Poetry
An Essay on Man
Pope’s Essay on Man, a masterpiece of concise summary in itself, can fairly be summed up as an optimistic enquiry into mankind’s place in th…
The Argonautica
The story of how Jason and a group of famous heroes of Greece took to sea in the Argos has been told many times, before and after Apollonius…
Elder Eddas of Saemund Sigfusson
The most complete set of the epic Norse eddas, or poems. It contains in beautiful verse the pagan beliefs of the Old Norse. Luckily in this …
The Rape of the Lock
The Rape of the Lock is a mock-heroic narrative poem written by Alexander Pope, first published anonymously in Lintot's Miscellany in May 17…
One Hundred Proofs That the Earth Is Not a Globe
A bit of pseudo-science that will baffle, confuse, and amaze! Until the Space Age, there was little every-day, self-evident proof that the e…
The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
"The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom."The Marriage of Heaven & Hell is William Blake’s masterpiece – a piously bl…
Sappho
Sappho lived in the Greek-speaking Aeolian islands off the coast of Turkey. She is one of the very few female poets from antiquity. Although…
Shakespeare's Sonnets
Shakespeare's Sonnets is a profound exploration of love, beauty, and the human experience, encapsulated in 154 masterful poems. Written by t…
Jerusalem
The epic poem Jerusalem was in Blake's own opinion his masterpiece. It is the last of the great prophetic books. Originally produced as an e…
The Treasure Chest
Treasure Chest is the fourth volume in Olive Beaupre Miller’s My Bookhouse series, a collection of literature for young readers. It brings t…
The Prophet
The prophet Al Mustafa, before leaving the city where he has been living twelve years, stops to address the people. They call out for his wo…
On the Nature of Things
Written in the first century b.C., On the Nature of Things (in Latin, De Rerum Natura) is a poem in six books that aims at explaining the Ep…
Psalms and Odes of Solomon
One of the Pseudepigrapha, the Psalms of Solomon is a group of eighteen psalms (religious songs or poems) that are not part of any scriptura…
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
For killing an albatross, the mariner and his crew are punished with drought and death. Amidst a series of supernatural events, the mariner'…
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage
A young man, weary of a life of pleasure, leaves home to travel through Europe. In Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, Lord Byron follows his journe…
The Waste Land
The Waste Land is T. S. Eliot's Modernist masterpiece, first published in 1920. Rich in allusions to Shakespeare, Dante, Baudelaire, the Bib…
An Essay on Criticism
An Essay on Criticism is a foundational work of literary criticism by Alexander Pope, blending poetry and philosophical reflection. Written …
The Raven and Other Poems
"Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore—While I nodded,…
The Divine Comedy
The Divine Comedy (Italian: Commedia, later christened "Divina" by Giovanni Boccaccio), written by Dante Alighieri between 1308 an…
The Freedmen's Book
Lydia Maria Child, an American abolitionist, compiled this collection of short stories and poems by former slaves and noted activists as an …