Showing titles in Themes & Styles

Guided by the Roman poet Virgil and the love of his life, Beatrice, Dante traverses the three realms of the dead—Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven—encountering sinners, souls seeking forgiveness, and divine beings. With vivid imagery, sharp social commentary, and profound spiritual insight, The Divine Comedy is an unforgettable exploration of the human soul’s journey toward salvation.

Legendary Black Veil Brides' founder and frontman Andy Biersack curated his favorite Edgar Allan Poe tales, presented here in their original language with supplemental materials.

Tulips and Chimneys is E. E. Cummings' first published collection of poetry, introducing listeners to his bold, lyrical voice and signature style. Blending romantic imagery with experimental form, the poems challenge traditional grammar and structure while exploring themes of love, nature, individuality, and the complexities of the human spirit. With delicate irreverence and emotional depth, Cummings reimagines what poetry can be—playful yet profound, intimate yet universal. This collection marks the beginning of a poetic legacy that would influence generations.

With electrifying boldness and fearlessness of vision, Holland-Batt confronts what it means to be mortal in an astonishing and deeply humane portrait of a father’s Parkinson’s Disease, and a daughter forged by grief. Opening and closing with startling elegies set in the charged moments before and after a death, and fearlessly probing the body’s animal endurance, appetites and metamorphoses, The Jaguar is marked by Holland-Batt’s lyric intensity and linguistic mastery, along with a stark new clarity of voice.

Rumi has been described as "the most popular poet" in the United States. Rumi's popularity has gone beyond national and ethnic borders. He is considered to be one of the greatest classical poets, by the speakers of Persian language in Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan. His poetry is still read worldwide today and has been translated into a wide variety of languages including Turkish, Persian, Russian, Asian, English, and Spanish languages.

In recent years the stirring, unforgettable poetry of Jalālu’l-Dīn Rūmī (1207–1273), the great Sūfi teacher and the greatest mystical poet of Iran, has gained tremendous popularity in the western world. Although he died over 700 years ago, his poetry is timeless. In the best modern translations, the passion and playfulness of his words reach across the ages to communicate themselves to people today with an undiluted fervor and excitement.

After the bestselling I Wish I Knew, Donna Ashworth has now produced an extraordinary three-volume collection of poems that will touch and inspire every listener in the ups and downs we all face in love, in life and in loss. These brilliantly accessible poems bring delight, comfort and strength in the height of romance, the darkness of grief and the endlessly unpredictable moments in between.

Maya Angelou’s unforgettable collection of poetry lends its name to the documentary film about her life, And Still I Rise, as seen on PBS’s American Masters. Pretty women wonder where my secret lies. I’m not cute or built to suit a fashion model’s size But when I start to tell them...

Elizabeth Barrett Browning's plea to her lover to love her just for herself, and not for any qualities that may fade away, read by Jenny Agutter.

Gabi Abrāo’s Notes on Shapeshifting is an ode to existing in physical form, fully aware of the changing energy that flows through every aspect of it.

An anthology of over 40 classic nature poems, read by some of our finest actors. The majesty of nature has always inspired poets, and this collection contains a selection of the very best verses praising the natural world.

Three decades ago, renowned literary expert Robert Alter radically expanded the horizons of biblical scholarship by recasting the Bible as not only a human creation but a work of literary art deserving studied criticism. In The Art of Biblical Poetry, his companion to the seminal The Art of Biblical Narrative, Alter takes his analysis beyond narrative craft to investigate the use of Hebrew poetry in the Bible.

Visionary author Oriah Mountain Dreamer brings to life the wisdom of her beloved The Invitation, the prose poem which has touched hearts everywhere with its fresh and spirited call to live life more passionately and honestly. Speaking from the heart, she invites us to confront the varieties of...

Dick Davis—“our pre-eminent translator from the Persian” (The Washington Post)—has revised and expanded his acclaimed translation of Ferdowsi’s masterpiece, adding more than 100 pages of newly translated text. Davis’s elegant combination of prose and verse allows the poetry of the Shahnameh to sing its own tales directly, interspersed sparingly with clearly marked explanations to ease along modern audiences.

Nature Speaks is a lyrical, soul-stirring poetry collection by A.K. Patrick, written in the voices of the Earth’s oldest storytellers—river, forest, moon, mountain, owl, and others. These are not poems about nature; they are poems from nature. Each verse serves as a whisper from the wild, an echo from stone, a reminder of what we’ve forgotten—and what still waits for us to remember. Told through allegory and grounded in deep emotional truth, these poems explore themes of rebirth, reverence, rage, and resilience.

"Narrator JD Jackson addresses his listener as "bro" in this decidedly contemporary retelling of the classic saga...His brilliant performance captures all the artistry, wit, and immediacy of this fresh translation, and breathes new life into what for most has been a literary fossil." --...

An anthology of over 60 classic love poems, read by some of our finest actors. Love has always been the supreme inspiration for poets, whether romantic or platonic, reciprocated or unrequited. This collection contains a range of the very best love poems, including Andrew Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress", Keats' "La Belle Dame Sans Merci" and Byron's "So We'll Go No More A-Roving" - as well as several sonnets from the master himself, William Shakespeare.

A vibrant selection of poems by the great Persian mystic with groundbreaking translations by Haleh Liza Gafori, an American poet of Persian descent. Rumi’s poems were meant to induce a sense of ecstatic illumination and liberation in his audience, bringing its members to a condition of serenity, compassion, and oneness with the divine. They remain masterpieces of world literature to which readers in many languages continually return for inspiration and succor, as well as aesthetic delight.

This story of Lord Rama — the 7th incarnation of Lord Vishnu— i s a wondrous tale of cosmic adventure that immerses the listener in a world of heroes, gods, and demons.

This insightful look into one of mankind's favorite artists traces the magic and melancholy of Vincent Van Gogh. Out of Vincent's letters to his brother Theo, as collected by Irving Stone, we have selected an exciting and sensitive series of quotations. The quotations in My Life and Love Are One revolve around three themes - love, art, and turmoil. Centered around emotion and creation, Vincent's writing and philosophy is as expressive as his art.