Showing results by publisher "Spoken Realms" in Poetry

Alexander Pope was celebrated for his command of classical Greek and produced seminal translations of the Iliad and the Odyssey. Prior to the preparation of these translations, Pope took advantage of his mastery of the classical style and also his waspish wit to compose a burlesque epic about the theft of a lock of hair. The incident that inspired Pope was related to him by his friend John Caryll. Lord Petre had cut off a lock of the hair of Arabella Fermor, whom he was courting at the time, without asking the lady's permission.

Sappho was a female poet who was well known in ancient Greece and Rome for her lyrical poetry. She was most famous for her poems involving women who loved women, and it is from her name that sapphic, a term referring to sexual relations between women, originated. This is a compendium of her surviving work, a collection of 54 fragments translated by Henry de Vere Stacpoole.

In this haunting poem, a guest on his way to a wedding reception is stopped by the Ancient Mariner. With his "glittering eye" he transfixes the guest and then relates a compelling tale of a sea voyage fraught with strange happenings. The Mariner tells of journeying through tyrannous storms to ice mast-high, through mist and snow to the deadly inertia of the doldrums. There are unearthly visitations, ill omens, and supernatural happenings - all leading to the revelation of the Mariner's strange fate.

Andrew Barton 'Banjo" Paterson (1864 - 1941) may be considered the unofficial poet laureate of Australia. After training as a solicitor he began contributing verse to the Sydney "Bulletin" under the pseudonym of "The Banjo", taken from the name of a horse. His first collection, "The Man from Snowy River", was published in 1895. Two further collections followed: Rio Grande's Last Race and Other Verses in 1902 and Saltbush Bill, JP. and Other Verses in 1917.

The Waste Land by T. S Eliot is narrated by Danielle Cohen and Denis Daly. Eliot's cross-cultural epic poem, first published in 1922, remains one of the most challenging poems in the English language. It is dedicated to Eliot's mentor, Ezra Pound. Like Pound, Eliot reveled in drawing allusions and quotations from a vast body of world literature.

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam is a poetic marvel, a work that has survived translation into many languages, while losing little of its force and its wry character. As a source of literary imagery and memorable quotations it ranks with the Bible and the works of Shakespeare. While Edward Fitzgerald was neither the first nor the most scholarly of the English translators of the Rubaiyat, his translation has been largely responsible for the world-wide popularity of this monument of classic Persian poetry.

The 36 poems, many of which are written in Aussie vernacular, highlight the extraordinary, the comic, and the tragic of daily life in Australia. Quirks of culture, geography, and language are simultaneously caricatured and celebrated, while the challenges and ironies of human experience are touched upon with humor and pathos. Many of these poems first appeared in Australian periodicals during the early 20th century. As a collection, Backblock Ballads and Later Verses was first published in 1918 and includes the notorious mock anthem, "The Austra-laise".

The story of the adventures of the mythical hero Gilgamesh is the most considerable literary production that has come down to us from ancient Babylonia. Unfortunately, it was not preserved in complete form. This recording is of the fullest translation which had yet been issued in English when it was first published in 1917.

In the introduction, anthologist Douglas Sladen stated that the purpose of this collection was "to lay before the English public a selection of poems inspired by life and scenery in Australia". He further comments, "This volume is essentially the work of people who have meditated in the open air and not under the lamp; and if its contents oftentimes want the polish that comes only with much midnight oil, they are mostly a transcript from earth and sea and sky, and not from books."

Spoon River Anthology is a collection of poems that describe life - and death - in a small town. Each poem is a monologue delivered by a resident of Spoon River, describing events in their lives, and the circumstances that led to their occasionally untimely end. Edgar Lee Masters wrote this theatrical masterpiece to highlight the typical small town. The fascinating characters and realistic imagery make it easy to see why this is an American classic.

Welcome to Dante's The Divine Comedy, the ultimate journey to Paradise. Follow Italian writer and philosopher Dante Alighieri and his guide, the poet Virgil, through each circle of hell, over the mountain of Purgatory, and ultimately to Paradise, to be reunited with his beloved Beatrice. Dante meets many familiar faces among the sinners and the saved and learns many things of value throughout his long, dangerous journey.

In this collection, the authors were striving for a natural and unaffected style of verse that sought to avoid the elaborate structures and artifice that they considered had characterized much of the poetry of the 18th century. Of the 23 poems, only four are by Coleridge, including "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner", which is the most famous poem in the collection. The most notable contribution by Wordsworth is the concluding poem, "Tintern Abbey".

Seventeen iconic poems from World War One, including: Wilfred Owen's "Dulce et Deorum Est"; "In Flanders Fields" by John McRae; "Counter Attack" by Siegfried Sassoon; Rupert Brook's "The Soldier"; and many more that bring the horrors of the Great War vividly to life through the eyes of those living them.

Christopher Smart (1722-1771) was an English poet and scholar. This extraordinary poem, which is a florid display of Smart's opinions on a variety of theological, historical, and scientific subjects, was written between 1759 and 1763, while the author was confined in a lunatic asylum. His condition was diagnosed as religious mania, as evidenced by his compulsion to break into spontaneous prayer in public.

Harmonium was American poet Wallace Stevens's first book, published when he was 44 years old. It represents his complete poetic output up to that point in his life. It is now considered a masterpiece, one of the great contributions to literary Modernism. It is a mixture of pure, rational, philosophical thought, and imaginary nonsense-verse. It is striking in its diversity and includes some of Stevens' best known and most-loved poems.

Classic author Amy Steedman provides a faithful retelling of the story of Joseph found in the he Old Testament. Follow Joseph from childhood to a prince in Egypt, from pit to palace, and from despair to hope.

After living in the city of Orphalese for 12 years, a prophet is about to board a ship which will carry him home. He is stopped by a seeress and the people of the city, who ask him for his insights into life. The book is divided into chapters dealing with love, marriage, children, giving, eating and drinking, work, joy and sorrow, houses, clothes, buying and selling, crime and punishment, laws, freedom, reason and passion, pain, self-knowledge, teaching, friendship, talking, time, good and evil, prayer, pleasure, beauty, religion, and death.

Tweedle Dee and brother Dum recited a bit of Wonderlandic poetry. Nonsensical? Yes, but this is a brilliant sample of the world Alice found herself. If there is a moral to this delightful poem it may be that it is not wise to be an oyster. On second thought, perhaps there is no discernible moral - just smile worthy fun.

John Keats died in Rome in February 1821, at the age of 25. Shelley, who was to follow him to the grave the following year, was inspired to compose this pastoral lament, which consists of 55 Spenserian stanzas

This poetic exploration of the subject of love was composed in Italy 1821, and published anonymously, as the poet wished its circulation to be restricted to the "esoteric few." The title means "concerning or about a little soul", the subject, in this case, being Shelley's inamorata of the time, Countess Teresa (designated "Emily" in the poem) Viviani, a young woman who was immured in the Convent of Saint Anna by her father. Shelley had had a number of contacts with her by letter and in person.