The World Public Library Poetry Collection shelves over 8,000 of the most popular English poems ever composed, spanning over five hundred years.
Classic Literature
Excerpt: Night. Behind the curtains we hear flutes tambourines and drums playing eastern (Lydian/Persian) music. The percussion is made by swords banging upon drums, as we'll see later.
Excerpt: N?est ce pas qu?il est doux. Is it not pleasant, now we are tired, and tarnished, like other men, to search for those fires in the furthest East, where, again, we might see morning?s new dawn, and, in mad history, hear the echoes, that vanish behind us, the sighs of the young loves, God gives, at the start of our lives?
Excerpt: To A Woman of Malabar. Your feet are as slender as hands, your hips, to me, wide enough for the sweetest white girl?s envy: to the wise artist your body is sweet and dear, and your great velvet eyes black without peer. In the hot blue lands where God gave you your nature your task is to light a pipe for your master, to fill up the vessels with cool fragrance and chase the mosquitoes away when they dance, and when dawn sings in the plane-trees, afar, fetch banana...
Excerpt: Pistheteros Athenian. Euelpides His friend; Xanthias; Slaves of Pistheteros (mute); Bushcock A Bird, ex human (also known as Hoopoe); Trohilos His servant; Iris Goddess of the Rainbow, a bird.; Nightingale; Princess (mute); A Priest; A Poet; Cinesias Another poet; An Oracle seller; Meton A famous mathematician; A Law Seller; An Inspector; An Informer; A Recalcitrant Youth; A Herald; Prometheus Demigod, friend of humans; Herakles; Poseidon; Triballos God of the B...
Excerpt: Pistheteros Athenian. Euelpides His friend; Xanthias}; Manes } Slaves of Pistheteros (mute); Bushcock A Bird, ex human (also known as Hoopoe); Trohilos His servant; Iris Goddess of the Rainbow, a bird.; Nightingale; Princess (mute); A Priest; A Poet; Cinesias Another poet; An Oracle seller; Meton A famous mathematician; A Law Seller; An Inspector; An Informer; A Recalcitrant Youth; A Herald; Prometheus Demigod, friend of humans; Herakles; Poseidon; Triballos God...
Excerpt: About Cornelius, Lesbia's Sparrow, and others.
Excerpt: Troilus?s double sorrow for to tell, he that was son of Priam King of Troy, and how, in loving, his adventures fell from grief to good, and after out of joy, my purpose is, before I make envoy. Tisiphone, do you help me, so I might pen these sad lines, that weep now as I write.
Excerpt: Hermes, god of the underworld, Protector of my father?s kingdom, come to me, save me and help me, now that I?m coming back from exile. I?m at my father?s tomb, Hermes, calling him to hear my plea and to help me.
Excerpt: Hermes, God of the underworld, Protector of my father?s kingdom, come to me, save me and help me, now that I?m returning from exile. I?m at my father?s tomb, Hermes, calling him to hear my plea and to help me.
Translator?s Note: I was conscious, in producing this little personal selection of Russian poetry, of the way in which all the poets come to take on the voice of the translator, and their special individuality is lost. It is a problem translation always has. I would encourage the reader to sample as many different translators? versions of these poets as possible, to try and realize the individual flavor of each poet for her or himself. If there is any theme in this selec...
Part I: Words with Cupid, and The Task Love, having read the name and title on this book, said: ?It?s war, you declare against me, I see, it?s war?. ?Cupid, don?t condemn your poet for a crime, who has so often raised the standard, you trusted him with, under your command. I?m not Diomede, by whom your mother was wounded, she, carried back to the clear heavens on Mars?s steeds. Other young men often grow cool: I?ve always loved, and if you ask me now, too, what I do, I l...