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By: Aline Kilmer (1888-1941)

Book cover Vigils

This is a volume of poetry by American poet Aline Murray Kilmer, widow of the poet Joyce Kilmer. These poems have been published several years after Joyce Kilmer's death in 1918 while he was deployed in France, and their daughter Rose's death in 1917. Many of the poems in this collection thus also center around a motive of grief and loss, and set these emotions into poetry of heartbreaking beauty. - Summary by Carolin

By: Dora Sigerson Shorter (1866-1918)

Book cover Ballads and Poems

This is a volume of poetry by Dora Sigerson Shorter. This volume contains seven of Ms. Shorter's Ballads, a series of miscellaneous poems, and finally two narrative poems. While the topics of the poems and ballads are all unique, many of them share the atmosphere of a fairy tale. - Summary by Carolin

By: Herbert Trench (1865-1923)

Book cover She Comes Not

Frederic Herbert Trench was an Irish poet. A number of his poems were set set to music and he moved into theatrical work for a few years. - Summary by Wikipedia

By: Myrtle Reed (1874-1911)

Book cover Sonnets to a Lover

This is a book of poetry by Myrtle Reed. Ms. Reed is most famous for her love stories such as A Spinner in the Sun and Old Rose and Silver, and these sonnets are an exploration of the same theme through a different medium. - Summary by Carolin

By: William Blake (1757-1827)

Book cover Marriage of Heaven and Hell (version 2)

"The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom."The Marriage of Heaven & Hell is William Blake’s masterpiece – a piously blasphemous reimagining of the duality of good and evil as an eternal dance of equally essential polarities.Good, in Blake’s complex cosmology, is defined by a blind deference to the external, rational order embodied by the tyrant and the priest. Evil is the chaotic and revolutionary impulse that defies all reason and authority.While Blake’s sympathies are clearly with the Romantic revolutionary, he argues for the necessity of both sides, which create balance through their eternal opposition.

By: Radclyffe Hall (1880-1943)

Book cover 'Twixt Earth and Stars

This is a volume of poetry by Radclyffe Hall. The poet and novelist led a highly scandalous lifestyle for the norms of her contemporary society, living openly lesbian in Germany and England. Some of the poems in this volume are also love poems to other women, a fact which was not generally known at the time the book was published. - Summary by Carolin

By: Barry Cornwall (1787-1874)

Book cover Petition to Time

Bryan Waller Procter was an English poet. Rather unknown outside Britain in his times and largely considered to be imitator of greater romantic authors, Barry Cornwall however inspired Alexander Pushkin to some translations and imitations in 1830. - Summary by Wikipedia

By: Various

Book cover Short Poetry Collection 160

This is a collection of 26 poems read by volunteers for September 2016.

By: Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849)

Book cover Bells and Other Poems

This is a collection of the most famous poems by Edgar Allan Poe. It includes all of his most famous poems, such as the Bells and Annabel Lee, but also some minor and less well-known poems. Readers may wish to refer to the online text for 28 beautiful colour illustrations by Edmund Dulac. - Summary by Carolin

By: Evaleen Stein (1863-1923)

Book cover Among the Trees Again

This is a volume of poetry by Evaleen Stein. Special about this volume is, among other things, that many of the poems point to certain seasons and months. This volume thus refers to each part of the year. - Summary by Carolin

By: Jean de La Fontaine (1621-1695)

Book cover Fables of La Fontaine

Jean de la Fontaine's fables were very well-known all over Europe during his life, and are now slowly being rediscovered. This edition contains 240 fables or fairy tales and a biography of Jean de la Fontaine and Aesop, containing the most well-known fables in existence, as well as some lesser-known fables and stories. Walter Thornbury's translation furthermore sets the fables into memorable rhymes. - Summary by Carolin

By: Emile Verhaeren (1855-1916)

Book cover Sunlit Hours

The Sunlit Hours [Les Heures Claires] is a volume of very personal poetry by Belgian poet Émile Verhaeren. The poetry in this volume is dedicated to his wife, celebrating their relationship with beautiful poetry of love. - Summary by Carolin

By: Radclyffe Hall (1880-1943)

Book cover Sheaf of Verses

This is a volume of poetry by Radclyffe Hall. At the time of publication of this novel, Radclyffe Hall was living in Bad Homburg in Germany, in a lesbian relationship. Some of the poems in this volume are love poems, and to spare the public's delicate sensibilities, the names of the people to whom the poems were dedicated are removed. - Summary by Carolin

By: Various

Book cover Poems of American History, Volume 4, The Civil War

This volume is a fascinating reflection on the Civil War years from a perspective in 1908, when many Civil War veterans were still alive, when the wounds to North and South were still fresh, and when no event more cataclysmic had struck the Republic than a Civil War that began less than 100 years after the Revolution for Independence. Poets in this volume include: John Greenleaf Whittier, William Cullen Bryant, Herman Melville, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Bret Harte, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Walt Whitman, and Julia Ward Howe. - Summary by Ed Humpal

By: Marion St. John Webb (1888-1930)

Book cover Littlest One - His Book

A delightful collection of humorous childrens' verse, describing the life and feelings of a little boy. - Summary by Caro Davy

By: Various

Book cover Short Poetry Collection 168

This is a collection of 40 poems read by volunteers for May 2017.

By: Alexander Hamilton Laidlaw (1869-1908)

Book cover American Girl

Alexander Hamilton Laidlaw was born in Scotland. He graduated from Philadelphia Central High School in 1845. He practiced medicine from 1856-1905 and published some works including Soldier Songs and Love Songs, 1898, from which our Fortnightly Poem is taken.

By: Florence Earle Coates (1850-1927)

Book cover Mine and Thine

This is a volume of poems by Florence Earle Coates. The poems in this volume describe the Zeitgeist perfectly - not only are they in style in many ways representative for American poetry around the turn of the last century, but moreover, many of the poems are discussing the current events of the time. This volume contains poems on the Cuban War of Independence, the coronation of Edward VII of England, and poems to several politically and culturally prominent persons of the time. - Summary by Carolin

By: Seymour Eaton (1859-1916)

Book cover Roosevelt Bears Abroad

Follow the explorations of a comical pair of bears from the Wild West of America as they roam over Europe. All ages will laugh and enjoy the antics told in lively rhyme.

By: Jane Taylor (1783-1824)

Book cover Rhymes for the Nursery

This early 19th-century children's poetry collection by Jane and Ann Taylor is little-known today, but contains the original version of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star, known then as just The Star. Also included are poems about why you shouldn't kill kittens, birds and flies, a poem about how you can be seriously scarred if you play with fire, and a poem about a homeless man who cries himself to sleep because of how naughty he was a child.

By: John Kendrick Bangs (1862-1922)

Book cover Songs of Cheer

This is a volume of poetry by John Kendrick Bangs. All the poems in this volume share the very positive tone, they discuss happiness, love, and friendship, and can be enjoyed by children as well as adults. - Summary by Carolin

By: Ellis Parker Butler (1869-1937)

Book cover Whale

His career spanned more than forty years, and his stories, poems, and articles were published in more than 225 magazines. His work appeared alongside that of his contemporaries, including Mark Twain, Sax Rohmer, James B. Hendryx, Berton Braley, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Don Marquis, Will Rogers, and Edgar Rice Burroughs. Despite the enormous volume of his work, Butler was, for most of his life, only a part-time author. He worked full-time as a banker and was very active in his local community. A founding member of both the Dutch Treat Club and the Authors League of America, Butler was an always-present force in the New York City literary scene.

By: Various

Book cover Rainbow Gold: Poems Old and New Selected for Boys and Girls

This collection of poems, selected by Sara Teasdale, a talented poet in her own right, is made to appeal to children, both girls and boys. They are not poems about children, but for children. Neither does this mean that they are childish, but rather that they capture the imagination of children both in subject matter and the richness of the lyrical language of the poems themselves. They range through the great classical poets from Milton to Poe, in all of their variety and vigor. What child could not be captivated by Blake’s, The Tiger, or enchanted by Lanier’s Song of the Chattahoochee? Here in these verses, we all are children. -summary by Larry Wilson

By: Margaret Steele Anderson (1867-1921)

Book cover To The Fighting Weak

Margaret Steele Anderson was born in Louisville, Kentucky in 1867 and was educated in the public school of Louisville, with special courses at Wellesley College. From 1901 Miss Anderson was Literary Editor of the `Evening Post' of Louisville, and was known as one of the most discriminating critics of the South. She published only one volume of verse, "The Flame in the Wind", 1914. (David Lawrence

By: George Sterling (1869-1926)

Book cover Caged Eagle, and Other Poems

This is a 1916 volume of poetry by George Sterling, split into four parts. The first part consists of 33 of the fantastic poems for which Sterling was so famous, followed by three poems on the Panama-Pacific Exposition and four Personal Poems, and concluded with 43 poems on the then ongoing First World War. - Summary by Carolin

By: Thomas O'Hagan (1855-1939)

Book cover In The Trenches

Dr. O'Hagan writes with a clear eye, a sane mind, and a sensitive heart. While agreeing in the main with Walter de la Mare, that "every book lives or perishes by virtue or default of its artistic sincerity," we feel disposed to add that the personality of the author has much to do with the popularity and life of his book. W. R. HARRIS. - AN APPRECIATION - The Collected Poems of Thomas O'Hagan McClelland & Stewart 1922

By: Katharine Tynan Hinkson (1859-1931)

Book cover Flower of Youth: Poems in War Time

This is a volume of poetry by Irish poet and writer Kathrine Tynan about World War I. Published in 1917, the poems translate the general atmosphere of fear and grief prevalent across Europe into beautiful verses. - Summary by Carolin

By: Various

Book cover Short Poetry Collection 179

This is a collection of 39 poems read by volunteers for April 2018.

By: Ernest Vincent Wright (1872-1939)

Book cover When Father Carves the Duck

Ernest Vincent Wright was an American author known for his book Gadsby, a 50,000-word novel which, except for the introduction and a note at the end, did not use the letter "e". The biographical details of his life are unclear. A 2002 article in the Village Voice by Ed Park said he might have been English by birth but was more probably American. The article said he might have served in the navy and that he has been incorrectly called a graduate of MIT. The article says that he attended a vocational high school attached to MIT in 1888 but there is no record that he graduated. Park said rumors that Wright died within hours of Gadsby being published are untrue. - Summary by Wikipedia

By: George Sterling (1869-1926)

Book cover House of Orchids and Other Poems

This is a 1911 volume of poems by California poet George Sterling. Sterling was a particularly celebrated poet during his life time in California, though his fame remained local and hardly spread to the other shore of the United States, let alone to Europe. There were good reasons for this fame, however, as is demonstrated by this volume of particularly beautiful and evocative poetry. - Summary by Carolin

By: Various

Book cover Short Poetry Collection 163

This is a collection of 31 poems read by volunteers for December 2016. It also includes a long poem, The Legend of Jubal by George Eliot "And his brother's name was Jubal: he was the father of all such as handle the harp and organ." - Genesis 4:21 Re-imagined from a few bare lines in Genesis, George Eliot’s epic poem describes man’s loss of innocense, the birth of animal husbandry, of industry, commerce, and art. In a surprise ending, she tells of human transcendence. Each of us has a divine gift to offer the world.

By: Thomas Moore (1779-1852)

Book cover Song of the Olden Time

From a relatively early age Moore showed an interest in music and other performing arts. He sometimes appeared in musical plays with his friends, such as The Poor Soldier by John O'Keeffe , and at one point had ambitions to become an actor. Moore attended several Dublin schools including Samuel Whyte's English Grammar School in Grafton Street where he learned the English accent with which he spoke for the rest of his life. In 1795 he graduated from Trinity College, which had recently allowed entry to Catholic students, in an effort to fulfill his mother's dream of him becoming a lawyer...

By: Emile Verhaeren (1855-1916)

Book cover Afternoon

This is a volume of poetry by Belgian poet Émile Verhaeren, skillfully rendered into English verse by Charles Murphy. Although the English translation was published during World War I, the French original was published in 1905, and the topic of the poems is Verhaeren's love for his wife Marthe. - Summary by Carolin

By: Various

Book cover Short Poetry Collection 194

This is a collection of 51 poems read in English by volunteers for July 2019.

By: Nixon Waterman (1859-1944)

Book cover Sonnets of a Budding Bard

This is a volume of 25 sonnets by American poet Nixon Waterman. The sonnets are written from the perspective of a school boy, and are very humorous, supported by some excellent illustrations by John A. Williams. - Summary by Carolin

By: Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850-1919)

Book cover Christmas Fancies

A popular poet rather than a literary poet, in her poems she expresses sentiments of cheer and optimism in plainly written, rhyming verse. Her world view is expressed in the title of her poem "Whatever Is—Is Best", suggesting an echo of Alexander Pope's "Whatever is, is right." None of Wilcox's works were included by F. O. Matthiessen in The Oxford Book of American Verse, but Hazel Felleman chose no fewer than fourteen of her poems for Best Loved Poems of the American People, while Martin Gardner selected "The Way Of The World" and "The Winds of Fate" for Best Remembered Poems.

By: William Butler Yeats (1865-1939)

Book cover Dolls

William Butler Yeats was an Irish poet and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. A pillar of both the Irish and British literary establishments, his earliest volume of verse was published in 1889, and its slow-paced and lyrical poems display Yeats's debts to Edmund Spenser, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and the poets of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. From 1900, Yeats's poetry grew more physical and realistic. In 1923, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

By: Harry Graham (1874-1936)

Book cover Misrepresentative Women

After writing two volumes on Misrepresentative Men, in which Harry Graham satirized ancient and contemporary famous men, a volume on the famous ladies was necessary. This volume contains several humorous poems on famous women, as well as some other humorous verses. Summary by Carolin

By: Eugene Field (1850-1895)

Book cover Fairy Glee

This poem is taken from Volume X, A Library of American Literature: An Anthology in Eleven Volumes. 1891. Vols. IX–XI: Literature of the Republic, Part IV., 1861–1889

By: Anna Katharine Green (1864-1935)

Book cover At the Piano

Anna Katharine Green was an American poet and novelist. She was one of the first writers of detective fiction in America and distinguished herself by writing well plotted, legally accurate stories. Green has been called "the mother of the detective novel". - Summary by Wikipedia

By: Lilian Whiting (1847-1942)

Book cover From Dreamland Sent

This is a volume of poetry by Lilian Whiting. As the title of the volume already hints at, the poems share a dreamy atmosphere, and in that are a typical example of American poetry of the end of the 19th century. - Summary by Carolin

By: Benjamin King (1857-1894)

Book cover Ben King's Verse

This is a volume of Benjamin King's collected verse, published shortly after his sudden death in 1894. The American humorist was very famous during his lifetime, and is still widely referenced and quoted until today. This volume was published in Chicago after his death, reportedly outselling any other volume of poetry in Michigan for 25 years after being published. It is also prefaced by two short biographies by John McGovern and Opie Read. - Summary by Carolin

By: Various

Book cover Short Poetry Collection 164

This is a collection of 27 poems read by volunteers for January 2017.

By: George Cabot Lodge (1873-1909)

Book cover Song of the Wave, and Other Poems

This is an 1898 volume of poetry by American poet George Cabot Lodge. Its title-poem refers to the Sea, and the Sea does seem to be the main character of this book, making its appearance in many of the poems throughout the first part of the volume. The second part of the book is a collection of 40 sonnets on more varied topics. - Summary by Carolin

By: Arthur Weir (1864-1902)

Book cover Snowflake and Other Poems

This is a volume of Canadian poet Arthur Weir. Many of the poems are set around the turn of a year, referencing the season in different ways, and touching upon almost every emotion and association we might connect with winter. - Summary by Carolin

By: Lord Alfred Douglas (1870-1945)

Book cover Placid Pug, and Other Rhymes

This is a collection of ten humorous verses by Lord Alfred Douglas. - Summary by Carolin

By: Robert Browning (1812-1889)

Book cover Easter Interpreted

Robert Browning is still well-known today as a distinguished English poet. His poetry is still widely read, recited, and taught in schools. In this little volume, Rose Porter has compiled a collection of his poems concerning Easter. - Summary by Carolin

By: Andrew Marvell (1621-1678)

Book cover To His Coy Mistress (version 2)

Andrew Marvell was an English metaphysical poet, satirist and politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1659 and 1678. During the Commonwealth period he was a colleague and friend of John Milton. His poems range from the love-song "To His Coy Mistress", to evocations of an aristocratic country house and garden in "Upon Appleton House" and "The Garden", the political address "An Horatian Ode upon Cromwell's Return from Ireland", and the later personal and political satires "Flecknoe" and "The Character of Holland". - Summary by Wikipedia

By: George R. Sims (1847-1922)

Book cover In The Workhouse: Christmas Day

George R. Sims was a journalist of the Victorian era who was mostly concerned with social reforms. He was very interested in the life of the poor. This is a dramatic monologue by an inmate at a workhouse, exposing the hypocrisy of the law. A vivid ballad which you would not be able to resist. - Summary by Stav Nisser. This was the fortnightly poem for January 29, 2017.

By: Michael Field (1862/1846-1913/1914)

Book cover Underneath the Bough: A Book of Verses

This is a collection of poems by Michael Field, the pseudonym of Katharine Harris Bradley and Edith Emma Cooper. Those poems are of interest not only because they are beautiful examples of aesthetic poetry, but also because many of them contain homosexuality as a theme. The joint authors lived openly as a lesbian couple for forty years around the turn of the 20th century. - Summary by Carolin

By: Marian Longfellow (1849-1924)

Book cover Contrasted Songs

This is a volume of collected poetry by American poet Marian Longfellow. The poems lack a uniform theme, but, as the author puts it, "Among these "Contrasted Songs" I trust that the reader will find something to which the heart may respond." - Summary by Carolin

By: Sappho

Book cover Poems of Sappho: An Interpretative Rendition into English

Who shall strike the wax of mystery from those priceless amphoræ, and give to the unsophisticated nostrils of the average reader the ravishing bouquet of wine pressed in a garden in Mitylene, twenty-five centuries ago? - Maurice ThompsonThis is a collection of the poetry of Sappho, in a "rather creative translation" by American poet John Myers O'Hara. - Summary by Carolin

By: Kate Slaughter McKinney (1857-1939)

Book cover Katydid's Poems

This is a volume of poems by Kate Slaughter McKinney, poet laureate of the State of Alabama of 1931, who often went by the pen-name Katydid. The poems are cute and amusing, children will enjoy them. - Summary by Carolin

By: Various

Book cover Short Poetry Collection 167

This is a collection of 36 poems read by volunteers for April 2017.

By: Lucy Larcom (1824-1893)

Book cover Easter Gleams

This is a collection of Easter poems by Lucy Larcom. The poems cover the entire circle of religious holidays, customs, and bible verses around Easter. - Summary by Carolin

By: Louisa Parsons Stone Hopkins (1834-1895)

Book cover Easter Carols

This is a collection of Easter poems by Louisa Parsons Stone Hopkins. The poems all center around the Easter holiday, in both a religious as well as a more generally festive tone. - Summary by Carolin

By: Jane Eliza Coolidge Chapman (1839-1912)

Book cover Easter Hymns

Lockwood, Brooks & Co. Have nearly ready the volume of “Easter Hymns” selected by Miss J.E.C. Chapman, an accomplished lady of Boston, and introduced by a note from her uncle, Rev. Dr. J.I.T. Coolidge. The hymns are excellently chosen, and the volume will be brought out in tasteful style. It will commend itself to the favor of all Episcopalians, and to the devout in all denominations, to whom Easter is not a mere churchly date but a day of deep and glad significance. – The Publisher’s Weekly, March 18th, 1876.

By: Emma Lazarus (1849-1887)

Book cover New Colossus, Version 2

My Grandma's father arrived in this country through New York City, and often spoke to my dad, when he was a boy, of what it was like to first see the Statue of Liberty. Most of my relatives arrived through Philadelphia or Boston, and didn't get to see the the "mighty woman with the torch" until later life, on vacation trips to New York City, when she was a must-see for them all. My Grandma always loved this Emma Lazarus poem, so I read this one especially for her, but also for all the other family members who came here "yearning to breathe free". And for those just like my family, who are still "♫♪coming to America, today♫♪".

By: John Donne (1572-1631)

Book cover To His Mistress Going to Bed

John Donne was an English poet and cleric in the Church of England. He is considered the pre-eminent representative of the metaphysical poets. His works are noted for their strong, sensual style and include sonnets, love poems, religious poems, Latin translations, epigrams, elegies, songs, satires and sermons. His poetry is noted for its vibrancy of language and inventiveness of metaphor, especially compared to that of his contemporaries. Donne's style is characterised by abrupt openings and various paradoxes, ironies and dislocations...

By: Walt Whitman (1819-1892)

Book cover When I heard the Learn’d Astronomer

Whitman claimed that after years of competing for "the usual rewards", he determined to become a poet. He first experimented with a variety of popular literary genres which appealed to the cultural tastes of the period. As early as 1850, he began writing what would become Leaves of Grass, a collection of poetry which he would continue editing and revising until his death. Whitman intended to write a distinctly American epic and used free verse with a cadence based on the Bible. At the end of June 1855, Whitman surprised his brothers with the already-printed first edition of Leaves of Grass. Whitman paid for the publication of the first edition of Leaves of Grass himself.


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