Classic poetry / poems

Book SynopsisTrade Review'Wood's lively translations grasp the irrepressible sense of freedom which is the poet's hallmark ... Pushkin is lucky in Antony Wood. Pleasure is to be found on every page of this book' * The Times Literary Supplement *This Selected Poetry by Antony Wood supersedes all previous translations ... Wood's 'The Bronze Horseman' gives us Pushkin at his most tragic. 'Count Nulin' shows him at his most light-hearted. 'The Tale of Tsar Saltan' bounces along with delightful vitality. Even with the delicately musical short lyrics - still harder to translate - Wood's success rate is remarkable ... The result is a more rounded picture of Pushkin - in many ways the most universal of poets -- Robert Chandler * The Financial Times *This Selected Poetry deserves a wealth of praise . . . a truly valuable edition both for its scrupulous and often magnificent versions of individual poems and as a worthy general introduction to this poet, who is such a treasure for Russia and for the world * Los Angeles Review of Books *Everybody knows how difficult Pushkin's poems are to translate. Antony Wood has succeeded, within the limits of the possible -- John BayleyRe-creating Pushkin requires skills approaching magic. Antony Wood is one of the two or three best translators of Russia's greatest poet in the Anglophone world, because his Pushkin moves: you watch him dance as well as hear him sing -- Caryl EmersonAntony Wood's translations show an unusual grace and a deep knowledge of Pushkin's poetry -- Elaine FeinsteinPushkin's poetry is lyrical, beautifully simple, vivid, and endlessly emotive. It can be enjoyed by all readers, regardless of their background in poetry. And there is now one definitive book of Alexander Pushkin's poetry, the one book you need to read in order to fully appreciate Alexander Pushkin's poems: Alexander Pushkin Selected Poetry, translated with complete command and majesty by Antony Wood * Books and Bao *A volume to keep within easy reach at most times * East-West Review *Anthony Wood is to be congratulated on this suburb collection, which renders Pushkin in all his matchless grace, wit and musicality * The Tablet *

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Book SynopsisHappy Hour is a gorgeous gift book of classic poetry which fizzes with poetry about all kinds of drink, drinkers and drinking place. All this and more is introduced by celebrated wine critic Jancis Robinson. Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, pocket-sized classics with ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. Many of the most famous poets have weaved the delights and temptations of drink into their verse. In Happy Hour: Poems to Raise a Glass To, there are chapters on whisky and beer, celebrations, why we drink and where we go to do it. Robert Burns is here, of course, alongside Yeats, Keats, Emily Dickinson, Hilaire Belloc, Sara Teasdale, Edward Lear, G. K. Chesterton and many more.

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Book SynopsisIf you struggle to get out of bed in the morning, here’s a poetry collection that’s just right for you. Sunrise is an energizing and rousing collection of classic poetry all about purpose, hope and perseverance. Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, pocket-sized classics with ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition is edited and introduced by Susie Gibbs.Wise, reassuring words and magical verses conjure up the promise and possibilities of each new day. With contributions from poets such as William Wordsworth, G. K. Chesterton, Ian McMillan, Christina Rossetti, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson and Edward Lear, the wonderful poetry in Sunrise will inspire its readers to greet each day with optimism and confidence.

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Book SynopsisSilver Medal Winner for Poetry at the 2022 Nautilus Book Awards.A powerful new anthology depicting how love over the past two-and-a-half millennia has found its expression in the words of the world's greatest poets.No, Love Is Not Dead is a timely affirmation of the great linguistic diversity of poetry and its ability to express passionate love, the most extreme of human emotions. With influential, award-winning poets including Kim Hyesoon, Laura Tohe and Warsan Shire, and languages ranging from Amharic, Akkadian and Ancient Greek to Yankunytjatjara, Yiddish and Yoruba, this unique anthology engages the reader in reflective tales of unlikely love stories and impossible love, love in a time of politics, surrealist love, visual love and free love, offering an intuitive insight into both historical and present-day perceptions of love across cultures. Including over 50 poets, writing on each of the world's continents, this new anthology of poems about love features a diverse range of original poems written in a variety of languages - modern, ancient, endangered and constructed -, accompanied by English translations and commentaries.Poets included in the book: Apollinaire; Nicole Brossard; Augusto de Campos; Catullus; Chaucer; Dante; Robert Desnos; Ali Cobby Eckermann; Goethe; Kim Hyesoon; Louise Labé; Federico Garcia Lorca; Vladimir Mayakovsky; Miklós Radnóti; Kutti Ravathi; Sappho; Warsan Shire; Laura Tohe; Marina Tsvetaeva.Languages included in the book: Akkadian; Amharic; Ancient Greek; Faroese; French; German; Hungarian; Italian; Japanese; Latvian; Maori; Persian; Polari; Portuguese; Russian; Sanskrit; Scots; Scottish Gaelic; Serbian; Spanish; Welsh; Yoruba.Foreword by Laura Tohe, the current Navajo Nation Poet Laureate and Professor Emeritus with Distinction at Arizona State University, who has won awards including the 2020 Academy of American Poetry Fellowship, the 2019 American Indian Festival of Writers Award, and the Arizona Book Association's Glyph Award for Best Poetry.

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Book SynopsisThe fascinating history of poetry anthologies and their influence on British society and culture over the last four centuries. For centuries, poetry anthologies shaped the way that generations of British readers encountered literature. Eighteenth-century young women were introduced to the permissible bits of Shakespeare and Swift in censored collections. Working-class Victorians enrolled to be taught from The Golden Treasury at adult learning colleges. Pop-loving teenagers in the 1960s got their first taste of the counterculture from the bestselling The Mersey Sound. InThe Treasuries, Clare Bucknell reveals anthologies to be a unique window into social history. This is the story of some of the most widely read books ever published, and the cultural conversations – around politics, gender, class and nationhood – they sparked.Trade ReviewAnthologies are the sleepers of the bookshelf, loaded with the hidden ideals and prejudices of their compilers. Clare Bucknell reads expertly between their lines to reveal a remarkable alternative history of literature. -- Rosemary HillThe delight of this book is its expert toggling of scale. Bucknell dissects large issues - politics, class, taste, education - via small vignettes: Palgrave collecting his poems with scissors, war poems falling like bombs, poetry on prescription. Her panoramic history throws up unexpected parallels - the Exclusion Crisis and the Spanish Civil War, Keats and working men’s eduction, ballads and pop. Treasuries is smart and learned but unpatronising: it sparkles with appreciation for the anthologist and their always-partial act of selection. -- Emma Smith * author of Portable Magic *Impressive in its coverage of social history, teeming with anecdotes, The Treasuries arrives just as Britain is once more rearranging its literary heritage and 'retelling favourite stories about itself at a moment of national crisis'. -- Peter ConradClare Bucknell is a compelling storyteller as well as a deep and cheerful scholar. A riveting read, The Treasuries changes how a reader approaches the designing and sometimes devious anthologists and the books they sell us. -- Michael SchmidtThis book is a wonderful celebration and examination of anthologies as the cornerstone of our literary culture. -- Ian McMillan

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Book Synopsis Shakespeare's sonnets are amongst the most admired, complex and beautiful poems ever written. This gorgeous new collection includes sonnets from Romeo and Juliet, Henry V and Love's Labour's Lost, to create a comprehensive collection from the greatest writer of the English poetic form. Little treasures, the FLAME TREE COLLECTABLE CLASSICS are chosen to create a delightful and timeless home library. Each stunning, gift edition features deluxe cover treatments, ribbon markers, luxury endpapers and gilded edges. The original text is accompanied by a Glossary of Victorian and Literary terms produced for the modern reader.

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Book SynopsisPainting and sculpture have inspired great poetry, but so also have photography, calligraphy, tapestry and folk art. Included here are poems celebrating Leonardo da Vinci's 'Mona Lisa', Monet's 'Waterlilies' and Grant Wood's 'American Gothic'; well-known poems such as Keats's 'Ode on a Grecian Urn' and Auden's 'Musée de Beaux-Arts', Homer's immortal account of the forging of the Shield of Achilles and Garcia Lorca's breathtaking ode to the surreal paintings of Salvador Dali. Allen Ginsberg writes about Cézanne, E. E. Cummings about Picasso, Billy Collins about Hieronymous Bosch, and Joyce Carol Oates about Edward Hopper. Here too are poems that take on the artists themselves, from Michelangelo and Rembrandt to Georgia O'Keeffe and Andy Warhol. Altogether, this brilliantly curated anthology proves that a picture can be worth a thousand words - or a few very well-chosen ones.

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Book SynopsisIn the third and final part of The Divine Comedy, Dante recounts his journey through heaven, after the travails and torments of Hell and the arduous ascent of Mount Purgatory, creating a cosmology of the highest realm of creation which is astonishing in its complexity. In Dante's imagining, Paradise is formed out of concentric spheres surrounding the Earth, beginning with the Moon and ending with the Empyrean. Dante must traverse these ethereal regions guided by his beloved Beatrice, as a means of attaining wisdom, revelation and beatitude. Containing some of Dante's finest poetry, Dante's Paradise is an enduring vision of grace and a powerful allegory for the struggle for redemption. This dual-text edition completes J.G. Nichols's masterful verse translation of The Divine Comedy.Trade ReviewThis new translation by J.G. Nichols, clearly grounded in a secure knowledge of and familiarity with Dante and in English verse which is rarely less than competently handled, is one that deserves to be taken seriously and will reward any reader who makes his first encounter with Dante through it. It is an intelligent and sophisticated piece of work. * Acumen Literary Journal * Dante is my spiritual food. -- James Joyce Bravo for this new version of Dante... Bravo, Professor Nichols! * The Church Times * All life is written in Dante's burning pages, and Nichols has done him proud. -- Ian Thomson * The Observer * For sheer liveliness, combined with accuracy and closeness to the text, it will be hard to rival. -- A.N. Wilson

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Book SynopsisThe Vita Nuova, with its unusual blend of prose and poetry, is universally recognized as Dante’s early masterpiece and provides an indispensable prequel to The Divine Comedy. Set in thirteenth-century Florence, part autobiography and part religious allegory, it traces Dante’s quest to find a poetic idiom worthy of Beatrice, whom he had loved since boyhood. Her premature death plunges him into an emotional turmoil that finds release only through his faith in her continuing spiritual influence and through his determination “to write of her what has never been written of any woman”. The Vita Nuova remains a central document in European culture’s examination of love and the self. It is a hundred and fifty years since Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s groundbreaking version of the Vita Nuova. Now Anthony Mortimer, already acclaimed as translator of Cavalcanti, Petrarch and Michelangelo, produces a verse translation that avoids Rossetti’s disturbing archaisms but preserves a lyric immediacy worthy of the original. This is a Vita Nuova for the twenty-first century.

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Book SynopsisSet in a modern, urban Paris, the prose pieces in this volume constitute a further exploration of the terrain Baudelaire had covered in his verse masterpiece, The Flowers of Evil: the city with all its squalor and inequalities, the pressures of time and mortality, and the liberation provided by the sensual delights of intoxication, art and women. Published posthumously in 1869, Paris Spleen was a landmark publication in the development of the genre of prose poetry - a form which Baudelaire saw as particularly suited for expressing the feelings of uncertainty, flux and freedom of his age - and one of the founding texts of literary Modernism.

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Book SynopsisTennyson was one of the true great Victorian poets - much of his work is known throughout the world:''Theirs not to reason why, theirs but to do and die''''Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all''His genius is expressed through the precision and delicacy of the language of his lyrical poems. Some of his words were engraved in the 2012 Olympic village and his early poetry was a major influence on and inspiration for the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Tennyson initially declined a baronetcy - indeed, he wrote a substantial amount of unoffical political poetry. To this day, he remains one of Britain''s most popular poets.''No man ever got very high by pulling other people down... Don''t knock your friends. Don''t knock your enemies. Don''t knock yourself'' Tennyson

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Book SynopsisLiu Zongyuan's remarkable poetry reflects the complex experience of political exile and observes the natural world of his new home in South China with a caring eye. The Poetic Garden of Liu Zongyuan presents poems by the Tang Dynasty cofounder of the Classical Prose Movement written on the Chinese empire’s southern margins. In these remarkable pieces, Liu intertwines South China’s landscapes and plants—such as scarlet canna, banyan, and white myoga ginger—with reflections on honor, duty, banishment, and belonging in ways unique in the history of Chinese poetry. The two translators, Nathaniel Dolton-Thornton and Yu Yuanyuan, one American and one Chinese, preserve and showcase the singular beauty of Liu's poetic garden for the English-speaking world.Trade Review“These new translations by Nathaniel Dolton-Thornton and Yu Yuanyuan are wonderfully redolent, and yet stripped-back with an almost concrete quality. They gain in emotional weight by being quite deliberately kept to their bare bones. The melancholy of Liu Zongyuan’s sustained and powerful work rings true.” —Sasha Dugdale, author of Joy and translator of Maria Stepanova’s In Memory of Memory “‘Thinking of home, my grief sharpens,’ Liu writes. But far from home, Liu’s eye also sharpened, taking in his unfamiliar surroundings and their particular flora. In their translations and accompanying notes, Dolton-Thornton and Yu capture with clarity and sensitivity Liu's complex emotional and material experience of exile.” —Adriana Jacobs, translator of The Truffle Eye “Dolton-Thornton and Yu’s discerning selections, lucid rendition, and scholarly annotations effectively bring home to us not only Liu’s lyrical world but a refreshing vision from afar of our Anthropocene epoch.” —Ling Hon Lam, author of The Spatiality of Emotion in Early Modern China: From Dreamscapes to Theatricality “Like the mystical poems of Wang Wei and the saddest poems of Li Bai in exile, the work of Liu Zongyuan confronts mortality and transience in nature—a nature wholly lived in and truly seen with the sharp eye of a naturalist . . . Through these quietly shining poems, Liu is revealed as a lost jewel of Chinese poetry and is restored to the crown where he belongs.” —Tony Barnstone, translator with Chou Ping of The Anchor Book of Chinese Poetry

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Book SynopsisThere is a great deal more to Greek poetry than the Iliad or the Odyssey. Shorter masterpieces abound, and the lyrical and elegiac poems, odes, and epigrams in this volume give an unparalleled sampling of them. Included here are selections from the early Greek poets - from Hesiod, Pindar and Bacchylides, Alcaeus and Sappho; from the later Alexandrian poets Theocritus, Bion, Apollonius of Rhodes, and many more. A whole section is devoted to poems from the celebrated Greek Anthology, which spans a thousand years from the Classical to the Byzantine age, and another to the Anacreontea, the delightful collection of odes on the pleasures of drink, love, and beauty which has been popular for centuries both in the original Greek and in English. Excerpts from somewhat longer poems include Percy Bysshe Shelley's 'Homeric Hymn to Mercury' and the hugely entertaining Homeric pastiche 'The Battle of the Frogs and Mice'.Paul Quarrie's selection of English translations draws fruitfully on the work of lesser-known as well as more famous names. In these pages poets jostle with Regius Professors of Greek at Oxbridge, professional writers and translators with enthusiastic amateurs including teachers, librarians, aristocrats, diplomats, civil servants, bankers, soldiers and clergymen. Historically their translations range from anonymous versions produced in Tudor England through the golden age of translation presided over by George Chapman in the seventeenth century, to modern translations by James Michie, Fleur Adcock and Robert Fagles. The editor provides an informative preface, introductions to the Greek Anthology and the Anacreontea, and biographies of translators where bibliographical detail is set off by colourful anecdote.

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Book SynopsisAlready with thee! tender is the night, And haply the Queen-Moon is on her throne, Cluster’d around by all her starry Fays; But here there is no light, Save what from heaven is with the breezes blown Through verdurous glooms and winding mossy ways. Despite his tragically short life, John Keats, a self-confessed “rebel Angel”, endures for many as a personification of the Romantic age. While contemporary critics mocked him as a “Cockney poet” and an uneducated lower-class “apothecary” who aspired to poetry, subsequent generations began to see and appreciate both the rich and impassioned sensuousness and the love of beauty and liberty that pervade his work. From Endymion and Hyperion to ‘The Eve of St Agnes’, ‘La Belle Dame sans Merci’ and the Odes, this collection, which presents Keats’s oeuvre in chronological order, displays his rapid poetic growth, the development of his philosophical and spiritual beliefs and the voluptuous, silken nature of his verse.Trade ReviewNo one else in English poetry, save Shakespeare, has in expression quite the fascinating felicity of Keats, his perfection of loveliness. -- Matthew Arnold

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Book SynopsisThe most celebrated of French medieval poets, François Villon makes poetry out the basest material the raw urban life of Paris with its petty officials, students, clergy, tradesmen, pimps, whores and thieves. Despite successful studies, the young Villon immersed himself in this world, embarking on a career of petty crime that brought him repeated imprisonment. Condemned to death, but then reprieved and banished from Paris, he disappears from history in 1463, leaving behind a legend of poète maudit that has never lost its fascination. Violent, indignant, ribald and often brutally physical, Villon s verse has a formidable satiric thrust, and yet it also encompasses passages of poignant nostalgia and haunting lyric expression, culminating in his digressive autobiographical masterpiece, The Testament, which counts among the most popular texts of French poetry.

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Book SynopsisJohn Milton (1608-74) was celebrated in his time as a public servant of the Cromwellian regime and as the author of brilliant polemical pamphlets about education religion and freedom of speech, but his posthumous reputation rests principally on his work as a poet, noteably in PARADISE LOST. This poem, written after the poet was driven out of public life by the Restoration, and begun when he was already blind, is a worthy successor to the epics of Homer and Virgil. In majestic blank verse it describes Lucifer's fall from heaven, the creation of mankind, Eve's temptation, and the expulsion of Adam and Eve from paradise. After the Bible, this is perhaps the greatest masterpiece of Christian literature. The present volume contains extensive selections from PARADISE LOST, chosen to illustrate its author's genius for high drama, vivid description and savage irony. In addition, there are substantial extracts from COMUS and SAMSON AGONISTES, and many of Milton's sonnets and shorter poems, including the famous LYCIDAS.

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Book SynopsisPushkin was the first Russian writer of European stature, and he is among the very few artists - such as Homer and Shakespeare - to have shaped the consciousness and history of an entire nation and its language, thereby affecting the world at large. Eugene Onegin is not merely the greatest poem in the Russian language by its most influential poet: it is a global culture, social and political icon of the highest order. The historical power of this work - a novel in verse - is made all the more extraordinary by the simplicity of its subject. Eugene Onegin is a story of disappointed love. Tatyana falls for the handsome Eugene to whom she daringly makes advances. He cooly rejects her, then flirts with her sister, Olga. When challenged by Olga's fiance, Lensky kills him in a duel, seemingly indifferrent to the grief he causes. (Ironically, Puskhin himself was to be killed in similar circumstances in 1937, some seven years after he completed the work). Onegin leaves the district. When he returns four years later, Tatyana has married another man and it is her turn to reject his advances. But it turns out that Onegin's hauteur is affected: he has always loved her passionately. She loves him too and both reflect painfully on what might have been.

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"A Seminary Co-Op Notable Book of the Year""Provocative. . . .A brilliant book."---Shadi Barsch, Times Literary Supplement

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Book SynopsisIn order to rescue his beloved Lyudmila, who has been abducted by the evil wizard Chernomor, the warrior Ruslan faces an epic and perilous quest, encoutering a multitude of fantastic and terrifying characters along the way. The basis for Glinka's famous opera of the same name, Ruslan and Lyudmila - Pushkin's second longest poetical work - is a dramatic and ingenious retelling of Russian folklore, full of humour and irony.Trade ReviewHe managed what is almost unmanageable: to offer parody and enchantment at the same time -- Colm Tóibín

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Book SynopsisA fresh translation--and new envisioning--of the most accessible and beloved of all classic Chinese poetry.Welcome to the magical, windswept world of Cold Mountain. These poems from the literary riches of China have long been celebrated by cultures of both East and West—and continue to be revered as among the most inspiring and enduring works of poetry worldwide. This groundbreaking new translation presents the full corpus of poetry traditionally associated with Hanshan (“Cold Mountain”) and sheds light on its origins and authorship like never before. Kazuaki Tanahashi and Peter Levitt honor the contemplative Buddhist elements of this classic collection of poems while revealing Hanshan’s famously jubilant humor, deep love of solitude in nature, and overwhelming warmth of heart. In addition, this translation features the full Chinese text of the original poems and a wealth of fascinating supplements, including traditional historical records, an in-depth study of the Cold Mountain poets (here presented as three distinct authors), and more.

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Book SynopsisThe Poems of Catullus describes the lifestyle of the Latin poet Catullus, his friends, and his lover, Lesbia. Catullus writes about each of his subjects in tones unique to them. With wild stories of the trouble and comradery shared by his friends, Catullus provides insight on more scandalous aspects of high society Roman culture. However, Catullus’ most shocking and compelling subject is his lover, Lesbia, the wife of an aristocrat. The two share a secret and sensual love, taboo not just because of the infidelity, but because Lesbia is many years older than Catullus. Throughout his poems, Catullus depicts their complicated relationship, first in a tender, lustful way, detailing their affairs, then gradually becomes more heated with angst and confusion. In his exploration of their relationship, Catullus embodies the possibility of simultaneously loving and hating someone. With vivid emotion and imagery, The Poems of Catullus provide a clear picture of the poet, his friends, and his lover and invoke a strong impression on its audience. Because of the deep emotions infused with each word and the visceral depictions of ancient Roman life, this collection of poetry is relatable to a modern-day audience, and is an essential educational source. Catullus paved the way and inspired change in the art of poetry, influencing countless poets and poetry styles. The Poems of Catullus also helped create the idea of poetry as a profession. The Poems of Catullus serves a valuable and educational source, enlightening audiences on the culture of the upper-class of the late Roman Republic. However, because Catullus also explores the complex human emotions regarding friendship, sex, and love, The Poems of Catullus have proven to be a timeless testament to the duality of humankind, embracing emotions that lie between the extremes in the spectrum of feeling. Catering to a contemporary audience, this edition of The Poems of Catullus features a new, eye-catching cover design and is reprinted in a modern font to accompany the timeless exploration of human emotion and the humorous, exciting life events of the influential poet Catullus.

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Book SynopsisJames Fenton''s An Introduction to English Poetry offers a master class for both the reader and writer of poetry. Simply and elegantly written and discussing the work of poets as wide ranging as W. H. Auden, Dylan Thomas, Tennyson, Kipling, Milton and Blake, it covers all varieties of poetic practice in English.''It is hard to imagine a beginner who could not learn from [this book]. If you know a young poet, give them this'' The Times Literary SupplementTrade Review'It is hard to imagine a beginner who could not learn from [this book]. If you know a young poet, give them this' The Times Literary SupplementTable of ContentsThe history and scope of English poetry; where music and poetry divide; the training of the poet; the sense of form; the iambic pentameter; variations in the line; patterns of stress; mysteries of the trochee; the genius of the trochee; the shorter lines; the iambic tetrameter; the longer lines; the shorter stanza; the longer stanza; the sonnet; minor forms; rhyme; syllabics; free verse; writing for the eye; poetic drama and opera.

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Book SynopsisPoetry and music have been associated with each other from the very beginning. The Penguin Book of English Song draws together a great variety of English poetry (including Irish, Scots and Welsh writers) that has reached a wider audience through the magic of music. Richard Stokes''s rich anthology of verse stretches from the fourteenth century to the twentieth, collecting poems that have inspired musical settings by one hundred English poets, along with a treasure trove of illuminating notes and marginalia about their lives, work and, often, their approach to music.Stokes gathers together in a single volume a huge amount of information about English song that will assist musicians in performing these works, and enlighten all those enthusiasts who delight in the fusion of words and music that has produced countless moments of incandescent magic.

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Book SynopsisAn ancient Central Asian epic, passed down through generations, carries the reader into a world of nomads, warriors and horselords A Penguin ClassicThis tale from the Manas epic gives the reader startling, brilliantly colored access to the world of the horse-based nomad cultures of Central Asia. Written down in the early twentieth century but drawing on sources of antiquity, The Memorial Feast for Kökötöy Khan is the bravura telling of the story of a new and uncertain khan, Boqmurun, and his decision to hold a great gathering to commemorate the life and death of Kökötoy, his already legendary predecessor. From the Muslim lands to the west to China in the east, great warriors and their turbulent retinues gather in the high grasslands to feast, compete and quarrel. Beautifully translated by Daniel Prior, The Memorial Feast allows the reader to get closer than any other source to a sense of the values, glamour and odditiesTrade ReviewPrior's translation ... is written in clear, idiomatic, and often lively English ... Prior's reliable and well annotated translation ... will certainly help further the popularity of the Kirghiz epic tradition. -- Karl Reichl * Turkic Languages *Prior's translation reads in an appropriately lively and energetic way - and even in this form lends itself to being read aloud ... a fine example of how to present a literary work from a lesser-known culture and tradition to readers. -- M. A. Orthofer * complete review *

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Book SynopsisWhy be frightened of the most wonderful collection of tales ever written? No Fear: The Canterbury Tales makes it simple for students to love Chaucer's masterpiece in all its humor, bawdiness, and poignancy. It features the original text on the left-hand page, side-by-side with an easy-to-understand translation on the right; in addition, there is a complete list of characters with descriptions and plenty of helpful commentary.

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Book SynopsisThe Rape of the Lock (1906) is an epic poem by English literary icon Alexander Pope. Known for his caustic wit and satirical outlook as much as he was for his formal expertise, Pope is arguably the most important English poet of the eighteenth century. His work influenced such figures as William Wordsworth, Samuel Johnson, and Jonathan Swift. Drawing on his immense knowledge of ancient Greek and Latin literature, Alexander Pope’s The Rape of the Lock is a mock epic which captures the essence of classical divinity and poetry while illuminating the absurdity and stupidity of English aristocratic life. The poem centers on a Baron’s obsession with the hair of the beautiful socialite Belinda. Although her hair is protected by divine Sylphs, the Baron eventually succeeds, using a pair of scissors to snip off a lock of Belinda’s hair. This throws the world of the poem into chaos—Belinda is outraged, and the divine creatures which move invisibly between worlds try their best to restore order to the universe. The poem culminates with a battle between Belinda and the Baron, mimicking the heroism and warfare of the best of Homer while casting a critical eye on the values of England’s elite. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Alexander Pope’s The Rape of the Lock is a classic of English literature reimagined for modern readers.

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Book SynopsisWhile traveling to a wedding, a young man is pulled into the eventful narrative of the Ancient Mariner who is compelled to share his story. It’s a miraculous tale about guilt, humanity and one’s capacity to change. The Ancient Mariner notices a young man traveling to a nearby wedding. He abruptly interrupts his journey and starts sharing a story about his time at sea. He details its humble beginnings and the tumultuous events that followed. As the young man listens, he’s taken aback by the story and the man’s fight for survival. The Ancient Mariner faced hunger, thirst and eventually death before making a realization that would change the course of his life forever. Rime of the Ancient Mariner is one of Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s most famous works. Initially published in 1798, it’s had a lasting impact on literature and pop culture, including music and film. It’s a brilliant tale of morality that examines a character’s actions and the inevitable consequences. With an eye-catching new cover, and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Rime of the Ancient Mariner is both modern and readable.

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Book SynopsisAlisoun Sings finds its starting-point with Chaucer’s iconic, proto-feminist Wife of Bath. Her forceful voice leads the way across narratives of genders, and addresses the brutality of social conventions with caustic humor. This labyrinthine text navigates love and protest in landscapes impacted by global warming, systemic violence and solar eclipses. Bergvall continues her previous work creating texts that rest on transhistoric forms of English, beyond its dominance as a global lingua franca, and places her quest in the intersections and migrations of stories and languages.Trade Review"There’s something echt modernist about Caroline Bergvall’s longterm project of turning over, repurposing, and generally fucking around with the western canon…Begvall’s Alisoun has the linguistic panache, the historical learning, and the theoretical chops not merely to rehearse a thousand years of oppression and resistance, but to offer in the poem’s final passages an infectiously uplifting—even for the cynical—call to arms."—Mark Scroggins, Hyperallergic "The language evolves here, making Alisoun solidly in the forgotten and misunderstood past, while invading the present. This is a manifesto, an affirmation of identity, a recognition of a voice finally given shape."—Nick Ripatrazone, The Millions "In Alisoun you find it also in the pronouns, with 'het, hem, em,' which allows us to rethink what is actually being said: Is it a pronoun? Is it a verb? That kind of play on the pronoun is similarly translated. Rather than having a translator go from A to B, it becomes an AB-type thing. Translation doesn’t have a resting point neither here nor there. But it spans that stretch. It comes across so many interactions. There’s no final mastery in translation because it’s taken over by the performative one way or another."—Greg Nissan, BOMB "Bergvall turns ‘illegibility’ on its head: she insists on a poetics that is neither merely read nor impossible to read. Instead, Bergvall attempts to offer another way of being, necessarily multiple. This affords space for unknowing, for the unrecognizable, where political vision and perhaps even political intimacy and solidarity does not require immediate recognition within our normative configurations of the sensible and knowable."—Rebecca Teich, The Poetry Project Newsletter "Love binds, love connects. And through Bergvall’s ongoing commitments, those bindings and connections are explored thoroughly and beautifully. Closing the trilogy, finding the last poem, contains a bit of heartache, a sighing wish for Bergvall to continue. But, in fact, I won’t be surprised if that’s indeed what happens, if Bergvall finds yet another extension to this ongoing work. As Alisoun says in the book’s final poem, 'The era of ma tellings nat bygone, just bigonne.' As symbol, as voice, as voices, there is much yet to read, many more moments to listen."—Greg Bem, Rain Taxi "Resounding. Re-sounding. Resonance is the name of the game Caroline Bergvall presents in all those language games she plays seriously, and serially, more than totally."—Kyoo Lee, Spittoon Collective "If we cluster, grow broader, aggregate, say yes to both ourselves and the needs of those outside our own immediacies, Alisoun suggests that we will be in good company for the work of pleasurable, collective living."—Charles Theonia, Jacket2 “Caroline Bergvall brings exceptional linguistic range and sensitivity, active engagement, dynamic experimentation and intellectual passion to her poetic and artistic creations.”—Marina Warner “It made me laugh out loud in some sections, nod wisely in others, want to chorus a ‘yes!’ here, and a ‘go-girl’ there. I love its generosity, and its collectivity, its command and range of tone and style, its stylishness, and its many voices. A woman from the fourteenth century and a poet from the twenty-first join forces to tell it how it is. Chaucer better watch out.”—Clare Lees “Alisoun’s been to hell and back as an art and fashion loving, potty mouthed, unaccommodating desiring feminist queer mother-of-us-all disobedient and irrepressible and ever deep and vulnerable language breaker.”—Rachel Levitsky “As a reader the work is transportive, I enter a new and unfamiliar space as I read this, it feels almost archaeological in nature. There are worm holes here, carved out through space and language, stories and places, centuries collapse, gaps in time dissipate, the medieval and the modern merge.”—Rachel Lichtenstein “Ecofeminist writer and performer Caroline Bergvall follows her earlier brilliant Meddle English by dialoguing with, not quite melding into, Chaucer’s vernacular muse, the Wife of Bath. An inspired, tragi-hilarious mixing and meddling of modern and medieval Englishes, a rallying cry for bio- and-linguistic diversity, a ferocious unleashing of sexual and bodily power.”—David Wallace

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Book SynopsisHaiku – seventeen-syllable poems that evoke worlds despite their brevity – have captivated Japanese readers since the seventeenth century. Today the form is practiced worldwide and has become established as part of our common global heritage. This beautiful traditionally hand-bound volume presents new English translations of classic poems by the four great masters of Japanese haiku – Matsuo Basho, Yosa Buson, Kobayashi Issa, and Masaoka Shiki – accompanied by both the original Japanese and a phonetic transcription, and a photograph or artwork highlighting or echoing the poem's theme. With a timeless design, Haiku Illustrated is an expert introduction and celebration of one of the most beautiful and accessible forms of poetry in the world.Table of ContentsIntroduction Bashō The cut end of After darkness falls A crow at rest The crane’s legs Mist and Drizzle Fragrant orchid The oak tree An old pond Water jar cracks Winter sun These fireflies Such stillness In this bleak rain Beneath the tree Of its approaching death Those who see lightning Even loathsome crows Early autumn A whiff of plum blossoms Rainy season A cool wall This road Taken ill while travelling Buson Such joy in crossing The spring sea Camphor roots An old well A spring shower Fuji alone Under the mosquito net A short summer night Late for the ferry Falling into the gloom In the old pond A thunderbolt and A swing of the axe In the quiet lull Spring rains The keen chill Mustard blossoms Such joy in watching All along these ancient roads The one I yearn to meet Falling blossoms Gentle spring rain All that remains Issa Spilling from the sleeves Clinging Diminished with age Three coins Mountain temple Snowfall outside No breeze but from Spring arrives The winter fly I spared Is this, then So composed Sleeping spread-eagled Melting snows Scrawny frogs The hum of mosquitoes Come Passing through Spiders in the corners Gathering chestnuts No one to scold My home village No sleep for me Shiki A pruned branch So desperately Hydrangeas Cooling moon Come back alive Swept up by the wind The train passes After killing a spider At the public bath In the next room, too House-bound in winter A summer insect Settled on The old garden Over the rails Knife by the bed Song of the cicada A coffin on the On every island Snapped in a I untied the wrapping cloth A painting of snow Having painted a peony

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Book SynopsisJalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī (1207–73) was a 13th-century Persian poet, Islamic scholar, theologian, and Sufi mystic originally from Greater Khorasan in Iran. This Chinese-bound volume offers a selection of his many poems with a variety of themes, including love, marriage, life and death, passion and mysticism, as well as his religious collection, Rubaiyat, and his long poem, Masnavi, one of the most influential works of Sufism, an Islamic form of mysticism. Rumi's reach transcends national borders and ethnic divisions: his poetry has influenced not only Persian literature, but also the literary traditions of the Ottoman Turkish, Chagatai, Urdu, Bengali and Pashto languages.Table of ContentsIntroductionPoems:A Cry to the Beloved The Prince of the Fair Mortality and Immortality Remember God and Forget Self Thou Art the Soul of the World The Moon-Soul and the Sea Our Desert hath No Bound The Divine Friend When I Die The Journey to the Beloved The World gave thee False Clues At Morning Tide Thou and IFrom the Masnavi:The Prince and the Handmaid The Lion and the Beasts The Sufi’s Beast The Falcon and the Owls The King and his Two Slaves The Man who made a Pet of a Bear The Travellers who ate the Young Elephant The Jackal who Pretended to be a Peacock The Elephant in a Dark Room Mahmud and Ayaz The Lion, the Fox, and the Ass The Three Travellers

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Book SynopsisThis collection of Dante Alighieri’s lyrics charts his poetic evolution and displays the ground on which his Vita nuova and Divine Comedy developed. Inspired in his early poems by troubadour love poetry, Dante would later come to master all the genres of the time, such as the canzone, the sonnet and the ballad. At the same time deeply personal – dealing with themes of love, death and exile – and imbued with the poetic and political milieux of the period, Dante’s Rime offer a fascinating glimpse into the imagination of arguably the greatest writer of all time.Trade ReviewDante’s is the most comprehensive and the most ordered presentation of emotions that has ever been made. -- T.S. Eliot

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Book SynopsisWhen Emily Dickinson died in 1886, having published only a tiny selection of her verse anonymously in journals and newspapers, she left behind a chest containing almost 1,800 poems written on notebooks and loose sheets. Her family members, starting with her sister Lavinia, began editing and compiling them for publication, and one of the most celebrated collections, The Single Hound, was prepared by her niece Martha Dickinson Bianchi and published in 1914. This volume, containing some of Dickinson’s most original and poignant pieces, helped cement her reputation as one of America’s most important poets. Sparse and experimental, yet accessible and intimate, the compositions included in The Single Hound provide an ideal introduction to Dickinson’s genius.Trade ReviewEmily was my patron saint. -- William Carlos Williams

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Book SynopsisOne of the pillars of nineteenth-century Russian prose fiction alongside towering figures such as Gogol, Dostoevsky and Tolstoy, Ivan Turgenev started his writing career as a poet, gaining much critical acclaim and renown in that field. The title piece of this collection, Parasha, which brought the young author to the attention of the influential critic Vissarion Belinsky and established his reputation, is a humorous narrative poem in the vein of Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin or Lermontov’s Sashka, telling the story of a young woman’s marriage to her dull, unromantic neighbour and the couple’s humdrum and more or less happy life ever after. Also contained in this volume are four other narrative poems by Turgenev – Andrei, A Conversation, The Landowner and The Village Priest – all showing the author’s early interest in ordinary stories of Russian life and all displaying the wit and stylistic versatility that we have come to associate with his more famous prose works.

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Book SynopsisThe major seventeenth-century English poet between Shakespeare and Milton, Donne is chiefly celebrated as a love poet. But he was also the author of magnificent satires and epistles, and a series of religious poems including the Holy Sonnets. All these genres are represented in this volume, together with a selection from his prayers, letters and sermons, presenting a complete portrait of a great poet an an extraordinary man.

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Book SynopsisSome of the poets included in this anthology: Theocritus, Edmund Spenser, Edward Lear, Robert Browning, Thomas Hardy, John Donne, Philip Larkin, Anne Bradstreet, Emily Dickinson, Rossetti, Shelley and Kipling...

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Book SynopsisThe poetry of Helen Craik (17511825), Gothic novelist and friend of Robert Burns, was long thought lost. The rediscovery of her manuscript Poems by a Lady (1790), transcribed and annotated here for the first time, invites a fresh evaluation of her life and work. From short satires and verse-letters to longer dramatic monologues of psychological introspection, these thirty-nine poems offer an invaluable insight into her social circle in the Dumfries area and her wide literary interests, demonstrating the distinctive imagination later seen in Craik's novels. The introduction discusses Craik's biography and the major themes in her work, casting new light on why, two years after finishing these poems, she suddenly left home and family. With full notes on each poem's background, and additional source material, this volume adds significantly to Craik scholarship and to the critical reassessment of poetry by Scottish women in the Romantic era.

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Book Synopsis"In this expanded edition of his distinguished Sappho: Poems and Fragments (2002), Stanley Lombardo offers over 100 fragments not included in the original edition, as well as the new poems discovered in 2004 and 2014. His translation of this latter material yields fresh insights into Sappho's representations of old age, two of her brothers, and her special relationship with Aphrodite. Pamela Gordon’s engaging, balanced, and informative Introduction has been revised to incorporate discussion of the new fragments, which subtly alter our previous understanding of the archaic poet’s corpus. Complete Poems and Fragments also offers a useful updated bibliography, as well as a section on 'Elegiac Sappho' that presents the reception of the Lesbian poet in later Greek and Latin elegiac poems. A wonderful find for any Greekless reader searching for a complete and up-to-date Sappho. —Patricia A. Rosenmeyer, Department of Classics, University of Wisconsin–MadisonTrade Review"Very good indeed to have a complete and up-to-date Sappho for the non-specialist reader, and especially one with such an intelligent and helpful Introduction to the poet herself." —Jenny March, in The Reading Room, classicsforall.org.uk

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Book SynopsisAn anthology of works by nineteenth-century French poet Paul Verlaine, presenting both the French texts and new translations and setting the poems in the context of Verlaine’s troubled life and his literary development. Trade Review“The most comprehensive, and arguably the most definitive, bilingual collection to date of the work of French poet Paul Verlaine. . . . Rosenberg offers expansive translations without sacrificing the emotion or musicality of the original verse. The result is a masterful, spirited representation in English translation of Verlaine’s impact on modernist poetry. Essential.”—A. J. Guillaume Jr. Choice“This anthology gives a fuller picture of Verlaine’s poetry than many translations have offered in the past, providing some of his most famous verse but also some political and homoerotic works for which he is less known. The translations capture and reproduce Verlaine’s variety of registers and style in lively renderings that are faithful to the spirit of the buoyant original verse.”—Joseph Acquisto,author of The Fall Out of Redemption: Writing and Thinking Beyond Salvation in Baudelaire, Cioran, Fondane, Agamben, and Nancy“Sam Rosenberg and Nicolas Valazza have created a magnificent and much-needed edition of Paul Verlaine’s work. The musicality of Rosenberg’s translation is extraordinary, capturing the peculiar artistry of Verlaine and providing Anglophone readers with the sense of ecstasy normally reserved for those who can read his work in its original French. Valazza’s painstaking work on this edition ensures that this tome will resonate widely and, moreover, remain one of the great classics of the Verlaine corpus, in any language.”—Robert F. Barsky,Director of the W.T. Bandy Center for Baudelaire and Modern French Studies, Vanderbilt UniversityTable of ContentsContentsList of IllustrationsPreface / Nicolas ValazzaTranslator’s Note / Samuel N. RosenbergChronologyPart 1: The Parnassian YearsFirst PoemsFrom Poèmes saturniens [Saturnine Poems]From Les Amies [Girlfriends]From Fêtes galantes [Gallant Festivities]Poems Contemporaneous with Poèmes saturniens, Les Amies,and Fêtes galantes From La Bonne Chanson [The Good Song]Part 2: Under the Spell of RimbaudFirst EncountersFrom Album zutiqueFrom Romances sans paroles [Songs Without Words]Poems Contemporaneous with Romances sans parolesAfter the ShootingPart 3: From Prison to ConversionIn Prison (Poems from Cellulairement [Cellularly] andOther Poems)After the Conversion (Poems from Sagesse [Wisdom]and Other Poems)From Amour [Love] and Other PoemsFrom Bonheur [Happiness]From Liturgies intimes [Intimate Liturgies]Part 4: The Last YearsFrom Dédicaces [Dedications]From Chansons pour Elle [Songs for Her]From Odes en son honneur [Odes in Her Honor] and ÉlégiesFrom Dans les limbes [In Limbo]In England (1893)From Épigrammes [Epigrams]From Invectives [Invective]From Chair [Flesh]From Biblio-sonnetsLate Uncollected PoemsNotesSelected BibliographyIndex of Titles and First LinesIndex of Proper Nouns

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"A gem of a book. . . . Powell, who wears his learning as lightly as seersucker . . . is always sensitive to the Greek, and brings it across into clear, natural English, at the pitch-perfect register for the solemn or the ludic hymn." * Spectator *"An impressive volume that we think lovers of poetry and of classical antiquity will appreciate." * Coffee with the Poets *"This is a useful volume for the study of ancient Greek culture and, with its wealth of mythological and geographical lore, could be an illuminating companion to a tour of Greek sites and museums." * Religious Studies Review *Table of ContentsList of Illustrations List of Maps Introduction Meter and Performance Annotation; the Spelling of Ancient Names and Places; Greek Texts The Homeric Hymns The Hymns of Callimachus The Orphic Hymns The Hymns of Proclus 1. Zeus Homeric Hymn 23: To Zeus Callimachus Hymn 1: To Zeus Orphic Hymn 15: To Zeus Orphic Hymn 19: To Zeus the Thunderbolt Orphic Hymn 20: To Astrapaios Zeus 2. Hera Homeric Hymn 12: To Hera Orphic Hymn 16: To Hera 3. Poseidon Homeric Hymn 22: To Poseidon Orphic Hymn 17: To Poseidon 4. Athena Homeric Hymn 11: To Athena Homeric Hymn 28: To Athena Callimachus Hymn 5: To Athena; On the Baths of Pallas Orphic Hymn 32: To Athena Proclus Hymn 7: To Wise Athena 5. Demeter, Persephone, and Hades Homeric Hymn 2: To Demeter Homeric Hymn 13: To Demeter Callimachus Hymn 6: To Demeter Orphic Hymn 40: To Eleusinian Demeter Orphic Hymn 41: To Mother Antaia Orphic Hymn 29: To Persephone Orphic Hymn 18: To Plouton 6. Aphrodite Homeric Hymn 5: To Aphrodite Homeric Hymn 6: To Aphrodite Homeric Hymn 10: To Aphrodite Orphic Hymn 55: To Aphrodite Proclus Hymn 2: To Aphrodite Proclus Hymn 5: To the Lycian Aphrodite 7. Hephaistos Homeric Hymn 20: To Hephaistos Orphic Hymn 66: To Hephaistos 8. Apollo and the Muses Homeric Hymn 3: To Apollo Homeric Hymn 21: To Apollo Homeric Hymn 25: To The Muses and Apollo Callimachus Hymn 2: To Apollo Callimachus Hymn 4: To Delos Orphic Hymn 34: To Apollo Orphic Hymn 35: To Leto Orphic Hymn 76: To the Muses Proclus Hymn 3: To the Muses 9. Artemis Homeric Hymn 9: To Artemis Homeric Hymn 27: To Artemis Callimachus Hymn 3: To Artemis Orphic Hymn 36: To Artemis 10. Hermes and Pan Homeric Hymn 4: To Hermes Homeric Hymn 18: To Hermes Orphic Hymn 28: To Hermes Orphic Hymn 57: To Chthonic Hermes Homeric Hymn 19: To Pan Orphic Hymn 11: To Pan 11. Dionysos Homeric Hymn 1: To Dionysos Homeric Hymn 7: To Dionysos Homeric Hymn 26: To Dionysos Orphic Hymn 30: To Dionysos Orphic Hymn 45: To Dionysos Bassareus and Triennial Orphic Hymn 46: To Dionysos Liknites Orphic Hymn 47: To Dionysos Perikonios Orphic Hymn 50: To Dionysos Lysios Lenaios Orphic Hymn 52: To Dionysos, God of the Triennial Feasts Orphic Hymn 53: To Dionysos, God of Annual Feasts Orphic Hymn 44: To Semelê 12. Ares Homeric Hymn 8: To Ares Orphic Hymn 65: To Ares 13. Hestia Homeric Hymn 24: To Hestia Homeric Hymn 29: To Hestia Orphic Hymn 84: To Hestia 14. Sun, Moon, Earth, Hekatê, and All the Gods Homeric Hymns 31 and 32: To the Sun and the Moon Orphic Hymn 8: To the Sun Orphic Hymn 9: To the Moon Proclus Hymn 1: To Helios Homeric Hymn 30: To Earth Mother of All Orphic Hymn 26: To Earth Orphic Hymn 1: To Hekatê Proclus Hymn 6: To the Mother of the Gods, Hekatê, and Janus/Zeus Proclus Hymn 4: To All the Gods Bibliography Glossary/Index

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Book SynopsisReviled as a regicide, isolated in a personal darkness, and aging, John Milton did not relinquish his voice. He somehow used that tireless voice, rather, to create Paradise Lost, one of the enduring masterpieces of English literature. Despite its difficulties-idiosyncratic syntax, densely packed ideas, capacious structure, and epic form-the poem still has the power to dislodge modern readers from our ordinary habits of reading and push us to experience new perspectives and new ideas. This new edition, based on the 1674 text, guides readers through the poem's interpretive challenges with a compact but thorough introduction and a readable and helpfully annotated text. Illuminating contextual materials, including related works by Milton, classical and biblical sources, material on the composition of the poem, and illustrations of Paradise Lost from the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries, are also included.Trade ReviewWho better than the distinguished literary historian of conscience to produce an edition of Milton's masterpiece? In his incisive introduction, Abraham Stoll wears his considerable learning lightly, managing to explain in a few words how Milton's particular interest in liberty and free will structure his long poem, and how bold and confrontational Milton was when he opposed the dominance of predestination Calvinism and placed arguments he had used to defend the unlicensed printing press in the mouth of Eve asking Adam for the right to roam throughout the Garden of Eden. The edition contains carefully thought-out footnotes and a series of appendices containing relevant images, extracts from the Bible, and notes Milton made of his plans for Paradise Lost. Overall, this is a splendid new edition that brings the poem to life for the modern reader." - Andrew Hadfield, University of SussexTable of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroductionNote on the TextParadise Lost Andrew Marvell, 'On Paradise Lost' The Verse Book 1 Book 2 Book 3 Book 4 Book 5 Book 6 Book 7 Book 8 Book 9 Book 10 Book 11 Book 12 In Context Reproductions of the 1674 Paradise Lost The Cosmography of Paradise Lost Illustrations of Paradise Lost Selections from the Bible Genesis 1–3: The Creation Genesis 18: Angels and God Job 1: Satan John 1.1–14: The Son 1 Timothy 2.8–15: Eve in the New Testament Revelation 12: The War in Heaven from Hesiod, Theogony John Milton’s Early Plans for Paradise Lost from John Milton, Areopagitica (1644) from John Milton, De Doctrina Christiana (c. 1658–74) from The Epistle from Chapter 2, Of God from Chapter 5, Of the Son of God from Chapter 7, Of the Creation from Chapter 30, Of the Holy Scripture Permissions Acknowledgments

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Book SynopsisSophocles was the dominant Athenian playwright of the fifth century BCE. This translation includes his best-known work, such as the "Oedipus cycle" ("Oedipus the King", "Oedipus at Kolonos", and "Antigone"), "Elektra and the Women of Trakhis" "Philoktetes" and "Aias".Trade Review"Bagg and Scully's renderings strike me as the most performable versions of Sophocles I've ever encountered...if you're looking for the translation that best reflects the emotional force and expressive range of the original plays, you would be hard pressed to do better." -- Philadelphia Inquirer

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"A gem of a book. . . . Powell, who wears his learning as lightly as seersucker . . . is always sensitive to the Greek, and brings it across into clear, natural English, at the pitch-perfect register for the solemn or the ludic hymn." * Spectator *"An impressive volume that we think lovers of poetry and of classical antiquity will appreciate." * Coffee with the Poets *"This is a useful volume for the study of ancient Greek culture and, with its wealth of mythological and geographical lore, could be an illuminating companion to a tour of Greek sites and museums." * Religious Studies Review *Table of ContentsList of Illustrations List of Maps Introduction Meter and Performance Annotation; the Spelling of Ancient Names and Places; Greek Texts The Homeric Hymns The Hymns of Callimachus The Orphic Hymns The Hymns of Proclus 1. Zeus Homeric Hymn 23: To Zeus Callimachus Hymn 1: To Zeus Orphic Hymn 15: To Zeus Orphic Hymn 19: To Zeus the Thunderbolt Orphic Hymn 20: To Astrapaios Zeus 2. Hera Homeric Hymn 12: To Hera Orphic Hymn 16: To Hera 3. Poseidon Homeric Hymn 22: To Poseidon Orphic Hymn 17: To Poseidon 4. Athena Homeric Hymn 11: To Athena Homeric Hymn 28: To Athena Callimachus Hymn 5: To Athena; On the Baths of Pallas Orphic Hymn 32: To Athena Proclus Hymn 7: To Wise Athena 5. Demeter, Persephone, and Hades Homeric Hymn 2: To Demeter Homeric Hymn 13: To Demeter Callimachus Hymn 6: To Demeter Orphic Hymn 40: To Eleusinian Demeter Orphic Hymn 41: To Mother Antaia Orphic Hymn 29: To Persephone Orphic Hymn 18: To Plouton 6. Aphrodite Homeric Hymn 5: To Aphrodite Homeric Hymn 6: To Aphrodite Homeric Hymn 10: To Aphrodite Orphic Hymn 55: To Aphrodite Proclus Hymn 2: To Aphrodite Proclus Hymn 5: To the Lycian Aphrodite 7. Hephaistos Homeric Hymn 20: To Hephaistos Orphic Hymn 66: To Hephaistos 8. Apollo and the Muses Homeric Hymn 3: To Apollo Homeric Hymn 21: To Apollo Homeric Hymn 25: To The Muses and Apollo Callimachus Hymn 2: To Apollo Callimachus Hymn 4: To Delos Orphic Hymn 34: To Apollo Orphic Hymn 35: To Leto Orphic Hymn 76: To the Muses Proclus Hymn 3: To the Muses 9. Artemis Homeric Hymn 9: To Artemis Homeric Hymn 27: To Artemis Callimachus Hymn 3: To Artemis Orphic Hymn 36: To Artemis 10. Hermes and Pan Homeric Hymn 4: To Hermes Homeric Hymn 18: To Hermes Orphic Hymn 28: To Hermes Orphic Hymn 57: To Chthonic Hermes Homeric Hymn 19: To Pan Orphic Hymn 11: To Pan 11. Dionysos Homeric Hymn 1: To Dionysos Homeric Hymn 7: To Dionysos Homeric Hymn 26: To Dionysos Orphic Hymn 30: To Dionysos Orphic Hymn 45: To Dionysos Bassareus and Triennial Orphic Hymn 46: To Dionysos Liknites Orphic Hymn 47: To Dionysos Perikonios Orphic Hymn 50: To Dionysos Lysios Lenaios Orphic Hymn 52: To Dionysos, God of the Triennial Feasts Orphic Hymn 53: To Dionysos, God of Annual Feasts Orphic Hymn 44: To Semelê 12. Ares Homeric Hymn 8: To Ares Orphic Hymn 65: To Ares 13. Hestia Homeric Hymn 24: To Hestia Homeric Hymn 29: To Hestia Orphic Hymn 84: To Hestia 14. Sun, Moon, Earth, Hekatê, and All the Gods Homeric Hymns 31 and 32: To the Sun and the Moon Orphic Hymn 8: To the Sun Orphic Hymn 9: To the Moon Proclus Hymn 1: To Helios Homeric Hymn 30: To Earth Mother of All Orphic Hymn 26: To Earth Orphic Hymn 1: To Hekatê Proclus Hymn 6: To the Mother of the Gods, Hekatê, and Janus/Zeus Proclus Hymn 4: To All the Gods Bibliography Glossary/Index

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Book SynopsisWritten by a fourteenth-century cleric, this spiritual allegory explores man in relation to his ultimate destiny against the background of teeming, colorful medieval life.

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