Poetry
Maude
Maude is a novella by Christina Rossetti, written in 1850 but published posthumously in 1897. Considered by scholars to be semi-autobiograph…
Rainer Maria Rilke
A selection of poems by this renowned German poet. - Summary by Peter Tucker
Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern
The Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern, is a work of enormous proportions. Setting out with the simple goal of offer…
Paradise Regain'd
Having been publicly acknowledged as God's "beloved Son," Jesus retires to the desert to meditate upon what it means to be the Mes…
The Rape of Lucrece
The Rape of Lucrece (1594) is a narrative poem by William Shakespeare about the legendary Lucretia. Lucrece draws on the story described in …
Absalom and Achitophel
John Dryden published Absalom and Achitophel: A Poem in 1681. It is an elaborate historical allegory using the political situation faced by …
One Hundred Verses from Old Japan
In 12th-13th century Japan there lived a man named Fujiwara no Teika (sometimes called Sadaie), a well-regarded poet in a society that prize…
Astrophil and Stella
Astrophil and Stella is a sonnet sequence written by Philip Sidney, an Elizabethan poet and courtier. It details the frustrated love of Astr…
Hero and Leander
“Who ever lov’d, that lov’d not at first sight?”The wonder-decade of the English drama was suddenly interrupted in 1592, when serious plague…
Vintage Verse Rhapsody
A collection of poetry selected and performed by Bob Gonzalez, rhapsode. Rhapsodes of Ancient Greece were “song-stitchers,” performing selec…
The Diary of a Dead Officer
Published posthumously in 1919, this collection of diary entries presents a scathing picture of army life and is said to be one of the most …
Hymns to the Night
"Hymns to the Night" is the last published work of Georg Philipp Friedrich Freiherr von Hardenberg (1772-1801), the German philoso…
The New Life
One of Dante's earliest works, La vita nuova or La vita nova (The New Life) is in a prosimetrum style, a combination of prose and verse, and…
Poems from the Divan of Hafiz
Hafiz was a Persian poet. His collected works (Divan) are regarded as a pinnacle of Persian literature. While influenced by Islam, his mysti…
Robert Burns
Robert Burns, the national bard (poet) of Scotland was born on the 25th January, 1759. Scotland and all Burns fans the world over, including…
Beauties of Tennyson
Beauties of Tennyson is a curated collection showcasing the lyrical genius of Alfred, Lord Tennyson, one of the most celebrated poets of the…
The Birth of Propaganda
"The Birth of Propaganda" is poetic adaptation of the essay "Propaganda in a Democratic Society," by Aldous Huxley, whic…
The Recluse
In the prefatory advertisement to the First Edition of the Prelude, 1850, it is stated that that poem was designed to be introductory to the…
Samson Agonistes
“The Sun to me is darkAnd silent as the Moon,When she deserts the nightHid in her vacant interlunar cave.”Milton composes his last extended …
All Is Beautiful
Since the beginning of time, human beings have told the story of their own beginning, and of the origins of the four directions, the heavens…