Light Brigade, Crossing the Bar and Tears, Idle Tears have made him an internationally famous figure, and the second most quoted writer of all time (after Shakespeare).

“Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore, While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door. "'Tis some visitor," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door - Only this, and nothing more." Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December, And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor. Eagerly I wished the morrow; vainly I had tried to borrow From my books surcease of sorrow - sorrow for the lost Lenore - For the rare and ...

What if one land held the story of empire, faith, poetry, and power, all at once? From the first kings who ruled the ancient world to the modern struggles shaping global politics, Iran is not just a country—it is a civilization that has never stopped evolving. This gripping, fast-paced history takes you deep into the heart of Persia—where empires rose with breathtaking ambition, poets reshaped the soul of a nation, and revolutions changed the course of history. Walk through the gates of Persepolis. Stand beside Cyrus the Great as he builds the first global empire. Witness the rise of ...

This book compiles both the first (1855) and final (1892) versions of Walt Whitman's masterpiece Song of Myself in one volume, making it unique and valuable for students of American literature.

An anthology of over 50 classic children's poems, read by some of our finest actors. Full of fun, excitement, and magic, the poems in this collection are guaranteed to spark the imagination and open up a world of wonder. Favourites from authors such as Edward Lear, Lewis Carroll, and Robert Louis Stevenson are all here, as well as less familiar but nonetheless hugely entertaining poems such as" The Camel's Complaint"and "The Elephant, or The Force of Habit".

"101 Great American Poems" is a thoughtfully curated anthology that brings together a diverse collection of classic American poetry. Spanning over two centuries, the book features works from some of the nation's most celebrated poets, including Edgar Allan Poe, Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, Robert Frost, and Langston Hughes.

An anthology of over 40 classic nature poems, read by some of our finest actors. The majesty of nature has always inspired poets, and this collection contains a selection of the very best verses praising the natural world.

What starts with young Jim Hawkins meeting a beggar and ends in a climactic battle between him and one of the most infamous villains in literature — Long John Silver — has long been revered as the ultimate pirate adventure story. This non - dramatized classic will sweep you off to a world of sly and savvy seafarers as the young Hawkins navigates treachery, assassination and the ominous prophecy of the black spot in the greatest treasure hunt known to literature.

Beloved and trailblazing author Judy Blume comes to life in this poetic picture book about her childhood. Judy Blume is known for fearlessly discussing topics that were once considered taboo. As a young girl, Judy was not encouraged to share her feelings, so instead she invented stories as a way...

Elliott Gould, Burt Reynolds, Meryl Streep, and a host of other celebrities read over 100 poems by four of America's greatest poets. Walt Whitman celebrates the brash and rugged individualism of his country in exuberant language. The spare, precise language of Emily Dickinson conveys her penetrating vision of the natural world and an acute understanding of the most profound human truths.

The 250th anniversary of the birth of Robert Burns (1759 - 1796), one of the most popular of poets, was celebrated in 2009. A pioneer of the Romantic movement, works such as "A Red, Red Rose", "A Man’s a Man for a’ That", and the ubiquitous "Auld Lang Syne", have made him an international figure. Naxos AudioBooks’ popular Great Poets series marked the anniversary with this audio, bringing together all the key works.

John Keats was largely unappreciated during his lifetime and died in Rome at the age of 26. Most of his 150 poems were written in just nine extraordinary months in 1819. This selection contains some of his finest works, including the principal "Odes", "La Belle Dame Sans Merci", "Old Meg", and "Much Have I Travelled".

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...."

Great Short Poems brings together a remarkable gathering of short poems by some of the most influential poets in the English literary tradition. Spanning more than three centuries—from the Renaissance through the late Victorian era—this collection showcases the power of poetry at its most distilled, where a handful of lines can capture profound emotion, insight, and beauty.