By the early 1970s, the outlandish, outrageous Shel Silverstein was already a prolific folksinger/songwriter, cartoonist, and author of a widely known, much discussed classic children's book, THE GIVING TREE. His popular 1973 album, FREAKIN' AT THE FREAKERS BALL, with Dr. Hook and the Medicine Band, contained a song about Sarah Cynthia Sylvia ...
Composed toward the end of the first millennium, "Beowulf" is the classic Northern epic of a hero's triumphs as a young warrior and his fated death as a defender of his people. In his new translation--a national bestseller that is the winner of the Whitbread Award--Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney has produced a work that is both true, line by line, ...
Ginsberg's celebrated 1956 poem brought the writing of the Beat Generation to widespread attention. In the words of a critic who was there, when Ginsberg read "Howl" aloud for the first time at the Six Gallery in San Francisco in October of 1955, the audience knew "at the deepest level that a barrier had been broken, that a human voice and body ...
One of the greatest epics in Western literature, "The Iliad" recounts the story of the Trojan wars. This timeless poem still vividly conveys the horror and heroism of men and gods battling amidst devastation and destruction, as it moves to its tragic conclusion. In his introduction, Bernard Knox observes that although the violence of the Iliad is ...
With passion, wit, and good common sense, the celebrated poet Mary Oliver tells of the basic ways a poem is built--meter and rhyme, form and diction, sound and sense. Drawing on poems from Robert Frost, Elizabeth Bishop, and others, the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winner imparts an extraordinary amount of information in a short space.
The legendary creator of "Where the Sidewalk Ends" welcomes readers to the world of Runny Babbit and his friends Toe Jurtle, Skertie Gunk, Rirty Dat, Dungry Hog, Snerry Jake, and many others who speak a topsy-turvy language all their own. ( Ages 9-12)
For centuries, this ancient Taoist doctrine has answered the profound questions of life and fulfillment through the story of Lao Tzu. The Tao Te Ching as presented by Steven Mitchell features poetic, modern interpretations of the ancient language, with many of the author's own explanatory notes.
"The Liars' Club" were the memoirs of Mary Karr up to the age of ten. "Cherry" follows Mary through her tumultuous and itinerant adolescent years up to the age of 17. We see her abiding friendships, her sexual awakening, her high school years and her time with a gang of drug-taking surfers.
With this stunning gift edition of 250 of Hafiz's most intimate poems, Ladinsky has succeeded brilliantly in translating the essence of one of Islam's greatest poetic and religious voices.
Kahlil Gibran worked on the manuscript for "The Prophet"--his second work in English after "The Madman"--for several years before it was published in October 1923. Both the author and the world consider this his masterpiece, and it has been translated into dozens of languages. "The Prophet" concerns Almustafa, "the chosen one," who, after exile on ...
The fourth edition of this standard work contains 1800 poems by 300 poets, with 600 poems and 100 poets newly included. The anthology offers more poetry by women (40 new poets), with special attention to early women poets. The book also includes a greater diversity of American poetry, with double the number of poems by African American, Hispanic, ...
A treasury of Frost's most expressive verse. In addition to the title poem: "An Old Man's Winter Night," "In the Home Stretch," "Meeting and Passing," "Putting in the Seed," many more. All complete and unabridged.
This collection of 73 short stories and 48 poems includes such masterpieces as The Fall of the House of Usher, The Purloined Letter, The Tell-Tale Heart, The Raven, and The Murders in the Rue Morgue.
One of New York's most popular performance poets, Sapphire explores the raw edges that constitute urban life. In this collection, her poems have been inspired by incidents of violence, crime in Central Park and spiritual renewal after addiction.
Milton takes the traditional epic and transforms it with the clarity of his moral vision and with the power of his language, turning it into triumphant blank verse--seldom used in his day except in drama--that is moving, exciting, and full of the grandeur of Milton's poetic vision. In the early parts of "Paradise Lost", he manages to convey ...
This thorough revision renders the remarkable range of styles, subjects and voices in English language poetry, from Walt Whitman and Thomas Hardy in the late 19th century to Carol Ann Duffy and Sherman Alexie in the 21st. With 195 poets and 1596 poems, the volumes richly represent the major figures: Yeats, Frost, Stevens, Williams, Hughes, Olson, ...
"The Divine Comedy" is the story of a pilgrim's journey to God. A man named Dante is lost in dark wood; through the intervention of his beloved Beatrice in Heaven, the Roman poet Virgil appears in the forest to lead Dante to her. In order to reach heaven, however, they must first pass through Hell and Purgatory. After journeying through Hell ...
This is the republication of four editions of Frost's most beloved work for a new generation of poets and readers. The only comprehensive volume of Frost's verse available, comprising all 11 volumes of his poems, this collection has been the standard Frost compendium since its first publication in 1969.
Robert Bolt's classic play about Thomas More, the Catholic saint beheaded by Henry VIII at the birth of the Church of England, is now in trade paperback for the first time.
The ancient Sumerian epic, GILGAMESH, is the oldest known book, written more than a millennium after his death about the king of Uruk (now Iraq), who ruled in c. 2500 BCE. Gilgamesh is not handling his kingship very well: he is arrogantly obsessed with becoming immortal, and he's also a hard-living, womanizing playboy. But he becomes intrigued ...
A collection of all of Emily Dickinson's 1775 poems, which enables readers to see her work as a whole, the complexity of her personality, the fluctuation of her moods, and the development of her style.
By the time of his murder at the age of 25, Tupac Shakur was a major force in rap music, with a dozen albums and six movies under his belt. But this collection of poems, written in a poetry workshop by the future star at the age of 19, shows that Shakur possessed both a poet's disarming simplicity and a writer's raw talent well before the start of ...
This anthology illuminates the history, practice, and wonder of our most elusive art, poetry. Intended for all those who love poetry, including teachers, readers, writers, and students, the book should be valued by those who feel that an understanding of form-sonnet, ballad, villanelle, and sestina would enhance their appreciation of poetry, but ...
