Showing titles in Poetry

This collection contains poems Elizabeth Browning wrote in her early days as well as the last poems she wrote before her death at 55: ballads, religious, social-reforming, and political verse. Included are: "The Dream," "The Image of God," and "The Tempest."

The Kalevala is a 19th-century work of epic poetry compiled by Elias Lönnrot from Karelian and Finnish oral folklore and mythology. The Kalevala was instrumental in the development of the Finnish national identity and the sense of nationality that led to Finland's independence from Russia in 1917. Beginning with the traditional Finnish creation myth, the Kalevala branches out into stories of the creation of the earth, plants, creatures, and the sky. There are many stories of, romance, kidnapping, seduction, and magical spell casting and singing.

Enheduanna, also known as En-hedu-ana or Enheduana, is widely regarded as the world's first known author and poet, as well as one of the earliest recorded female figures in history. She lived in ancient Mesopotamia during the 23rd century BCE, and held the esteemed position of high priestess in the city of Ur, which was a thriving center of Sumerian civilization.

Fille de Minos et de Pasiphaé, Phèdre lutte en vain contre la passion qu'elle éprouve pour Hippolyte, le fils de Thésée dont elle est l'épouse.

The Nature of Things was written in the 1st century BC by Roman polymath Lucretius. It is written as a didactic poem, and explains Epicurean physics.

Warrior-prince Rama is about to be crowned Young King, when he hears the devastating news that his father, king of Ayodhya, has been tricked into banishing him to the forest. His devoted wife, Sita, insists on accompanying him in exile, but the evil 10-headed Lord Ravana has fallen deeply in love with the beautiful princess and steals her away. Aided by Hanuman, mighty captain of the monkeys, Rama sets out across the world to find her and destroy Ravana in a deadly battle.

The Iliad of Homer is the earliest work of European literature that we have. Created in the eighth century BC it has continued to arouse interest for over 2000 years. The author intended it to be heard, as delivered by a bard or rhapsode who had made the presentation of Greek epic poetry his profession, and who had command of the vocal resources and the dramatic power to move his audience.

Marie de France visse nel XII secolo, e di lei si sa pochissimo, solo quello che scrive di se stessa: "Il mio nome è Maria e sono di Francia. Visse probabilmente alla corte di Enrico II d'Inghilterra e di Eleonora d'Aquitania, ed è la più antica narratrice nelle letterature volgari d’Occidente. Questa è una collezione di storie cortesi (originalmente in lingua d’oïl ) – famose novelle d’amore tutte tramandate da canzoni bretoni.

Award-winning narrator Mike Vendetti recites "Sonnet 18" by William Shakespeare.

C'est un classique et pourtant cette célèbre pièce de Molière reflète bien le monde actuel. Dans une société où la compromission est indispensable au respect de l'ordre social, Alceste, le misanthrope, ne peut trouver sa place.

Here are some of the finest poems by Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), a unique voice in American poetry. She is known for her short poems, full of acute observations, and deft use of language. This careful but imaginative selection shows the remarkable variety she produced, despite the miniature nature of her medium.

Francesco Petrarch’s Canzoniere (translated in English as ‘Scattered Rhymes’) is a collection of 14th century poems famed for their exploration of love, grief, spirituality and nature. Peter Thornton's accessible new translation brings Petrarch to the 21st century in direct, rhymed, English verse - for academics and poetry enthusiasts alike.

Les "Illuminations" ont été publiées en 1886, sous forme de feuilletons, dans la revue "La Vogue". Rimbaud a remis ces poèmes à Verlaine lors de leur rencontre à Stuttgart en mars 1875. C'est Verlaine qui s'est occupé de publier ces vers. Il y insère une préface dans laquelle il annonce que ces "ornementations colorées" se composent de "prose exquise ou vers délicieusement faux exprès".

A BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation of Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde by poet and writer Lavinia Greenlaw.

One of the great works of English literature, this powerful, compelling story explores love from its first tentative beginnings through to passionate sensuality and eventual tragic disillusionment. Lavinia Greenlaw's new version for radio brings Chaucer's language up-to-date for a modern audience while remaining true to his original poetic intention.

Alongside Baudelaire, Mallarmé, and Rimbaud, with whom he had a stormy relationship, Paul Verlaine is one of the most influential poets of the "fin de siècle". He was one of the greatest representatives of the Decadent movement that began in the 1870s, and a leader of the "Symbolists". His stylistic innovations brought a new musicality to French poetry; it was he who paved the way for modern poetry with its experiments in free verse and new techniques.

The great poetic tradition of pre-Christian Scandinavia is known to us almost exclusively though the Prose Edda, a collection of narrative literature, and its companion, the Poetic Edda. The poems originated in Iceland, Norway, and Greenland between the ninth and 13th centuries, when they were compiled in a unique manuscript known as the Codex Regius. The poems are primarily lyrical rather than narrative.

This collection of 35 poems is a sequel to a volume of lyrical ballads first published in 1798. While the first volume was a collaboration between Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, this anthology contains verses by Wordsworth only. Generally, the poems are less well-known than those of the earlier volume but do include major narrative pieces, like "The Pastoral Epics", "The Brothers", and "Michael".

Victor Hugo is one of the best-known French writers, and one of the greatest literary figures of all time. His poetry made him famous very early, cementing his reputation as one of the greatest lyric poets when he was only 20 years old. We have selected for you 28 of his most well-known and powerful poems, mostly from the immortal Autumn Leaves and Contemplations. They are, in order: Childhood; Death in Life; Epitaph; Have you nothing to say for yourself; How Butterflies are born; I am content; Inscription for a crucifix; Satire on the Earth; St John; etc.

The poems in this collection, "Fairies and Fusiliers", appeared in 1918, after Robert Graves returned from World War I in his early 20s. The fairy poems are from the carefree happy days of childhood and make-believe recalled by a man who has lived the reality and horror of war. The poems of war are written only as one who has witnessed it can tell them.

Vis and Ramin is one of the world's great love stories. It was the first major Persian romance, written between 1050 and 1055 in rhyming couplets. This remarkable work has now been superbly translated into heroic couplets (the closest metrical equivalent of the Persian) by the poet and scholar Dick Davis.

Vis and Ramin had immense influence on later Persian poetry and is very probably also the source for the tale of Tristan and Isolde, which first appeared in Europe about a century later.