World Poetry

Discover the oldest story ever told—now in a powerful new translation that brings ancient Mesopotamia to vivid life. The Epic of Gilgamesh is humanity's first great work of literature, composed more than 4,000 years ago—centuries before Homer, before the Bible, before any written story you know. This is the tale that established the hero's journey, the quest for immortality, and the profound reckoning with what it means to be human and mortal. Gilgamesh is the mighty King of Uruk: two-thirds god, one-third man, blessed with superhuman strength and cursed with a restless heart. He is a ...

From modern literature to menopause, from utopian thought to rodeos—in this classic collection of essays, Ursula K. Le Guin roves with her customary audacity over the intersecting arenas of literature, feminism, and social responsibility, exploding any received notions she comes across and...

The great epic of Western literature, translated by the acclaimed classicist Robert Fagles Soon to be a major motion picture directed by Christopher Nolan Robert Fagles, winner of the PEN/Ralph Manheim Medal for Translation and a 1996 Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts...

From the mountains of Connemara to friendly pub conversations, John O’Donohue had the ability to make the most numinous questions personal. Walking in Wonder: Eternal Wisdom for the Modern World shows that even though this beloved poet and philosopher is no longer among us, his words still...

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.

From world poet laureate Daisaku Ikeda is a collection of twenty-two inspiring and rejuvenating poems. Hope Is Life’s Treasure and Other Poems includes compositions that reflect on themes such as courage, hope, and the limitless potential within each of us.

From New York Times bestselling author Ross Gay comes an intimate and electrifying collection of essays about the joy that comes from connection. In these gorgeously written and timely pieces, prizewinning poet and author Ross Gay considers the joy we incite when we care for each other...

In the tumult of our contemporary moment, poetry has emerged as an inviting, consoling outlet with a unique power to move and connect us, to inspire fury, tears, joy, laughter, and surprise. This generous anthology pairs fifty illuminating poems with poet and podcast host Pádraig Ó Tuama's appealing, unhurried reflections. With keen insight and warm personal anecdotes, Ó Tuama considers each poem's artistry and explores how its meaning can reach into our own lives.

A rich and varied collection of contemporary short stories, extracts from novels, and poetry that will go a long way toward informing the English-speaking world of the latest developments in Iranian literature. This sampling - or to use the Farsi term golchine, a bouquet - provides a window onto an important but sorely neglected segment of world culture. We hope it will also serve to awaken further interest in the work and in translations of Iranian novelists and poets.

"Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I'll meet you there." Rumi wrote that eight hundred years ago. People still whisper it to themselves in hospital waiting rooms, on park benches after arguments, at 2am when sleep won't come. His words keep finding the people who need them, the way a song finds you when you need it. If a line of his has ever stopped you mid-breath, then Rumi has already begun his work in you. This collection is where you go to hear the rest. Twenty hours. His complete major works.

“[A] brave and heartfelt book of truths.”—New York Times Book Review (A Group Text Pick and Editors' Choice) A Boston.com Book Club Pick! From bestselling author Laura Zigman comes a heartfelt novel about two offbeat and newly divorced sisters who move in together as adults—and finally...

In this "wise and wondrous" (David Quammen) exploration, a science writer reintroduces readers to The Snake, encouraging our initial reaction to the slithery creature to be one of awe rather than disgust. For millennia, depictions of snakes as alternatively beautiful and menacing creatures have...

What happens when a nomadic tribe rises from the steppes of Asia to rule over three continents for more than six centuries? The Ottoman Empire was more than just a dynasty of sultans and battles—it was a civilization that shaped the course of history. From the fall of Constantinople to the height of Suleiman’s reign, from the might of the Janissaries to the struggles of the 19th century, this empire’s story is one of ambition, triumph, resilience, and eventual decline. The Rise and Fall of the Ottoman Empire: How a Nomadic Tribe Transformed the Middle East, Europe, and Beyond takes ...

Seamus Heaney Explained: Poetry of Place, Irish Identity, Memory, Language, Violence, Nature, History, and the Search for Meaning in a Changing World Discover the life, work, and enduring legacy of one of the most celebrated poets of the twentieth century. Seamus Heaney Explained offers a deeply engaging exploration of Heaney’s major ideas, tracing how his poetry transforms the everyday world of land, labor, and memory into something profound and universal. From his rural upbringing in Northern Ireland to his global influence as a Nobel Prize winning writer, this book reveals how ...

In haunted poems glinting with laughter, Saeed Jones explores the public and private betrayals of life as we know it. With verve, wit, and elegant craft, Jones strips away American artifice in order to reveal the intimate grief of a mourning son and the collective grief bearing down on all of us.

Czeslaw Milosz Explained: Exile, Moral Witness, Poetry of History, Totalitarianism, Faith and Doubt, Memory, Identity, and the Search for Meaning in a Fractured World is a powerful and deeply engaging exploration of one of the twentieth century’s most important literary and philosophical voices. This book brings Milosz's complex ideas to life, guiding readers through his experiences of war, exile, and intellectual resistance while revealing how his poetry and essays continue to speak to modern readers searching for truth and meaning. Spanning themes such as totalitarianism, moral ...

In recent years, our poetic landscape has evolved in profound and exciting ways. So has our planet. Edited and introduced by the twenty-fourth Poet Laureate of the United States, Ada Limon, this book challenges what we think we know about "nature poetry," illuminating the myriad ways our landscapes—both literal and literary—are changing. You Are Here features fifty previously unpublished poems from some of the nation's most accomplished poets, including Joy Harjo, Diane Seuss, Rigoberto González, Jericho Brown, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Paul Tran, and more.

Weaving between the historical, cultural, and personal, award-winning author Philip Hoare reveals a web of creative minds and artistic iconoclasts fired by the wild and revolutionary genius of William Blake. Blake is one of the greatest artists in western history. His art envelops us. He invented a way to put words and images on a page to express his poetry and art in a manner that has never been truly equaled. Even in his own time, his fans and followers were left speechless.

Witness the flowering of genius in exile and triumph. This masterful collection presents the revolutionary works of Alexander Pushkin from 1823 to 1828, capturing the poet at the height of his creative powers during the most transformative period of his career. Journey with Russia's greatest literary voice through years of political exile and artistic awakening, as the promising young rebel of St. Petersburg evolves into the undisputed master of Russian letters. Banished to the empire's southern provinces for his liberal verses, Pushkin transformed personal and political isolation into an ...

This varied, well-chosen selection brings onto one audiobook the best of Dylan Thomas. Here is the legendary recording of "Under Milk Wood", with Richard Burton and Richard Bebb as narrators; but here also are two radio productions he wrote before that great classic, and though interesting in their own right, they show how "Under Milk Wood" grew gradually in his imagination.