English Poetry Literature

Commonly cited as one of the most important works of Anglo-Saxon literature, Beowulf is an epic poem that traces the exploits of the titular hero. After coming to the aid of the king of the Danes, whose mead hall is under constant attack by the monster Grendel, Beowulf slays Grendel's mother and goes on to become the king of the Geats.

The poems of the Poetic Edda have waited a long time for a modern English translation that would do them justice. Here it is at last (Odin be praised!) and well worth the wait. These amazing texts from a 13th-century Icelandic manuscript are of huge historical, mythological, and literary importance, containing the lion's share of information that survives today about the gods and heroes of pre-Christian Scandinavians, their unique vision of the beginning and end of the world, etc.

Gabby's world is filled with daydreams. Now, what began as an escape from her parents' arguments has taken over her life. But with the help of a new teacher, Gabby the dreamer might just become Gabby the writer. Written in vivid accessible poems, this verse novel is a celebration of one girl's indomitable spirit and of a teacher's ability to reach out and change a life.

Read Between the Lines Poetry Book, by author Reneé Drummond-Brown, depicts precept upon precept, line upon line, little here and a little there, stroke by stroke, mark by mark, ink by ink, stripe by stripe, link by link, stain by stain, and blood by blood.

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.

Poetry. Even all by themselves, the titles of Patricia Lockwood's poems reveal the sort of surreal, enigmatic, rhetorically- longated world her sensibility inhabits effortlessly.

From Seferis’ speech at the Swedish Academy I belong to a small country. A rocky promontory in the Mediterranean, it has nothing to distinguish it but the efforts of its people, the sea, and the light of the sun. It is a small country, but its tradition is immense and has been handed down through the centuries without interruption. The Greek language has never ceased to be spoken. It has undergone the changes that all living things experience, but there has never been a gap. This tradition is characterized by love of the human; justice is its norm. In the tightly organized classical ...

Aristotle’s Poetics is the earliest-surviving work of dramatic theory and the first fully intact philosophical treatise to focus on literary theory. The respected Greek sage offers an account of what he calls "poetry" (which the Greeks understood to literally mean "making"), examining its "first principles" and identifying its genres and basic elements, including what he terms drama-comedy, tragedy, and the satyr play - as well as lyric poetry, epic poetry, and iambic pentameter, which he always associates with wit.

The poetry of Nikki Giovanni has spurred movements, turned hearts, and informed generations. She's been hailed as a firebrand, a radical, a healer, and a sage; a wise and courageous voice who has spoken out on the sensitive issues, including race and gender, that touch our national consciousness.

The James Joyce Collection includes Joyce's 2 most celebrated novels, short fiction from Dubliners, and a selection of his poetry. Read by a wonderful Irish cast of Aoife McMahon, Aidan Kelly, and Stephen Hogan.

“With a bolt of lightning on my kicks . . . The court is SIZZLING. My sweat is DRIZZLING. Stop all that quivering. ’Cuz tonight I’m delivering,” raps twelve-year-old Josh Bell. Thanks to their dad, he and his twin brother, Jordan, are kings on the court. But Josh has more than basketball in his blood—he’s got mad beats, too, which help him find his rhythm when it’s all on the line.

An audio anthology of the poems that appear in the international bestseller, My Oxford Year. Edited and read by Julia Whelan, it features an original Introduction about the writing and selection process, as well as individualized context and commentary for 30+ poems.

Jericho Brown's daring new book The Tradition details the normalization of evil and its history at the intersection of the past and the personal. Brown's poetic concerns are both broad and intimate, and at their very core a distillation of the incredibly human: What is safety? Who is this nation? Where does freedom truly lie?

Carved close to the original Greek, acclaimed classicist Caroline Alexander's new translation is swift and lean, with the driving cadence of its source - a translation epic in scale yet devastating in its precision and power.

Kahlil Gibran wrote prolifically and passionately in Arabic as well as English. First published in 1965 with nine works of poetry translated by Joseph Sheban, Mirrors of the Soul includes writings by Gibran that are as poignant today as when first written, such as “The New Frontier” and “The Sea.” These poems illuminate the dual nature of Gibran, who lived in the shadows both of New York skyscrapers and the cedars of his childhood Lebanon.

The Complete Brontë Sisters Collection includes all 7 of the Brontë sisters' completed novels, as-well as a selection of the poetry which all three sisters published. Read by an outstanding cast, this collection is the perfect opportunity to delve beyond Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre and discover the rest of the work published by Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Brontë.

Renowned poet and critic Clive James presents the crowning achievement of his career: a monumental translation into English verse of Dante’s The Divine Comedy. The Divine Comedy is the precursor of modern literature, and this translation - decades in the making - gives us the entire epic as a single, coherent and compulsively listenable lyric poem. Written in the early 14th century and completed in 1321, the year of Dante’s death, The Divine Comedy is perhaps the greatest work of epic poetry ever composed.

Xiomara Batista feels unheard and unable to hide in her Harlem neighborhood. Ever since her body grew into curves, she has learned to let her fists and her fierceness do the talking. But Xiomara has plenty she wants to say, and she pours all her frustration and passion onto the pages of a leather notebook, reciting the words to herself like prayers - especially after she catches feelings for a boy in her bio class named Aman, whom her family can never know about.

Rupi Kaur presents an all-new performance of milk and honey, her number one New York Times best-selling collection of poetry and prose about survival, the experience of violence, abuse, love, loss, and femininity. This new production was recorded in 2021 along with the first-ever recordings of her number one best sellers the sun and her flowers and home body, all of them performed by Rupi Kaur.

Who are you? Where did you come from, and where are you going? What will you leave behind? In his first collection, Benjamin Daniel Lukey ruminates on these questions and invites you to seek the answers in your daily life. These verses contain meditations on love, family, personal growth, dreams, nature, and the supernatural.