Poetry Books

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Book SynopsisFrom the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year 2019Shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize 2021'[Raymond Antrobus] has built another beautiful paper house which you can spend a very long and deeply satisfying time inside.' Mark Haddon 'Moving deftly between tenderness and violence, hope and grief, praise and lament, this is a deeply evocative collection that will linger in the reader’s mind.' GuardianRaymond Antrobus’s astonishing debut collection, The Perseverance, won both Rathbone Folio Prize and the Ted Hughes Award, amongst many other accolades; the poet’s much anticipated second collection, All The Names Given, continues his essential investigation into language, miscommunication, place, and memory. Throughout, All The Names Given is punctuated with [Caption Poems] partially inspired by Deaf sound artist Christine Sun Kim, which attempt to fill in the silences and transitions between the poems, as well as moments inside and outside of them. Direct, open, formally sophisticated, All The Names Given breaks new ground both in form and content: the result is a timely, humane and tender book from one of the most important young poets of his generation.

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Book SynopsisIt's Bobbie's thirty-fifth birthday party, and all her friends are wondering why she isn't married. Why can't she find the right man, settle down and start a family? A breakthrough on Broadway in 1970, Company is Stephen Sondheim and George Furth's legendary musical comedy about life, love and loneliness, featuring some of Sondheim's most iconic songs including 'Company', 'You Could Drive a Person Crazy', 'The Ladies Who Lunch', 'Side by Side' and 'Being Alive'. The acclaimed West End revival in 2018 was conceived and directed by award-winning director Marianne Elliott and produced by Elliott & Harper Productions. Reimagining the musical by switching the gender of several characters, including the protagonist Bobbie, played by Rosalie Craig, the production also starred Patti LuPone, Mel Giedroyc and Jonathan Bailey. It won the Peter Hepple Award for Best Musical at the 2018 Critics' Circle Theatre Awards. This edition features the complete revised book and lyrics for the production, colour production photographs, and an introduction by Sondheim's biographer David Benedict.Trade Review'A magic mixture of New York grit and Broadway heart... the text stands alone as a razor-sharp piece of art - and a hugely significant musical renaissance… [this edition includes] a superb introduction by David Benedict... Company jumps off the page from the word go. It's a delight to read' * Broadway World *'An astonishing reinvention of a classic musical' * The Stage *'This is more than a revival: it is a remaking' * Observer *'A sublime cocktail of an entertainment… Sensational. Theatrical magic' * Daily Telegraph *'A game changer. I can't remember ever laughing more at a musical' * i *'Thrillingly inventive' * WhatsOnStage *

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Book SynopsisPablo Neruda (1904-73) was the greatest Latin American poet of the 20th century. A prolific, inspirational poet, he wrote many different kinds of poems covering a wide range of themes, notably love, death, grief and despair. His poetry celebrates the dramatic Chilean landscape and rages against the exploitation of his people, for whom he became a national hero. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1971 for 'a poetry that with the action of an elemental force brings alive a continent's destiny and dreams'. This book presents fifty of his most essential poems in dynamic new translations, the result of an unprecedented collaboration between a team of poets, translators and leading Neruda scholars who came together to revisit or completely retranslate the poems. Also including some previously untranslated works, this bilingual edition sets the standard for a general, high-quality introduction to Neruda's complete oeuvre. The Essential Neruda includes translations by Mark Eisner, John Felstiner, Forrest Gander, Robert Hass, Jack Hirschman, Stephen Kessler, Stephen Mitchell and Alastair Reid, with an introduction by Mark Eisner and a foreword by Lawrence Ferlinghetti.Trade Review'What better way to celebrate the hundred years of Neruda's glorious residence on our earth than this selection of crucial works - in both languages! - by one of the greatest poets of all time. A splendid way to begin a love affair with our PABLO or, having already succumbed to his infinite charms, revisit him passionately again and again and yet again' - Ariel Dorfman, author of "Death and the Maiden". 'The call for a more accessible collection of Neruda's important poems is answered with The Essential Neruda - The editors and translators know how to extract gold from a lifetime of prolific writing. If you want a handy Neruda companion and don't know where to begin, this is it' - Ray Gonzalez, Bloomsbury Review. 'The best introduction to Neruda available in English. In fact, I can think of few other books that have given me so much delight so easily. At only 234 pages (bilingual), it somehow manages to convey the fullness of Neruda's poetic arc: reading it is like reading the autobiography of a poetic sensibility (granted, the abridged version)' - Dominic Luxford, Austin Chronicle.Table of ContentsPreface by Lawrence Ferlinghetti xv Introduction by Mark Eisner xvii From Veinte poemas de amor y una cancion desesperada (1924) 1. Cuerpo de mujer / Body of woman 2 / 3 7. Inclinado en las tardes / Leaning into the evenings 4 / 5 15. Me gustas cuando callas / I like you when you're quiet 6 / 7 20. Puedo escribir los versos mas tristes / I can write the saddest verses 8 / 9 From Residencia en la tierra, I (1933) Galope muerto / Dead Gallop 12 / 13 Unidad / Oneness 16 / 17 Arte poetica / Ars Poetica 18 / 19 Sistema sombrio / System of Gloom 20 / 21 El fantasma del buque de carga / The Phantom of the Cargo Ship 22 / 23 Significa sombras / It Means Shadows 28 / 29 From Residencia en la tierra, II (1935) Solo la muerte / Only Death 32 / 33 Barcarola / Barcarole 36 / 37 Walking around / Walking Around 42 / 43 Oda con un lamento / Ode With a Lament 46 / 47 Entrada a la madera / Entrance Into Wood 50 / 51 Vuelve el otono / Autumn Returns 54 / 55 No hay olvido (sonata) / There's No Forgetting (Sonata) 58 / 59 From Tercera residencia (1947) Explico algunas cosas / I Explain Some Things 62 / 63 From Canto general (1950) Alturas de Macchu Picchu / The Heights of Macchu Picchu I. Del aire al aire / From air to air 68 / 69 IV. La poderosa muerte / Powerful death 70 / 71 VI. Entonces en la escala / And then on the ladder 74 / 75 VIII. Sube conmigo / Climb up with me 78 / 79 X. Piedra en la piedra / Stone upon stone 84 / 85 XI. A traves del confuso esplendor / Down through the blurred splendor 88 / 89 XII. Sube a nacer conmigo / Rise up and be born with me 90 / 91 La United Fruit Co. / The United Fruit Co. 94 / 95 El Fugitivo XII: A todos, a vosotros / To everyone, to you 98 / 99 El gran oceano / The Great Ocean 102 / 103 From Los versos del capitan (1952) El alfarero / The Potter 106 / 107 From Odas elementales (1954) Oda a una castana en el suelo / Ode to a Chestnut on the Ground 108 / 109 Oda al libro (II) / Ode to the Book (II) 114 / 115 Oda a un reloj en la noche / Ode to a Watch in the Night 122 / 123 Oda al vino / Ode to Wine 128 / 129 From Estravagario (1958) Fabula de la sirena y los borrachos / The Fable of the Mermaid and the Drunkards 134 / 135 El gran mantel / The Great Tablecloth 136 / 137 From Cien sonetos de amor (1960) XII. Plena mujer, manzana carnal / Full woman, carnal apple 140 / 141 XVII. No te amo como si fueras rosa / I don't love you as if you were a rose 142 / 143 From Plenos poderes (1962) Deber del poeta / The Poet's Obligation 144 / 145 La palabra / The word 148 / 149 El mar / The Sea 154 / 155 El pueblo / The People 156 / 157 From Memorial de Isla Negra (1964) La poesia / Poetry 166 / 167 Aquellas vidas / Those Lives 170 / 171 Pleno octubre / October Fullness 174 / 175 No hay pura luz / There Is No Clear Light 178 / 179 Insomnio / Insomnia 182 / 183 El futuro es espacio / The Future Is Space 184 / 185 From El mar y las campanas (posthumous) Si, camarada, es hora de jardin / Right, comrade, it's the hour of the garden 188 / 189 From Jardin de invierno (posthumous) El egoista / The Egoist 192 / 193 Jardin de invierno / Winter Garden 196 / 197

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Book SynopsisThe present selection traces the development of Yeats’s verse, encompassing the poet’s interest in Irish folklore and national identity, his engagement with the political situation of his day and the rich symbolism that is the hallmark of his work and a reflection of his lifelong fascination with the occult. It contains some of his best-known pieces, including the elegiac ‘Easter 1916’, the apocalyptic ‘The Second Coming’ and the reflective and spiritual ‘Sailing to Byzantium’. Often radical in content but always traditional in form, these poems are by turns startling and affecting, and never less than inspired. Taken together, they form an ideal introduction to the poetic career of one of Ireland’s greatest literary figures.Trade ReviewYeats is like a mountain range, lying on the horizon. He can’t be emulated; you just walk around under the shade. -- Seamus Heaney

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Book SynopsisI love fire. Fire is the colour of genius.In this audacious new work, Edna O'Brien gives voice to the women who were central to the life of James Joyce.James Joyce had been my ultimate hero for sixty years, but to paint the canvas of his life was daunting. Therefore I decided to depict him as seen by the key figures in his life - Mother, Wife, Mistress of a fleeting moment, his patron Harriet Weaver and his beloved Daughter Lucia, of whom he said her mind was but a transparent leaf away from his.'Written to celebrate the centenary of Ulysses, Joyce's Women premiered at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, in September 2022. This revised edition includes changes made by the author during rehearsals and previews of the play''s first production.

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Book SynopsisIn the long-awaited follow-up to his bestselling collection, The Truth of You, poet Iain Thomas explores the unseen forces that shape our inner experience.A collection of over 200 pieces of poetry and prose, The Secret of You focuses on the thoughts and feelings that we might not share and have trouble expressing, the things that we need to let go in order to heal.   Enhanced by ink illustrations, Thomas’s newest volume asks and answers vulnerable questions on themes of love, loss, identity, shame, and more. 

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Book Synopsis"Marigold was absorbed in her book; she had gotten as far as the V." So begins Marigold and Rose, Louise Glück's astonishing chronicle of the first year in the life of twin girls. Imagine a fairy tale that is also a multigenerational saga; a piece for two hands that is also a symphony; a poem that is also, in the spirit of Kafka's The Metamorphosis, an incandescent act of autobiography. Here are the elements you'd expect to find in a story of infant twins: Father and Mother, Grandmother and Other Grandmother, bath time and naptime—but more than that, Marigold and Rose is an investigation of the great mystery of language and of time itself, of what is and what has been and what will be. "Outside the playpen there were day and night. What did they add up to? Time was what they added up to. Rain arrived, then snow." The twins learn to climb stairs, they regard each other like criminals through the bars of their cribs, they begin to speak. "It was evening. Rose was smiling placidly in the bathtub playing with the squirting elephant, which, according to Mother, represented patience, strength, loyalty and wisdom. How does she do it, Marigold thought, knowing what we know." Simultaneously sad and funny, and shot through with a sense of stoic wonder, this small miracle of a book, following thirteen books of poetry and two collections of essays, is unlike anything Glück has written, while at the same time it is inevitable, transcendent.Trade Review'Gluck speaks to our time in a voice that is onstage, but heard from the wings' - Publishers Weekly

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Book SynopsisO Positive is the long-awaited debut collection of poetry from Joe Dunthorne, and it has all the appeal of his widely acclaimed fiction. Adopting a sunny, genial tone, Dunthorne lures the reader to darker places, exploring death and dread, failure and regret the lounge of our suffering'. Often, he catches us off-guard: a whiplash' effect where poems shift from laughter to slaughter in a moment. Impertinent owls, an immersive theatre troupe, ancient men from the Great War and idiot balloonists such characters dramatise our human fancies and foibles, joining the protagonist in scenarios both humorously bizarre and all-too-familiar. These performances serve to probe and unpeel the layers of the self all the way down to the raw.

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Book SynopsisIshy Din is an award winning writer for stage screen and radio Currently he is under commission from the RSC for a new play about the Mughals. Other original projects in development include a crime drama for Lime Pictures, a feature film, FRAUD, through Gurinder Chadha's company Bend It Networks and PAAK UNITED. His most recent play, APPROACHING EMPTY, a co-production between Tamasha/The Kiln/Live Theatre, Newcastle opened at The Kiln in London in January 2019 and toured until April. Other credits for the same year include an episode of SHAKESPEARE & HATHAWAY (BBC). In 2018 TAXI TALES, produced by Tamasha, was broadcast on BBC2 as part of BBC LIVE, (BAC/ACE/BBC) live theatre broadcast. In 2016/2017, Ishy wrote on C4 series ACKLEY BRIDGE. Ishy Din's first radio play was JOHN BARNES SAVED MY LIFE for BBC Radio 5 Live. Other credits include LIFE'S LIKE THAT for the the BBC TV and PARKING AND PAKORAS for local radio. His play SNOOKERED toured in 2012 taking in the Traverse Edinburgh and a 4 week run at the Bush Theatre, London.Ishy was the 2012 Pearson Writer in Residence at the Manchester Royal Exchange and in 2013 Snookered won Best New Play' at the Manchester Theatre Awards.

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Book SynopsisFeatures 32 works â among them "The Convent Threshold," "Up-hill," "Cousin Kate," "Winter: My Secret," "Maude Clare," and celebrated title poem.

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Book SynopsisThe Exam is a funny but serious look at the pressures faced by pupils today, both at school and at home. The play is accompanied by teaching materials containing fantastic ideas for drama work, as well as other activities designed to answer English Framework and NC objectives.The exam is comic look at the pressures put on young people by parents and teachers.Andrew, Chas and Bea are three candidates of mixed ability who find themselves holed up in the same exam hall waiting for their papers to arrive.As the wait lenghens, each has to survive a powerful barrage of self doubt, parental pressure and adult incompetence. They must come to terms with themselves, their peers and parents provoked and helped by 'Ex', the mysterious, disembodied voice of the exam.Trade Review“This new series of plays commissioned by National Theatre Education, in editions containing excellent resources and activities, is long overdue… The Exam is a real gem – funny, relevant, clear-sighted and eminently suitable for either performance or classroom study.”Ink Pellet “The funniest play I have ever read.”TES “Written with school productions in mind, the stage directions give clear instructions about character’s mood, appearance and behaviour, while a comprehensive section of notes suggests a variety of methods young actors can use to reach a better understanding of their characters.”The Guardian “This script contains plenty of multi-cultural and popular culture references, which will help to strengthen its appeal to the age group it is intended for… It is an ideal choice for work by a drama group.”The Secondary English Magazine

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Book SynopsisHarperCollins is proud to present its incredible range of best-loved, essential classics.Written by an anonymous poet between the 8th and 11th centuries, this Old English epic poem follows the story of Beowulf, courageous hero of the Geats in Scandinavia. The King of the Danes has found his hall and his people under attack by a monster known as Grendel, and Beowulf fearlessly offers to defend them. The fearsome warrior defeats Grendel with his bare hands, only to find that Grendel's mother is hot on his heels. Beowulf defeats this second ferocious monster with the skill of his sword, and returns to Geatland, victorious.Fifty years pass, during which Beowulf has become King of the Geats, and his bravery is once more called to task. This time, Beowulf must defeat a clever and vicious dragon, but now in the hopes of defending his own people and land, or risk losing everything.One of the most important works of Anglo-Saxon literature, Beowulf is the thrilling tale of the eponymous hero in

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Book SynopsisA raw, honest and heartfelt poetry collection from Taz Alam for the tough times, the great times, and everything in between.Depressed, but it's fine.Anxious, but it's fine.Heartbroken, but it's fine.When you're ready to embrace how you really feel,I hope this book helps you connect, reflect, and be seen.What matters is that you're here.Maybe we can be fine, together.

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Book SynopsisThe Faerie Queene was the first epic in English and one of the most influential poems in the language for later poets from Milton to Tennyson. Dedicating his work to Elizabeth I, Spenser brilliantly united medieval romance and renaissance epic to expound the glory of the Virgin Queen. The poem recounts the quests of knights including Sir Guyon, Knight of Constance, who resists temptation, and Artegall, Knight of Justice, whose story alludes to the execution of Mary Queen of Scots. Composed as an overt moral and political allegory, The Faerie Queene, with its dramatic episodes of chivalry, pageantry and courtly love, is also a supreme work of atmosphere, colour and sensuous description.Table of ContentsThe Faerie QueeneA Note on the TextTable of DatesFurther ReadingA Letter of the AuthorsCommendatory VersesDedicatory SonnetsBook IBook IIBook IIIBook IVBook VBook VITwo Cantos of MutabilitieTextual AppendixNotesCommon Words

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Book SynopsisA new edition of the definitive collection of modern poetry from Africa Poetry, always foremost of the arts in traditional Africa, writes Gerald Moore, has continued to compete for primacy against the newer forms of prose fiction and theatre drama. Now revised and expanded, this comprehensive anthology features the work of ninety-nine poets from twenty-seven countries; thirty-one of the poets appear here for the first time. War songs, satires, and political protests jostle with poems about love, nature, and the surprises of life, offering a rich and wide-ranging body of creative work.For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguishTrade Review"Freshness, passion, spontaneity, sensuousness are not common qualities in poetry today . . . but they are to be found in abundance among African poets of the last few decades." -The Daily Telegraph, London "Africa is producing some of the most original and exciting poetry now being written anywhere in the world." -Edward Blishen

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Book SynopsisAlthough best remembered today for his novels, Thomas Hardy thought of himself as a poet forced by circumstance to write fiction for a living. This generous selection of nearly two hundred poems includes such familiar pieces as During Wind and Rain, Channel Firing, Afterwards, The Darkling Thrush, and The Oxen, but it will also acquaint readers with many less-celebrated works, among them To Lizbie Browne, After the Last Breath, My Spirit Will Not Haunt the Mound, The Haunter, Old Furniture, A Procession of Dead Days, The Harbour Bridge, At a Country Fair, Last Love-Word, Waiting Both, and Proud Songsters. With an introduction and annotations by Robert Mezey, this Penguin Classics edition will help readers to recognize Hardy as one of the greatest English poets of this century.Table of ContentsFrom "Wessex Poems and Other Verses (1898)"; from "Poems of the Past and Present (1901)"; from "Time's Laughingsocks and Other Verses (1914)"; from "Satires of Circumstance, Lyrics and Reveries (1914)"; poems of 1912-13; from "Moments of Vision and Miscillaneous Verses (1917)"; from "Late Lyrics and Earlier (1922)"; from "Human Shows, for Phantasies, Songs and Trifles (1925)"; from "Winter Worlds in Various Moods and Metres (1928).

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Book SynopsisComposed in the early thirteenth century, Wolfram von Eschenbach''s Parzival is the re-creation and completion of the story left unfinished by its initiator Chrétien de Troyes. It follows Parzival from his boyhood and career as a knight in the court of King Arthur to his ultimate achievement as King of the Temple of the Grail, which Wolfram describes as a life-giving Stone. As a knight serving the German nobility in the imperial Hohenstauffen period, the author was uniquely placed to describe the zest and colour of his hero''s world, with dazzling depictions of courtly luxury, jousting and adventure. Yet this is not simply a tale of chivalry, but an epic quest for spiritual education, as Parzival must conquer his ignorance and pride and learn humility before he can finally win the Holy Grail.Table of ContentsParzival - Wolfram von Eschenbach Translated by A. T. HattoForewordChapter 1Chapter 2Wolfram's ApologyChapter 3Chapter 4Chapter 5Chapter 6Chapter 7Chapter 8Chapter 9Chapter 10Chapter 11Chapter 12Chapter 13Chapter 14Chapter 15Chapter 16An Introduction to a Second ReadingA Glossary of Personal NamesA List of Works in English for Further Reading

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Book SynopsisThe final volume in this brilliant translation destined to take its place among the great English versions of The Divine Comedy. In his translation of Paradise, Mark Musa exhibits the same sensitivity to language and knowledge of translation that enabled his versions of Inferno and Purgatory to capture the vibrant power and full dramatic force of Dante's poetry. Dante relates his mystical interpretation of the heavens, and his moment of transcendent glory, as he journeys, first with Beatrice, then alone, toward the Trinity. Professor Musa's extraordinary translation and his interpretive commentary, informative glossary, and bibliography clarify the theological themes and make Dante accessible to the English-speaking public.Trade Review“The English Dante of choice.” –Hugh Kenner“Exactly what we have waited for these years, a Dante with clarity, eloquence, terror, and profoundly moving depths.” –Robert Fagles, Princeton University“A marvel of fidelity to the original, of sobriety, and truly, of inspired poetry.” –Henri Peyre, Yale University

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Book SynopsisBegun in 1262 AD, Masnavi-ye Ma navi, or spiritual couplets'', is thought to be the longest single-authored mystical' poem ever written. As the spiritual masterpiece of the Persian Sufi tradition, it teaches how to progress to the ultimate goal of the Sufi path - union with God. Jalaloddin Rumi was a poet and a mystic, but he was first a teacher; in these verses he draws the reader into the complexities of human love and separation and explains the path to divine love through the elimination of self-regard and worldly desires. Drawing on diverse sources from bawdy tales and fables to stories of the prophet Mohammed, these verses are brief in expression yet copious in meaning.

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Book SynopsisA treasure trove of inspiration and an invitation for personal renewal from the acclaimed author of bone and The TerribleWe still dream though, don''t we? We are gifted with a way into ourselves, night after night after night.Yrsa Daley-Ward''s words have resonated with hundreds of thousands of readers around the world: through her books of poetry and memoir bone and The Terrible, through her powerful writing for Beyoncé on Black Is King and through her always-illuminating Instagram posts.In The How, Yrsa gently takes readers by the hand, encouraging them to join her as she explores how we can remove our filters, and see and feel more of who we really are behind the preconceived notions of propriety and manners we''ve accumulated with age. With a mix of short, lyrical musings, immersive poetry and intriguing meditations, The How can be used to start conversations, to prompt writing, to delve deepeTrade ReviewFor us, here is a book that gives and gives, I loved every word of this phenomenally generous, nourishing and beautiful book -- Salena Godden * author of Mrs Death Misses Death *A brilliant reminder that the answers we seek are within ourselves ... Yrsa Daley-Ward's words are a guidepost, a reminder, and a welcome home -- Stephanie Long * Refinery29 *A heartfelt, artful manifesto focused on living fully and authentically ... By turns simplistic, elegaic, and illuminative * Kirkus *In this gratifying exploration of the self, Daley-Ward excels at describing the indescribable ... this work defies genre and features a beautiful blend of lyrical prose and bold poetry... This is a tender, hopeful meditation * Publishers Weekly *

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Book SynopsisA collection of poems.

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis

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Book SynopsisFrom National Poetry Series winner MaKshya Tolbert, comes a lyrical debut that explores the social and ecological relief trees can provide within the entanglements of place, property, urban planning, and racial terror in Charlottesville, VirginiaShade is a place meanders east–west along Charlottesville’s Downtown Mall, seeking “a Black sense of place” at the pace of stressed shade and street trees, the mall’s architectural history, and the speaker’s inner life and ongoing questions. The collection of poems is a moving invitation to open one’s attention by looking up, down, and always within. Through lyric walking poems (“tree walks” and “shade walks”) and Bashō-style travelogue, Shade is a place unfolds as much through arboreal life as through one’s inner life—sometimes alone, sometimes with others, and always among turning trees.

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Book SynopsisRumi is the greatest mystic poet to have written in Persian, and the Masnavi, written in six books, is his masterpiece. It conveys a message of divine love in entertaining stories and homilies. The focus of Book Four is with the mystical knowledge of the spiritual guide.Table of ContentsIntroduction Note on the Translation Select Bibliography Chronology The Masnavi: Book 4 Explanatory Notes Glossary

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Book SynopsisThis volume in the 21st-Century Oxford Authors series offers students a comprehensive selection of the work of Thomas Hardythe first for nearly thirty years. The edition presents the poetry in a new way by using the text of Hardy''s individual volumes, as they appeared originally, instead of the revised text he later produced for his Collected Poems. This edition reveals the range and variety of his outputqualities he later tended to disguise. His most famous sequence, Poems of 1912-13, appears in a radically different form. Selections from his epic drama, The Dynasts, are given within the chronological sequence of his poetry, illustrating the power of this neglected work. Notebook and journal entries where Hardy puts forward his understanding of poetry and the role of the poet are also included. Uniquely generous in the number of poems it contains, this edition also provides extensive annotation, locating Hardy''s work in its cultural context and reading it in the light of the criticaTable of ContentsFROM WESSEX POEMS AND OTHER VERSES (1898) Preface [extract] The Temporary the All Hap A Confession to a Friend in Trouble Neutral Tones She Her Initials Her Dilemma She, to Him, I a ? , II a ? , III a ? , IV Ditty Valenciennes San Sebastian The Stranger s Song The Burghers Leipzig My Cicely Friends Beyond Thoughts of Ph a Middle-Age Enthusiasms In a Wood To an Orphan Child Nature s Questioning The Impercipient At an Inn In a Eweleaze near Weatherbury I Look into my Glass FROM POEMS OF THE PAST AND THE PRESENT (1901) Preface [extract] War Poems Embarcation The Dead Drummer A Wife in London The Souls of the Slain The Sick God Poems of Pilgrimage Genoa and the Mediterranean Shelley s Skylark In the Old Theatre, Fiesole Rome: Building a New Street in the Ancient Quarter Lausanne: In Gibbon s Old Garden Miscellaneous Poems The Mother Mourns A Commonplace Day At a Lunar Eclipse The Subalterns God-Forgotten The Bedridden Peasant to an Unknowing God Mute Opinion To an Unborn Pauper Child The Well-Beloved A Broken Appointment Between us now A Spot His Immortality The Superseded An August Midnight Winter in Durnover Field The Last Chrysanthemum The Darkling Thrush Mad Judy A Wasted Illness The Ruined Maid The Respectable Burgher on the Higher Criticism Her Late Husband The Self-Unseeing De Profundis I. De Profundis II. De Profundis III. The Lost Pyx: A Mediaeval Legend Tess s Lament The Supplanter : A Tale Imitations, etc. From Victor Hugo Retrospect I have Lived with Shades Memory and I a???????? ???? FROM THE DYNASTS (1904-08) Part 3, Act VI: scene viii: the road to Waterloo (extract) Part 3, Act VII, scene ix: The Wood of Bossu Part 3, After Scene (extract) From Select Poems of William Barnes. chosen and edited by Thomas Hardy (1908) Preface [extract] FROM TIME'S LAUGHINGSTOCKS AND OTHER VERSES (1909) Preface [Extract] Time s Laughingstocks The Revisitation A Trampwoman s Tragedy A Sunday Morning Tragedy Bereft The Rejected Member s Wife The Farm-Woman s Winter Autumn in the Park Shut out that Moon The Dead Man Walking Love Lyrics The Division On the Departure Platform The Phantom The Night of the Dance The Voice of the Thorn The Minute before Meeting He abjures Love A Set of Country Songs Let me Enjoy At Casterbridge Fair I: The Ballad Singer II: Former Beauties III: After the Club-Dance VII: After the Fair The Dark-eyed Gentleman To Carrey Clavel The Spring Call Julie-Jane Pieces Occasional and Various A Church Romance The Christening A Dream Question By the Barrows A Wife and Another The Roman Road After the Last Breath In Childbed The Pine Planters One We Knew Before Life and After New Year s Eve His Education Panthera The Unborn The Man He Killed Geographical Knowledge One Ralph Blossom Soliloquizes G. M., 1828-1909 FROM THE BOOK OF BABY BEASTS (1911) The Polar Bear The Rat The Calf FROM THE BOOK OF BABY BIRDS (1912) The Yellow-Hammer The Duckling The Tropic Bird FROM SATIRES OF CIRCUMSTANCE, LYRICS AND REVERIES WITH MISCELLANEOUS PIECES (1914) Lyrics and Reveries In Front of the Landscape Channel Firing The Convergence of the Twain The Ghost of the Past When I set out for Lyonnesse A Thunderstorm in Town Beyond the Last Lamp Lost Love My spirit will not haunt the mound" Wessex Heights The Place on the Map Where the Picnic was Satires of Circumstance I: At Tea II: In Church VIII: In the Study X: In the Nuptial Chamber XI: In the Restaurant XIV: Over the Coffin XV: In the Moonlight Lyrics and Reveries (continued) The Year s Awakening Under the Waterfall The Spell of the Rose St Launce s revisited Poems of 1912-13 The Going Your Last Drive The Walk Rain on a Grave I found her out there Without Ceremony Lament The Haunter The Voice His Visitor A Circular A Dream or No After a Journey A Death-day recalled Beeny Cliff At Castle Boterel Places The Phantom Horsewoman Miscellaneous Pieces The Wistful Lady The Woman in the Rye The Re-enactment The Newcomer s Wife A King s Soliloquy A Week Had you wept Bereft, she thinks she dreams In the British Museum In the Servants Quarters Regret not me The Telegram The Moth-signal Seen by the Waits Exeunt Omnes Postscript Men who march away FROM THE BOOK OF BABY PETS (1915) About Lizards FROM MOMENTS OF VISION AND MISCELLANEOUS VERSES (1917) Moments of Vision The Voice of Things Why be at painsa We sat at the window Afternoon Service at Mellstock Apostrophe to an Old Psalm Tune At the Word Farewell The Day of First Sight Heredity You were the sort that men forget She, I, and They Near Lanivet, 1872 Copying Architecture in an Old Minster To Shakespeare Quid hic agisa Timing Her The Blinded Bird The wind blew words The Riddle To my Father s Violin The Change The Young Churchwarden Lines to a Movement in Mozart s E-flat Symphony In the seventies The Pedigree The Peace-offering Something Tapped The Wound A January Night The Announcement The Oxen An Anniversary Transformations The Last Signal Great Things The Figure in the Scene Love the Monopolist At Middle-field Gate in February The Head above the Fog Overlooking the River Stour The Musical Box On Sturminster Foot-bridge The Last Performance Logs on the Hearth The Caged Goldfinch The Five Students The Wind s Prophecy During Wind and Rain He prefers her Earthly Looking Across The Pedestrian Who s in the next rooma At a Country Fair Paying Calls Everything Comes Midnight on the Great Western The Clock-winder Old Excursions In a Whispering Gallery On the Doorstep The Clock of the Years The Shadow on the Stone An Upbraiding The Young Glass-Stainer While drawing in a Churchyard Poems of War and Patriotism His Country The Pity of It In Time of the Breaking of Nations Before Marching and After A Call to National Service I looked up from my writing Finale Afterwards FROM LATE LYRICS AND EARLIER WITH MANY OTHER VERSES (1922) Apology [Extract] Weathers The Maid of Keinton Mandeville Summer Schemes Faintheart in a Railway Train The Garden Seat The Curtains now are drawn According to the Mighty Working Going and Staying The Dissemblers The Old Gown A Duettist to Her Pianoforte Where Three Roads joined And There was a Great Calm The Woman I met On Stinsford Hill at Midnight The Fallow Deer at the Lonely House The Wanderer At Lulworth Cove a Century back At the Railway Station, Upway Side by Side The Beauty On the Tune called the Old-hundred-and-fourth The Opportunity The Rift Voices from Things growing By Henstridge Cross at the Year s End The Chapel-Organist Fetching her Could I but will After a Romantic Day He follows Himself Without, not within Her The Little Old Table Last Words to a Dumb Friend On One who lived and died where He was born Outside the Casement The Passer-by I was the midmost The Whitewashed Wall The Seven Times The Sun s Last Look on the Country Girl An Ancient to Ancients After reading Psalms XXXIX, XL. Surview FROM THE FAMOUS TRAGEDY OF THE QUEEN OF CORNWALL (1924) Could he but live for me FROM HUMAN SHOWS, FAR PHANTASIES, SONGS, AND TRIFLES (1925) Waiting both Any little Old Song The Turnip-hoer Circus-rider to Ringmaster The Later Autumn Let me An East-end Curate Coming up Oxford Street: Evening A Spellbound Palace When dead Sine Prole Ten Years since A Sheep Fair Snow in the Suburbs Ice on the Highway Queen Caroline to her Guests The Weary Walker Last Love-word Nobody comes In the Street So, Time Last Look round St. Martin s Fair A Leader of Fashion When Oats were reaped She opened the Door The Harbour Bridge Vagrant s Song The Shiver At the Aquatic Sports At the Mill Alike and Unlike The Thing unplanned Retty s Phases He inadvertently cures his Love-pains Known had I Shortening Days at the Homestead The Paphian Ball The Bird-catcher s Boy Song to an Old Burden Why do Ia FROM WINTER WORDS IN VARIOUS MOODS AND METRES (1928) Introductory Note [extract] The New Dawn s Business Proud Songsters Thoughts at Midnight I am the One A Wish for Unconsciousness To Louisa in the Lane The Love-letters Throwing a Tree Her Second Husband hears her Story Yuletide in a Younger World Lying awake Childhood among the Ferns A Countenance Silences To a Tree in London The Dead Bastard The Mongrel Concerning Agnes We Field-Women A Practical Woman He never expected much Standing by the Mantelpiece Christmas: 1924 Family Portraits We are getting to the End He resolves to say no more FROM FLORENCE HARDY, THE EARLY LIFE OF THOMAS HARDY, 1840-1891 (1928) Domicilium TH s remarks on poetry from journals and diaries FROM FLORENCE HARDY, THE LATER YEARS OF THOMAS HARDY, 1892-1928 (1930) TH s remarks on poetry from journals and diaries

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Book SynopsisHecuba The Trojan Women AndromacheIn the three great war plays contained in this volume Euripides subjects the sufferings of Troy''s survivors to a harrowing examination.The horrific brutality which both women and children undergo evokes a response of unparalleled intensity in the playwright whom Aristotle called the most tragic of the poets. Yet the new battleground of the aftermath of war is one in which the women of Troy evince an overwhelming greatness of spirit. We weep for the aged Hecuba in her name play and in The Trojan Women, yet we respond with an at times appalled admiration to her resilience amid unrelieved suffering. Andromache, the slave-concubine of her husband''s killer, endures her existence in the victor''s country with a Stoic nobility. Of their time yet timeless, these plays insist on the victory of the female spirit amid the horrors visited on them by the gods and men during war. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World''s Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford''s commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.Trade ReviewI imagine that everyone who teaches Greek tragedy in translation entertains a mental wish list for the ideal classroom text. . . . The volume under review, the third in a series of translations of selected plays of Euripides by the team of James Morwood and Edith Hall, comes closer to meeting these criteria than any other with which I am familiar; it is thus welcome indeed . . . This is a translation I shall definietly be ordering for my classes * Bryn Mawr Classical Review 20/09/01 *Review from other book by this author 'Morwood's prose translations read smoothly and reflect current, idiomatic English speech...the impressively ample and up-to-date select bibliography, genuinely helpful explanatory notes for each play, useful discussion of Euripides' thought and style, and the concise, informative background information about the world in which Euripides lived all contribute to the value of this book' Review of Medea and Other Plays * Choice *Table of ContentsHecuba ; The Trojan Women ; Andromache

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Book SynopsisA sensual, tender collection to be cherished by lovers new and oldPablo Neruda was probably the greatest and certainly the most prolific of twentieth-century Latin American poets. This, his third collection, Veinte Poemas de Amor y una Cancion Desesperada, or, Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair, was first published in 1924 and attracted international acclaim. Still adored the world over, the collection is ambitiously metaphorical and sensuous. Inspired by Neruda''s own personal relationships and injected with an expressive eroticism, Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair is evidence of a genius poet at work. A perfect present for your beloved on Valentine''s Day.Trade ReviewOne of the greatest love poets of all time * Observer *His love poems have fuelled romances around the world * Independent *The poems today remain as urgently gorgeous as freshly picked flowers * Daily Telegraph *The greatest poet of the 20th century -- Gabriel García MárquezHe was that rare thing - a public poet, and a great one, held in deep affection by every layer of Chilean society. For the skill that earned him such esteem was his ability to find beauty in ordinary things * Guardian *

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Book SynopsisWinner of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry and the T.S. Eliot Poetry PrizeStag''s Leap, Sharon Olds'' stunningly poignant new sequence of poems, tells the story of a divorce, embracing strands of love, sex, sorrow, memory, and new freedom. In this wise and intimate telling - which carries us through the seasons when her marriage was ending - Sharon Olds opens her heart to the reader, sharing the feeling of invisibility that comes when we are no longer standing in love''s sight; the surprising physical passion that still exists between a couple during parting; the loss of everything from her husband''s smile to the set of his hip. Olds is naked before us, curious and brave and even generous toward the man who was her mate for thirty years and now loves another woman. As she writes in the remarkable title poem, ''When anyone escapes, my heart / leaps up. Even when it''s I who am escaped from, / I am half on the side of the leaver''.Olds'' propulsiveTrade ReviewSharon Olds, the winner of the 2012 TS Eliot Prize for Stag’s Leap, is the first female American Poet to win the prize, and perhaps the most accessible poet of her generation. -- Tom Payn * Telegraph *Olds, who has always had a gift for describing intimacy, has, in a sense, had these poems thrown at her by life and allowed them to take root: they are stunning – the best of a formidable career. -- Kate Kellaway * Observer *[A] brilliant and fearless poet. -- Joyce Carol OatesA tremendous book of grace and gallantry which crowns the career of a world-class poet. -- Carol Ann Duffy * Huffington Post *Taut and beautiful poems. -- Edna O'Brien * Guardian *

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Book SynopsisIn a stunningly original mix of poetry, drama, and narrative, Anne Carson brings the red-winged Geryon from Autobiography of Red, now called G', into manhood, and through the complex labyrinths of the modern age. We join him as he travels with his friend and lover Sad' (short for Sad But Great), a war veteran, and with Ida, an artist, across a geography that ranges from plains of glacial ice to idyllic green pastures; from a psychiatric clinic to the sombre house where G's mother must face her death. Haunted by Proust, juxtaposing the hunger for flight with the longing for family and home, this deeply powerful picaresque verse invites readers on an extraordinary journey of intellect, imagination, and soul.Trade ReviewI have never read a poet where there was such a sense that the material was so unruly it might overwhelm its creator. It is this that makes Carson exciting... She writes with spendthrift ease. -- Kate Kellaway * Observer *To engage so originally and compellingly with a story first told more than 3,000 years ago, is astonishing: her ambition is one thing, the fact that it is so completely achieved is, frankly, something else… Carson is, simply, one of the very best. -- Sarah Crown * Guardian *[Carson’s] work over the last three decades has the flux of tidal waters. Words deceptively simple become in context an exhilarating tsunami of images with a shift in typographical structure. -- Hayden Murphy * Herald *‘A true poet, in the sense that she makes the unfamiliar seem real, and the real seem fabulous.’ * Richard Eyre, Start the Week *The narrative poem plays delightfully with form, at times approaching stream of consciousness in the vivid interplay of memory and dialogue. * Financial Times *

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Book SynopsisA collectible new Penguin Classics series: beautiful clothbound editions of the most famous verse collections by ten favourite poets. Designed by the acclaimed Coralie Bickford-Smith and attractively set, these slim, A format volumes are the ultimate gift editions for poetry lovers. Songs of Innocence and Experience is one of the best-loved poetry collections of all time, an innovative and groundbreaking experiment in which Blake intertwined text and image to dazzling effect. The volume, published sometimes as two separate collections, juxtaposes the innocent world of childhood with the corrupt and repressed one of adults, and includes such favourites as ''The Lamb'', ''The Chimney Sweeper'' and ''The Tyger''.

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Book SynopsisTrade Review'Tim Allen's new translation of THE SONG OF KIEU is lively and absorbing. It reinvigorates a classic and wonderfully conveys the romance, adventure, tragedy, and wisdom of the poem that all Vietnamese know.' * Viet Thanh Nguyen *'Tim Allen has done what most literary translators can only aspire to do. He has secured a place for a major foreign work in the stock of his mother tongue.' -- David Constantine'Timothy Allen's supple and imaginative translation has re-energised Nguyên Du's lyricism in meticulous free verse that evokes the five senses' * The Poetry Review *'For elegance and sheer readability I doubt if it could be equalled. English readers already familiar with Kieu will be delighted by its musicality. And those who have not previously encountered Kieu will wonder how such a masterpiece could so long have eluded them.''Timothy Allen's translation of the Vietnamese epic The Song of Kieu is magnificent. [In language] capable of exquisitely beautiful love scenes, throat-catchingly eloquent nature passages and moments of humour, he renders an obscure masterpiece into a strikingly contemporary one.'

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewSeductive with the simplicity of an atom, which is to say highly complex, explosive underneath an apparent quietude -- Toni MorrisonClifton was one of America's great poets, whose work throughout her lifetime was committed to chronicling and celebrating black lives. The honesty, joy, wisdom, and hope she brought to this task is regenerative -- Tracy K. Smith, former U.S. Poet LaureateFew poets have traversed such deserts, playgrounds and high castles of possibility in the briefest and seemingly effortless poetry. Her big-hearted work welcomes us and transports us with grace and mischief. It is poetry that goes down like fine wine and that sustains, in us, its good mood of inquiry ever after -- Professor Daljit Nagra, Brunel University LondonOpen up to any page and Clifton delivers a word. Whether the subject is roaches, family, death, or surviving, she has a psalm for all occasions. She can create the most complicated magic out of the simplest words -- Danez Smith * The Week *Clifton's earliest poems could have been written yesterday, and her later works could have been written decades ago. Each poem is always its own world. Her poems touch on the political, the personal, the spiritual -- Reginald Dwayne Betts, * The New York Times *Clifton wrote physically small poems with enormous and profound inner worlds ... Her poems are committed to truth-telling in the face of silence. History in her work is embodied, alive, and autonomous, alert to its own contradictions -- Elizabeth Alexander * New Yorker *No-one writes like Lucille Clifton ... The poems, in their specificity and dilating scale, startle readers into new sense. They discomfort as often as they bless, and they bless as often as they wonder - bearing witness to joy and to struggle * The Paris Review *Although her work is often spare and simple, it is always beautifully and painstakingly crafted into poems that tell the truth, poems that insist on residing within the reader, poems by a poet who seeks and achieves the ability to be a vehicle for those who may not otherwise speak * Web Del Sol Review of Books *

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Book SynopsisIn brand new translations by Ryan Bloom, four theatrical masterpieces from the Nobel Prize-winning author of The Outsider and The Plague are brought together for the first time in English, alongside deleted scenes and alternate lines of dialogueCaligula/The Misunderstanding /State of Emergency/The JustAlthough renowned for his novels, Albert Camus described the theatre as ''one of the only places in the world I''m happy'', and staged the four plays gathered in this collection in Paris between 1944-49. Caligula, his first full-length dramatic work, portrays the monstrous emperor who destroys men, gods and ultimately himself. Here too are The Misunderstanding, a murderous tangle of longing; State of Emergency, where ''The Plague'' appears as a central character; and The Just, which explores the limits of political conviction. This new translation brings together Camus''s final versions of the plays, along with deleted scenes and alternate lines of dialogue.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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Book SynopsisThis much-anticipated Norton Critical Edition of Shakespeare’s best-known play is based on the Second Quarto, widely agreed to be the most authoritative early text.

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Book SynopsisConamara in the West of Ireland has a strange and beautiful landscape - a landscape of intense contrasts uniquely dependent on light and shade. In daylight, a subtle radiance of gentle colours envelops the place. Yet on the threshold of darkness, the fading light reveals an almost haunted vista of mysterious beauty.In this exquisitely crafted collection of poetry, John O''Donohue evokes the vital energy and rhythm of the Conamara landscape, engaging with earth, sky and sea, and the majestic mountains that silently preside over this glorious region. Here too, as he draws upon the ancient memory and history of this sacred place, he focuses upon the power of language and the vagaries of human need and passion, tenderly revealing the fragile vulnerability of love and friendship.Written with penetrating insight and a deftness of touch, Conamara Blues offers a unique, imaginative vision of a landscape steeped in mystery and legend - a landscape of hope and possibility that is at once both familiar and unknown.Trade Review'With this exquisitely crafted collection of poetry, John O'Donohue evokes the vital energy and pulse of the landscape of this glorious regoin, engaging with the elements and the majestic, rugged landscape. Focusing on the power of language and the vagaries of human need, O'Donohue ultimately reveals the tender vulnerability of love and friendship' Cara

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Book Synopsis''Seamus Heaney has gone beyond the themes of his earlier poetry and has made the giant step towards the most ambitious, most intractable themes of maturity. The power of this book comes from a sense that he is reaching out towards a type of desolation and of isolation without which no imagination can be seen to have grown up.'' Eavan Boland, Irish Times''Keyed and pitched unlike any other significant poet at work in the language anywhere.'' Harold Bloom, Times Literary Supplement

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Book SynopsisThis collection of Seamus Heaney's work, especially in the series of 12-line poems entitled Squarings, shows he is ready to re-imagine experience and to credit marvels. The title poem is typical in that it begins with memories of an actual event, then moves towards the visionary.

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Book SynopsisA collection of four Alan Bennett plays, with an introduction by the author which describes the background to their writing and performance.

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Book SynopsisThis third collection of plays by Tom Stoppard contains his television plays, written between 1965 and 1984. They show that Stoppard''s writing for the small screen is comparable to his more celebrated stage work, as the masterly Professional Foul demonstrates. In his introduction the author briefly describes how the individual pieces came to be written and the circumstances of their original production.

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Book SynopsisElectric Light travels widely in time and space, visiting the sites of the classical world, revisiting the poet''s childhood: rural electrification and the light of ancient evenings are reconciled within the orbit of a single lifetime. This is a book about origins (not least the origins of words) and oracles: the places where things start from, the ground of understanding - whether in Arcadia or Anahorish, the sanctuary at Epidaurus or the Bann valley in County Derry.Electric Light ranges from short takes (''glosses'') to conversation poems whose cunning passagework gives rein to ''the must and drift of talk''; other poems are arranged in sections, their separate cargoes docked alongside each other to reveal a hidden and curative connection. The presocratic wisdom that everything flows is held in tension with the fixities of remembrance: elegising friends and fellow poets, naming ''the real names'' of contemporaries behind the Shakespearean roles they played at

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Book Synopsis''I first read a W. S. Graham poem in 1949. It sent a shiver down my spine. Forty-five years later nothing has changed. His song is unique and his work an inspiration.'' Harold Pinter. From his first publications in the early 1940s, to his final works of the late 1970s, W. S. Graham has given us a poetry of intense power and inquisitive vision - a body of work regarded by many as among the best Romantic poetry of the twentieth century. This New Collected Poems, edited by poet and Graham-scholar Matthew Francis and with a foreword by Douglas Dunn, offers the broadest picture yet of Graham''s work.

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