Good Poetry (In no particular order)
Explore a curated collection of the best poetry books in no particular order. Discover timeless verses, modern masterpieces, and hidden gems for every poetry lover.
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Iliad and Odyssey Boxed Set
by Robert Fagles
This beautiful gift set of Robert Fagles' award-winning translations of Homer brings the energy of contemporary language to these enduring heroic epics.
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The Complete Poetry & Prose of William Blake
by William Blake
Since its first publication in 1965, this edition has been widely hailed as the best available text of Blake's poetry and prose. Now revised, if includes up-to-date work on variants, chronology of poems and critical commentary by Harold Bloom. An "Approved Edition" of the Center for Scholarly Editions of the Modern Language Association.
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Beowulf
by Seamus Heaney
Presents a new translation of the Anglo-Saxon epic chronicling the heroic adventures of Beowulf, the Scandinavian warrior who saves his people from the ravages of the monster Grendel and Grendel's mother.
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Poems
by C. S. Lewis
A collection of Lewisâs shorter poetry on a wide range of subjects-God and the pagan deities, unicorns and spaceships, nature, love, age, and reason: âIdea poems which reiterate themes known to have occupied Lewisâs ingenious and provocative mindâ (Clyde S. Kilby, New York Times Book Review). Edited and with a Preface by Walter Hooper.
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Narrative Poems
by Clive Staples Lewis
Lewis often said that his favorite form of literary expression was the narrative poem, although he appears to have written just four, all of which are collected here. They exhibit the romantic aspects of his temperament and reveal his deep love for medieval and Renaissance poetry.
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The Faerie Queene
by Edmund Spenser
âGreat Lady of the greatest Isle, whose light Like Phoebus lampe throughout the world doth shineâ The Faerie Queene was one of the most influential poems in the English language. Dedicating his work to Elizabeth I, Spenser brilliantly united Arthurian romance and Italian renaissance epic to celebrate the glory of the Virgin Queen. Each book of the poem recounts the quest of a knight to achieve a virtue: the Red Crosse Knight of Holinesse, who must slay a dragon and free himself from the witch Duessa; Sir Guyon, Knight of Temperance, who escapes the Cave of Mammon and destroys Acrasiaâs Bowre of Bliss; and the lady-knight Britomartâs search for her Sir Artegall, revealed to her in an enchanted mirror. Although composed as a moral and political allegory, The Faerie Queeneâs magical atmosphere captivated the imaginations of later poets from Milton to the Victorians. This edition includes the letter to Raleigh, in which Spenser declares his intentions for his poem, the commendatory verses by Spenserâs contemporaries and his dedicatory sonnets to the Elizabethan court, and is supplemented by a table of dates and a glossary 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 distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
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The Aeneid
by Virgil
"Fitzgerald's [translation] is so decisively the best modern Aeneid that it is unthinkable that anyone will want to use any other version for a long time to come." âNew York Review of Books Virgil's great epic transforms the Homeric tradition into a triumphal statement of the Roman civilizing missionâtranslated by Robert Fitzgerald.
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The Complete Poetry of John Milton
by John Milton
The first complete annotated edition of Milton's poetry available in a one-volume paperback. The text is established from original sources, with collations of all known manuscripts, chronology and verbal variants recorded. Works in Latin, Greek and Italian are included with new literal translations.
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The Complete Poems of John Keats
by John Keats
'I think I shall be among the English Poets after my death,' John Keats soberly prophesied in 1818 as he started writing the blankverse epic Hyperion. Today he endures as the archetypal Romantic genius who explored the limits of the imagination and celebrated the pleasures of the senses but suffered a tragic early death. Edmund Wilson counted him as 'one of the half dozen greatest English writers,' and T. S. Eliot has paid tribute to the Shakespearean quality of Keats's greatness. Indeed, his work has survived better than that of any of his contemporaries the devaluation of Romantic poetry that began early in this century. This Modern Library edition contains all of Keats's magnificent verse: 'Lamia,' 'Isabella,' and 'The Eve of St. Agnes'; his sonnets and odes; the allegorical romance Endymion; and the five-act poetic tragedy Otho the Great. Presented as well are the famous posthumous and fugitive poems, including the fragmentary 'The Eve of Saint Mark' and the great 'La Belle Dame sans Merci,' perhaps the most distinguished literary ballad in the language. 'No one else in English poetry, save Shakespeare, has in expression quite the fascinating felicity of Keats, his perception of loveliness,' said Matthew Arnold. 'In the faculty of naturalistic interpretation, in what we call natural magic, he ranks with Shakespeare.'
