"The Faerie Queen" is a marvelous epic poem depicting the virtues of the legendary King Arthur and his knights in a mythical land. Edmund Spenser's masterpiece is an intricately woven plot set in an inventive and fanciful setting. Written in appreciation for the Queen this work stands as a major literary achievement. In addition to «The Faerie Queen,» Edmund Spenser also wrote a number of other significant poems. His first major poetic ...
In response to Ralph Waldo Emerson's call for the United States to have its own unique poet, Walt Whitman rose to the challenge to create what would ultimately be his most profound work. Taking its title from the colloquial term «grass», meaning a work of minor value, Whitman's «Leaves of Grass» is anything but that. Over his lifetime Whitman would continue to expand and revise his most famous book up until his death in 1892. Here in t ...
"The Waste Land, Prufrock, and Other Poems" is a collection of T. S. Eliot's early poetry. This collection brings together «The Waste Land,» arguably T. S. Eliot's most famous poem, with the poetry originally published in «Prufrock and Other Observations» and «Poems (1920).» This collection of 25 poems in all will provide even the most serious of poetry readers with ample evidence of the genius of T. S. Eliot's work. ...
Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), the reclusive and intensely private poet saw only a few of her poems (she wrote well over a thousand) published during her life. After discovering a trove of manuscripts left in a wooden box, Dickinson's sister Lavinia fortunately chose to disobey Emily's wishes for her work to be burned after death. With the help of Amherst professors, Lavinia brought her sister's gifted verse into print. It is here, ...
Begun as an ambitious project by the versatile English courtier, diplomat, philosopher, and author Geoffrey Chaucer in the 14th century, «The Canterbury Tales» follows a group of people on their pilgrimage to the Cathedral of Saint Thomas a Becket. The Prologue introduces all of the pilgrims in great detail, and through these descriptions Chaucer provides the entire spectrum of social classes and professions of his time. When the group stops at ...
"With me poetry has been not a purpose, but a passion."–Edgar Allan Poe. Containing such famous works as «The Raven», «Lenore», «Annabel Lee», and «To Helen», this complete collection of poetry by Edgar Allan Poe encapsulates the career of one of the best-known and most read American writers. Laden with tones of loneliness, melancholy and despair, the poetry contained in this volume exerted great influence on the American Romantic and the F ...
In the sphere of poets like Swift, Meredith and Kipling, Thomas Hardy is today becoming recognized as one of the greatest English poets of this century. As a young man with interests in journalism, art, and architecture, Hardy achieved greatness in the fiction genre early on, writing novels for a living until his mid-fifties. He then abandoned fiction entirely in order to devote himself to his true passion—poetry. This ample selection of poems d ...
Upon its original publication in 1857 Charles Baudelaire's «Les Fleurs du Mal» or «The Flowers of Evil» was embroiled in controversy. Within a month of its publication the French authorities brought an action against the author and the book's publisher claiming that the work was an insult to public decency. Eventually the French courts would acknowledge the literary merit of Baudelaire's work but ordered that six poems in particul ...
A cycle of twelve narrative poems, «Idylls of the King» retells the classic legends of King Arthur and his time. Based primarily on Malory's «Le Morte d'Arthur» and the classic epic poem «Mabinogion», «Idylls» is not just a copy of past works but rather an expansion of the legend, a competent and worthy addition to the genre of Arthurian literature. The twelve idylls respectively tell the stories of: The Coming of Arthur, Gareth and Ly ...
