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The Penguin Book of English Song: Seven Centuries of Poetry from Chaucer to Auden
by Richard StokesThe Penguin Book of English Song anthologizes the work of 100 English poets who have inspired a host of different composers (some English, some not) to write vocal music. Each of the chapters, arranged chronologically from Chaucer to Auden, opens with a precis of the poet's life, work and, often, approach to music. Richard Stokes's notes and commentaries constantly illuminate the language and themes of the poems and their settings in unexpected ways. An awareness of how Ben Jonson based his famous poem 'Drinke to me, onely, with thine eyes' on a Greek original, for example, increases our enjoyment of both the poem and the traditional song; knowledge of Thomas Hardy's relationships with women deepens our appreciation of songs by Ireland, Finzi, Britten and others; Charles Dibdin's 'Tom Bowling', played each year at the Last Night of the Proms, takes on a deeper resonance when we know that it was written after the death of his brother Tom, a sea captain struck by lightning in the Indian Ocean.Many composers of different nationalities appear, but the book remains quintessentially British, and includes pieces that have an established place in our national consciousness: 'Rule, Britannia' (James Thomson), 'Abide with me' (Henry Francis Lyte), 'Auld lang syne' (Robert Burns), 'Jerusalem' (William Blake), 'Once in royal David's city' (Mrs C. F. Alexander), and even 'Twinkle, twinkle, little star' (Jane Taylor). The poems are printed in their original versification and spelling, enabling us to trace the development of the English language as the book progresses.The volume presents a huge amount of information about English Song that will enlighten all those who delight in the fusion of words and music. The presence of minor as well as major poets and the unique principle of selection make The Penguin Book of English Song a highly original anthology of English verse.
The Penguin Book of English Verse
by P J KeeganThis ambitious and revelatory collection turns the traditional chronology of anthologies on its head, listing poems according to their first individual appearance in the language rather than by poet.
The Penguin Book of First World War Poetry
by George WalterThis anthology reflects the diversity of voices it contains: the poems are arranged thematically and the themes reflect the different experiences of war not just for the soldiers but for those left behind. This is what makes this volume more accessible and satisfying than others. In addition to the established canon there are poems rarely anthologised and a selection of soldiers' songs to reflect the voices of the soldiers themselves.
The Penguin Book of French Poetry: 1820-1950
by William ReesThis collection illuminates the uniquely fascinating era between 1820 and 1950 in French poetry - a time in which diverse aesthetic ideas conflicted and converged as poetic forms evolved at an astonishing pace. It includes generous selections from all the established giants - among them Baudelaire, Verlaine, Rimbaud and Breton - as well as works from a wide variety of less well-known poets such as Claudel and Cendrars, whose innovations proved vital to the progress of poetry in France. The significant literary schools of the time are also represented in sections focusing on such movements as Romanticism, Symbolism, Cubism and Surrealism. Eloquent and inspirational, this rich and exhilarating anthology reveals an era of exceptional vitality.
The Penguin Book of Greek and Latin Lyric Verse
by Christopher Childers'Inspired and enlightening ... here is a work of staggering ambition, exceptional accomplishment, and surprisingly pleasant reading ... an excellent gift for anyone interested in classical literature' A. E. Stallings, Telegraph'An extraordinary feat ... Over and over, I was impressed both by Childers's technical abilities and his vivid way of evoking the multiple voices in this rich tradition' Emily Wilson, translator of the Odyssey and the Iliad'Where does the lyric begin? One answer – a capacious and generous one – is given by Christopher Childers's anthology, in which translations of both Greek and Latin lyric poetry are offered in large servings, with extensive and ambitious commentary ... bold and worthwhile ... readable and learned' Peter McDonald, TLS'An extraordinary achievement, in scope, scale and skill' Richard Jenkyns, author of Classical LiteratureThe poems in this lively, wide-ranging and richly enjoyable anthology are the work of priestesses and warriors; of philosophers and statesmen; of teenage girls, concerned for their birthday celebrations; of drunkards and brawlers; of grumpy old men, and chic young things. Their authors write – or sing – about hopes, fears, loves, losses, triumphs and humiliations. Every one of them lived and died between 1,900 and 2,800 years ago.The Penguin Book of Greek and Latin Lyric Verse is a volume without precedent. It brings together the best of two traditions normally treated in isolation, and in doing so tells a captivating story about how literature and book-culture emerged from an oral society in which memory and learning were transmitted through song. The classical vision of lyric poetry as understood by the greatest ancient poets – Sappho and Horace, Bacchylides and Catullus – mingles and interacts with our expansive modern vision of the lyric as the brief, personal, emotional poetry of a human soul laid bare.Anyone looking for a picture of what ancient poets were up to when they were simply singing to the gods, or to their friends, or otherwise opening little verbal windows into their life and times can find it here. It is a volume full of fire and life: an undertaking of astonishing reach, and an accomplishment magisterial in its scope.
The Penguin Book of Haiku
by Adam L. Kern'A revelation' Sunday Times, Books of the Year 2018The first Penguin anthology of Japanese haiku, in vivid new translations by Adam L. Kern. Now a global poetry, the haiku was originally a Japanese verse form that flourished from the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries. Although renowned for its brevity, usually running three lines long in seventeen syllables, and by its use of natural imagery to make Zen-like observations about reality, in fact the haiku is much more: it can be erotic, funny, crude and mischievous. Presenting over a thousand exemplars in vivid and engaging translations, this anthology offers an illuminating introduction to this widely celebrated, if misunderstood, art form. Adam L. Kern's new translations are accompanied here by the original Japanese and short commentaries on the poems, as well as an introduction and illustrations from the period.
The Penguin Book of Hebrew Verse
by T. CarmiThis stunning anthology gathers together the riches of poetry in Hebrew from 'The Song of Deborah' to contemporary Israeli writings. Verse written up to the tenth century show the development of piyut, or liturgical poetry, and retell episodes from the Bible and exalt the glory of God. Medieval works introduce secular ideas in love poems, wine songs and rhymed narratives, as well as devotional verse for specific religious rituals. Themes such as the longing for the homeland run through the ages, especially in verse written after the rise of the Zionist movement, while poems of the last century marry Biblical references with the horrors of the Holocaust. Together these works create a moving portrait of a rich and varied culture through the last 3,000 years.
The Penguin Book of Japanese Verse
by Anthony ThwaitePoetry remains a living part of the culture of Japan today. The clichés of everyday speech are often to be traced to famous ancient poems, and the traditional forms of poetry are widely known and loved. The congenial attitude comes from a poetical history of about a millennium and a half. This classic collection of verse therefore contains poetry from the earliest, primitive period, through the Nara, Heian, Kamakura, Muromachi and Edo periods, ending with modern poetry from 1868 onwards, including the rising poets Tamura Ryuichi and Tanikawa Shuntaro.
The Penguin Book of Migration Literature: Departures, Arrivals, Generations, Returns
by Edwidge Danticat Dohra AhmadThe first global anthology of migration literature featuring works by Mohsin Hamid, Zadie Smith, Marjane Satrapi, Salman Rushdie, and Warsan Shire, with a foreword by Edwidge Danticat, author of Everything Inside<P><P>A Penguin Classic<P><P>Every year, three to four million people move to a new country. From war refugees to corporate expats, migrants constantly reshape their places of origin and arrival. This selection of works collected together for the first time brings together the most compelling literary depictions of migration. <P><P>Organized in four parts (Departures, Arrivals, Generations, and Returns), The Penguin Book of Migration Literature conveys the intricacy of worldwide migration patterns, the diversity of immigrant experiences, and the commonalities among many of those diverse experiences. Ranging widely across the eighteenth through twenty-first centuries, across every continent of the earth, and across multiple literary genres, the anthology gives readers an understanding of our rapidly changing world, through the eyes of those at the center of that change. With thirty carefully selected poems, short stories, and excerpts spanning three hundred years and twenty-five countries, the collection brings together luminaries, emerging writers, and others who have earned a wide following in their home countries but have been less recognized in the Anglophone world. <P><P>Editor of the volume Dohra Ahmad provides a contextual introduction, notes, and suggestions for further exploration.
The Penguin Book of Modern African Poetry
by Gerald Moore'Poetry, always foremost of the arts in traditional Africa, has continued to compete for primacy against the newer forms of prose fiction and theatre drama.' This wonderfully comprehensive anthology of African poetry has been expanded to include ninety-nine poets from twenty-seven countries, thirty-one of whom appear for the first time. Equally wide-ranging is the content of the poetry itself: war songs and political protests jostle with poems about human love, African nature and the surprises that life offers; all are represented in these rich and colourful pages.
The Penguin Book of Renaissance Verse: 1509-1659
by H. WoudhuysenThe era between the accession of Henry VIII and the crisis of the English republic in 1659 formed one of the most fertile epochs in world literature. This anthology offers a broad selection of its poetry, and includes a wide range of works by the great poets of the age - notably Sir Philip Sidney, Edmund Sepnser, John Donne, William Shakespeare and John Milton. Poems by less well-known writers also feature prominently - among them significant female poets such as Lady Mary Wroth and Katherine Philips. Compelling and exhilarating, this landmark collection illuminates a time of astonishing innovation, imagination and diversity.
The Penguin Book of Romantic Poetry
by Jonathan Wordsworth Jessica WordsworthThe Romanticism that emerged after the American and French revolutions of 1776 and 1789 represented a new flowering of the imagination and the spirit, and a celebration of the soul of humanity with its capacity for love. This extraordinary collection sets the acknowledged genius of poems such as Blake's 'Tyger', Coleridge's 'Khubla Khan' and Shelley's 'Ozymandias' alongside verse from less familiar figures and women poets such as Charlotte Smith and Mary Robinson. We also see familiar poets in an unaccustomed light, as Blake, Wordsworth and Shelley demonstrate their comic skills, while Coleridge, Keats and Clare explore the Gothic and surreal. 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.
The Penguin Book of Romantic Poetry
by Jonathan WordsworthThe Romanticism that emerged after the American and French revolutions of 1776 and 1789 represented a new flowering of the imagination and the spirit, and a celebration of the soul of humanity with its capacity for love. This extraordinary collection sets the acknowledged genius of poems such as Blake's 'Tyger', Coleridge's 'Khubla Khan' and Shelley's 'Ozymandias' alongside verse from less familiar figures and women poets such as Charlotte Smith and Mary Robinson. We also see familiar poets in an unaccustomed light, as Blake, Wordsworth and Shelley demonstrate their comic skills, while Coleridge, Keats and Clare explore the Gothic and surreal.
The Penguin Book of Russian Poetry
by Robert Chandler, Boris Dralyuk and Irina MashinskiAn enchanting collection of the very best of Russian poetry, edited by acclaimed translator Robert Chandler together with poets Boris Dralyuk and Irina Mashinski. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, poetry's pre-eminence in Russia was unchallenged, with Pushkin and his contemporaries ushering in the 'Golden Age' of Russian literature. Prose briefly gained the high ground in the second half of the nineteenth century, but poetry again became dominant in the 'Silver Age' (the early twentieth century), when belief in reason and progress yielded once more to a more magical view of the world. During the Soviet era, poetry became a dangerous, subversive activity; nevertheless, poets such as Osip Mandelstam and Anna Akhmatova continued to defy the censors. This anthology traces Russian poetry from its Golden Age to the modern era, including work by several great poets - Georgy Ivanov and Varlam Shalamov among them - in captivating modern translations by Robert Chandler and others. The volume also includes a general introduction, chronology and individual introductions to each poet. Robert Chandler is an acclaimed poet and translator. His many translations from Russian include works by Aleksandr Pushkin, Nikolay Leskov, Vasily Grossman and Andrey Platonov, while his anthologies of Russian Short Stories from Pushkin to Buida and Russian Magic Tales are both published in Penguin Classics.Irina Mashinski is a bilingual poet and co-founder of the StoSvet literary project. Her most recent collection is 2013's Ophelia i masterok [Ophelia and the Trowel].Boris Dralyuk is a Lecturer in Russian at the University of St Andrews and translator of many books from Russian, including, most recently, Isaac Babel's Red Cavalry (2014).
The Penguin Book of Spiritual Verse: 110 Poets on the Divine
by Kaveh Akbar'A profoundly valuable collection, full of fresh perspective, and opening doors into all kinds of material that has been routinely neglected or patronized' Rowan Williams, TLSThis rich and surprising anthology is a holistic, global survey of a lyric conversation about the divine, one which has been ongoing for millennia. Beginning with the earliest attributable author in all of human literature, the twenty-third century BCE Sumerian High Priestess Enheduanna, and taking in a constellation of voices - from King David to Lao Tzu, from the Epic of Gilgamesh to the Malian Epic of Sundiata - this selection presents a number of canonical figures like Blake, Dickinson and Tagore, alongside lesser-anthologized, diverse poets going up to the present day. Together they show the breathtaking multiplicity of ways humanity has responded to the spiritual, across place and time.
The Penguin Book of Victorian Verse
by Daniel KarlinDaniel Karlin has selected poetry written and published during the reign of Queen Victoria, (1837-1901). Giving pride of place to Tennyson, Robert Browning, and Christina Rossetti, the volume offers generous selections from other major poets such asArnold, Emily Bronte, Hardy and Hopkins, and makes room for several poem-sequences in their entirety. It is wonderful, too, in its discovery and inclusion of eccentric, dissenting, un-Victorian voices, poets who squarely refuse to 'represent' their period. It also includes the work of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, George Meredith, James Thomson and Augusta Webster.
The Penguin Book of the Prose Poem: From Baudelaire to Anne Carson
by Jeremy Noel-TodAn essential anthology that puts contemporary geniuses Eileen Myles and Margaret Atwood in conversation with literary classics Charles Baudelaire and Oscar Wilde about the liberating and unique combination of poetry and prose <p><p>A Penguin Classic. The prose poem has proven one of the most innovative and versatile poetic forms of recent years. In the century-and-a-half since Charles Baudelaire, Emma Lazarus, Oscar Wilde and Ivan Turgenev spread the notion of a new kind of poetry, this "genre with an oxymoron for a name" has attracted many of our most beloved writers. Yet, even now, this peculiarly rich and expansive form is still misunderstood and overlooked. Here, Jeremy Noel-Tod reconstructs the history of the prose poem for us by selecting the essential pieces of writing, covering a greater chronological sweep and international range than any previous anthology of its kind. Noel-Tod even calls it "an alternative history of modern poetry." <p><p>In The Penguin Book of the Prose Poem, Patricia Lockwood and Claudia Rankine rub shoulders with Margaret Atwood and Adrienne Rich; Allen Ginsberg and Gertrude Stein appear with Lu Xun and Jorge Luis; Czeslaw Milosz sits just pages from Eileen Myles.
The Penguin Book of the Prose Poem: From Baudelaire to Anne Carson
by Jeremy Noel-Tod'A wonderful book - an invigorating revelation ... An essential collection of prose poems from across the globe, by old masters and new, reveals the form's astonishing range' Kate Kellaway, Observer'A superb anthology . . . it is hard to know how it could possibly be bettered' Daily TelegraphThis is the prose poem: a 'genre with an oxymoron for a name', one of literature's great open secrets, and the home for over 150 years of extraordinary work by many of the world's most beloved writers. This uniquely wide-ranging anthology gathers essential pieces of writing from every stage of the form's evolution, beginning with the great flowering of recent years before moving in reverse order through the international experiments of the 20th century and concluding with the prose poem's beginnings in 19th-century France.Edited with an introduction by Jeremy Noel-Tod
The Penguin Book of the Sonnet: 500 Years of a Classic Tradition in English
by Phillis LevinThe poet and scholar Phillis Levin has gathered more than 600 sonnets to tell the full story of the sonnet tradition in the English language.
The People Look Like Flowers At Last
by Charles Bukowskithe gas line is leaking, the bird is gone from the cage, the skyline is dotted with vultures;Benny finally got off the stuff and Betty now has a jobas a waitress; andthe chimney sweep was quite delicate as hegiggled up through the soot.I walked miles through the city and recognizednothing as a giant claw ate at my stomach while the inside of my head felt airy as if I was about to go mad.it's not so much that nothing means anything but more that it keeps meaningnothing,there's no release, just gurus and self-appointed gods and hucksters.the more people say, the less there is to say.even the best books are dry sawdust.--from "fingernails; nostrils; shoelaces"
The People of the Town: Nursery-Rhyme Friends for You and Me
by Alan MarksMeet familiar friends and new neighbors in this playful collection of nursery rhymes. On a misty, moisty morning, we meet the snoring old man, and by evening we&’re running through the town with Wee Willie Winkie in his nightgown. A day full of nursery rhyme enchants, delights, and enlightens young readers. Gorgeous illustrations paired with quintessential nursery rhymes introduce familiar friends like Little Bo Peep, Georgie Porgie and the Grand Old Duke of York, as well as meet new neighbors, including Little Polly Flinders, Honest John Boldero and Little Tommy Tucker. An attractive and easily giftable collection of tried and true favorites.
The People's Poet: William Barnes of Dorset
by Alan ChedzoyBorn the child of an agricultural labourer in Dorset’s Blackmore Vale, by self-education William Barnes (1801-1886) rose to be a lawyer's clerk, a schoolmaster, a much-loved clergyman, and a scholar who could read over seventy languages. He also became the finest example of an English poet writing in a rural dialect. In this book, Alan Chedzoy shows how, uniquely, he presented the lives of pre-industrial rural people in their own language. He also recounts how Barnes’s linguistic studies enabled him to defend the controversial notion that the dialect of the labouring people of Wessex was the purest form of English. Serving both as an anthology and an account of how the poems came to be written, this biography is essential reading for anyone who wants to discover more about the man who, in an obituary, Thomas Hardy described as ‘probably the most interesting link between present and past life that England possessed’.
The People, Yes
by Carl SandburgThe acclaimed epic prose-poem from one of America’s greatest poets and the three-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize. A long poem that makes brilliant use of the legends and myths, the tall tales and sayings of America. As Irish poet Padraic Colum said, “The fine thing about The People, Yes is that it is indubitable speech. Here is a man speaking, a man who knows all sorts and conditions of men, who can be wise and witty, stirring and nonsensical with them all. Carl Sandburg is a master of his own medium; he can deliver himself with the extraordinary clarity of the comic strip caption, with the punch of the tip-top editorial, with the jingle of the American ballad. If America has a folksinger today he is Carl Sandburg, a singer who comes out of the prairie soil, who has the prairie inheritance, who can hand back to the people a creation that has scraps of their own insight, humor, and imagination, a singer, it should be added, who both says and sings . . . He has a passion that gives dignity to all he says. It is a passion for humanity, not merely for the man with depths of personality in him, but for the ordinary man and woman . . . The People, Yes is his most appealing volume.”Praise for Carl Sandburg“A poetic genius whose creative power has in no way lessened with the passing years.” —Chicago Tribune“Carl Sandburg was more than the voice of America, more than the poet of its strength and genius. He was America.” — President Lyndon B. Johnson
The Perfect Dog
by John O'HurleyMy son asked a question, as little boys do,Of me in my wisdom and all that I knew.“Is there a dog that is perfect?” he asked on a whim.Well, I thought,And I thought about where to begin.With all the wonderful kinds of dogs in the world, is there really just one kind that is better than all the rest? John O’Hurley’s delightfully charming and Seuss-like poem answers that question with a surprisingly perfect answer. This heartwarming message about man’s best friend, accompanied by photographs that capture the essence of dog-ness, is sure to be treasured by dog lovers and non-dog lovers alike. The book comes with an audio CD of John's reading of the poem.
The Perfect Gift: The Philanthropic Imagination In Poetry And Prose (Philanthropic And Nonprofit Studies)
by Amy A. KassThis volume aims at cultivating and enlightening our philanthropic imagination. It addresses us all as present and future philanthropists, as human beings who give, serve, and seek to promote the well being of others. It suggests that we are continually confronted with choices about giving, and offers a collection of writings intended to help us reflect more seriously on these choices, and to make philanthropic acts, when they are undertaken, more meaningful. The readings contained in The Philanthropic Imagination come from a variety of cultures, time periods, and genres. They represent classical works of literature, philosophy, and religion, but also contemporary and popular writings. Selections are drawn from the works of Aristotle, Shakespeare, Dostoevsky, C. S. Lewis, Alexis de Tocqueville, Martin Luther King, P. G. Wodehouse, Sholom Aleichem, and Shel Silverstein, among others. They are organized by the specific question they address: When, why, how, to whom, and what should we give? Amy Kass provides a general introduction to the book, as well as introductions to each selection. The introductions offer context for each reading and questions to guide reflection, but they do not supply uniform answers. The answers must come from the reader.