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By: Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926) | |
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Poems
A concise collection of poems translated from the great German poet Rilke into formal English verse. Although the translation may be freer than some modern texts, this selection, which spans early and later writings and includes a preface refreshingly focused on the poet's artistic development, provides a nice entrée into Rilke's world. |
By: Michael Earls (1875-1937) | |
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Sailor
Michael Earls, S.J. was a Jesuit priest, as well as a writer, poet, teacher, and administrator. - Summary by Wikipedia |
By: Various | |
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Short Poetry Collection 171
This is a collection of 30 poems read by volunteers for August 2017. | |
By: George Sterling (1869-1926) | |
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Testimony of the Suns, and other Poems
This is the first published volume of poetry by Californian author and poet George Sterling. These poems are the beginning of Sterling's great career as a poet, and include a number of poems in the style for which he would become famous. That style is dark and with supernatural elements, in the tradition of Thomas Hood and Edgar Allan Poe. - Summary by Carolin |
By: D. H. Lawrence (1885-1930) | |
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Love Poems and Others
This is a collection of poems by DH Lawrence. Most of the poems concern love and neighboring emotions, but some poems also concern other themes. - Summary by Carolin |
By: Thomas Fleming Day (1861-1927) | |
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Songs of Sea and Sail
Thomas Fleming Day was an American sailboat designer and sailboat racer. He was the founding editor of Rudder, a monthly magazine about boats, and himself the first to win the annual New York to Bermuda race. Not so well-known today is the fact that Day also occasionally penned a poem about his passion for the sea and sailing. Those poems are collected in this volume. - Summary by Carolin and Wikipedia |
By: Various | |
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Short Poetry Collection 172
This is a collection of 38 poems read by volunteers for September 2017. | |
Short Poetry Collection 169
This is a collection of 34 poems read by volunteers for June 2017. |
By: William Theodore Parkes (1864-1908) | |
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Spook Ballads
This is a volume of ghost stories in verse by William Theodore Parkes. The poems in this volume are often humorous, and written in a parody of ye olde style of poetry."Dealing largely with ghosts and legends embracing a dash of diablerie such as would have been dear to the heart of Ingoldsby. There is a rugged force in 'The Girl of Castlebar' that will always make it tell in recitation; and even greater success in this direction has attended 'The Fairy Queen,' a story unveiling the seamy side, with quaint humour and stern realism... |
By: Thomas Moore (1779-1852) | |
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Poetry of Thomas Moore
The Dubliner, Thomas Moore, born in 1779 was a poet, composer, musician, and writer. He is most famous for the 10 volume work "Irish Melodies" published between 1807 and 1834 with Sir John Stevenson, which consists of 130 of his poems set to music, much of it based on old Irish airs. "The Last Rose of Summer" and "The Minstrel Boy" are two of the most well known. Many of these "Melodies" are included in this collection. He is perhaps most infamous for having burned, at the request of the Byron family, the manuscript of Byron's memoirs which Bryon had left to him for publication after his death... |
By: John Donne (1572-1631) | |
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Goodfriday, 1613. Riding Westward
John Donne was an English poet and cleric in the Church of England. Despite his great education and poetic talents, Donne lived in poverty for several years, relying heavily on wealthy friends. He spent much of the money he inherited during and after his education on womanising, literature, pastimes, and travel. In 1601, Donne secretly married Anne More, with whom he had twelve children. In 1615, he became an Anglican priest, although he did not want to take Anglican orders. He did so because King James I persistently ordered it. In 1621, he was appointed the Dean of St Paul's Cathedral in London. He also served as a member of Parliament in 1601 and in 1614. |
By: Louise Imogen Guiney (1861-1920) | |
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England and Yesterday
Louise Imogen Guiney was an American poet, well-connected in the art of her time. Much of her life was spent in England, mostly at London and Oxford. This volume of poems contains, among other poems, 24 sonnets written in those two cities. - Summary by Carolin |
By: C. J. Dennis (1876-1938) | |
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Bill & Doreen's Courtship (Selections from "The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke")
"The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke" is a verse novel by Australian novelist and poet C. J. Dennis. The work was first published in book form in 1915 and sold over 60,000 copies in nine editions within the first year. A special pocket edition was even printed for the Australian soldiers in the trenches during the Great War. "The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke" tells the story of Bill, a larrikin of the Little Lonsdale Street push, who is introduced to a young woman by the name of Doreen. The book chronicles their courtship and marriage, detailing Bill's transformation from a violence-prone gang member to a contented husband and father. - Summary by Wikipedia |
By: Robert Nichols (1893-1944) | |
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Ardours and Endurances
This is a volume of war poetry by English poet and playwright Robert Nichols. To quote Wikipedia: "On 11 November 1985, Nichols was among 16 Great War poets commemorated on a slate stone unveiled in Westminster Abbey's Poet's Corner. The inscription on the stone was written by a fellow Great War poet, Wilfred Owen. It reads: 'My subject is War, and the pity of War. The Poetry is in the pity.'" This particular volume of poetry contains his most well-known poems, and is also perhaps one of the most haunting collections of war poetry in the English language. - Summary by Carolin |
By: Robert Maynard Leonard | |
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Poems on Travel
This volume of poetry takes the reader, or rather the listener, along on a literary tour through Europe. R.M. Leonard has collected the finest poems by some of the most celebrated poets of the English language, all covering the subject of travel, and often concerning travelling to a certain city or region in Europe. - Summary by Carolin |
By: Josephine Preston Peabody (1874-1922) | |
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Book of the Little Past
This is a very cute little book of children's poetry. All poems are short and suitable for very young children to read or listen to. - Summary by Carolin |
By: Albion Fellows Bacon (1865-1933) | |
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Songs Ysame
This is a volume of poetry written by the sisters Albion Fellows Bacon and Annie Fellows Johnston. Both of the sisters reached quite a level of fame in their own right, Ms Bacon primarily as a social reformer and Ms Johnston as an author of children's books. In this volume of poetry, they bring their two sets of skills together to write beautiful verses. - Summary by Carolin |
By: Tom Kettle (1880-1916) | |
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Poems & Parodies
Tom Kettle was an Irish economist, journalist, barrister, writer, poet, soldier and Home Rule politician. All these varied interests helped him compose beautiful and very witty poetry, until his death at the Western Front in World War I. This volume was published immediately after his death, and may give a good overview over the work and the many talents of this now almost forgotten writer. - Summary by Carolin |
By: Hannah Lavinia Baily (1837-1921) | |
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By the Sea, and Other Verses
This is a collection of poetry by Hannah Lavinia Baily. They describe a number of different settings, prominently the sea in the titular poem, and bring in contemporary as well as mythical themes. - Summary by Carolin |
By: Richard Middleton (1882-1911) | |
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Poems & Songs
This is a volume of poetry by English poet Richard Middleton. While hardly known to readers anymore today, Middleton's poems, stories, and essays were all very highly regarded during his lifetime and after his untimely death, having won the admiration of many of his contemporary critics and writers whose fame endured longer than that of Middleton himself. A look into this volume of poetry should convince the reader or listener that Middleton's poetry certainly deserves much more attention than is currently given it. - Summary by Carolin |
By: Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) | |
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Conqueror Worm
Edgar Allan Poe was an American writer, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is widely regarded as a central figure of Romanticism in the United States and American literature as a whole, and he was one of the country's earliest practitioners of the short story. Poe is generally considered the inventor of the detective fiction genre and is further credited with contributing to the emerging genre of science fiction. - Summary by Wikipedia |
By: James Whitcomb Riley (1849-1916) | |
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In A Box
James Whitcomb Riley was an American writer, poet, and best-selling author. His poems tended to be humorous or sentimental, and of the approximately one thousand poems that Riley authored, the majority are in dialect. His famous works include "Little Orphant Annie" and "The Raggedy Man". - Summary by Wikipedia |
By: William Lisle Bowles (1762-1850) | |
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River Wainsbeck
William Lisle Bowles was an English priest, poet and critic. The Wainsbeck is a sequestered river in Northumberland, having on its banks "Our Lady's Chapel," three-quarters of a mile west of Bothal. It has been commemorated by Akenside. |
By: Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861) | |
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Year's Spinning
Elizabeth Barrett Browning was one of the most prominent English poets of the Victorian era, popular in Britain and the United States during her lifetime. - Summary by Wikipedia |
By: T. W. H. Crosland | |
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To A Hotel Keeper
We have all had mysterious charges added on to our hotel bills. - Summary by David Lawrence |
By: Nancy Cunard (1896-1965) | |
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Wheels - The First Cycle
A series of six volumes of Wheels anthologies was produced by members of the Sitwell family, the first in 1916. Apart from Edith, Osbert and Sacheverell Sitwell, the poets represented in the series include Nancy Cunard, whose family founded the Cunard shipping line, Aldous Huxley and Wilferd Owen, as well as a number of more obscure writers. - Summary by Algy Pug |
By: Margaret Steele Anderson (1867-1921) | |
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To The Men Who Went Down On The Titanic
Margaret Steele Anderson's tribute to the men left on board the doomed ship, some of whom followed the "Women and children first" tradition of the sea. - Summary by David Lawrence |
By: William Wilfred Campbell (1860-1918) | |
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Beyond the Hills of Dream
William Wilfred Campbell was a Canadian author and poet. Some of his poems are among the most famous Canadian poems of all time, and many contemporary Canadians interested in poetry may be familiar with one or two of his poems. The rest of his work is not very well-known today - a pitiful oversight. This collection contains 36 of his poems, and may serve as a good reintroduction into Campbell's poetry. - Summary by Carolin |
By: John Drinkwater (1882-1937) | |
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Tides
This is a volume of poetry by John Drinkwater. The English poet and playwright was a close associate of, among others, Rupert Brooke, before World War I, and continued a successful career as author and playwright after the war and until his death in 1937. This is a small collection of only 19 of his earlier poems. - Summary by Carolin |
By: Various | |
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Short Poetry Collection 191
This is a collection of 50 poems read in English by volunteers for April 2019. |
By: C. J. Dennis (1876-1938) | |
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Bill & Doreen Get Hitched (Selections from "The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke")
"Bill & Doreen Get Hitched" is the sequel to "Bill & Doreen's Courtship". "The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke" is a verse novel by Australian novelist and poet C. J. Dennis. The work was first published in book form in 1915 and sold over 60,000 copies in nine editions within the first year. A special pocket edition was even printed for the Australian soldiers in the trenches during the Great War. "The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke" tells the story of Bill, a larrikin of the Little Lonsdale Street push, who is introduced to a young woman by the name of Doreen... |
By: John Clare (1793-1864) | |
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Poems
John Clare was a working-class English poet, best known for his poetic descriptions of the English Countryside. He is also one of the few popular poets of the 19th century, who, after being largely forgotten for years after their deaths, is being rediscovered in our time. This is a selection of John Clare's poems, suitable as an introduction into his work for those who do not know him. Readers who already did know Clare may like to discover poems that are not quite as well-known today. - Summary by Carolin |
By: Maurice Baring (1874-1945) | |
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Poems, 1914-1919
This is a collection of Maurice Baring's poetry. This collection contains a number of Baring's earlier poetry, written before the war mostly about his travels in Russia. The other part of the collection is made up of poetry concerning World War I, with some particulalry evocative sonnets and other poems. - Summary by Carolin |
By: Jean McKishnie Blewett (1862-1934) | |
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Heart Songs
This is a volume of poetry by Jean Blewett. In this collection, the Canadian poet's most beautiful love songs and poetry is brought together. - Summary by Carolin |
By: Edward Burrough Brownlow (1857-1895) | |
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Orpheus and Other Poems
This is a volume of poetry by the rather obscure Canadian poet Edward Burrough Brownlow, published posthumously after his death in 1896. The poems in this volume have varied subjects, reflecting the interests of the poet. - Summary by Carolin |
By: Hannah Flagg Gould (1788-1865) | |
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Mother's Dream, and Other Poems
This is a volume of poetry by Hannah Flagg Gould. Ms Gould was an immensely popular author of children's poetry during her lifetime, and her poems will still be enjoyed by children as well as adults today. - Summary by Carolin |
By: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) | |
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Poems on Slavery
This is a short volume of abolitionist poetry by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, first published in 1842. As Wikipedia notes, Longfellow himself was not entirely satisfied with his work: "However, as Longfellow himself wrote, the poems were 'so mild that even a Slaveholder might read them without losing his appetite for breakfast'. A critic for The Dial agreed, calling it 'the thinnest of all Mr. Longfellow's thin books; spirited and polished like its forerunners; but the topic would warrant a deeper tone'... |
By: Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) | |
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Wheels - The Second Cycle
A series of six volumes of Wheels anthologies was produced by members of the Sitwell family between 1916 and 1922. The second volume, published in 1917, contains poems by the Sitwells and also Aldous Huxley, among others. - Summary by Algy Pug |
By: S.E. Kiser (1862-1942) | |
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Father
A tribute to fatherhood by a little known author, - Summary by David Lawrence |
By: John Drinkwater (1882-1937) | |
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Symbols
John Drinkwater was an English poet and dramatist. In the period immediately before the First World War he was one of the group of poets associated with the Gloucestershire village of Dymock, along with Rupert Brooke and others. - Summary by Wikipedia |
By: Omar Khayyám (1048-1131) | |
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Rubaiyat of Umar Khaiyam
In 1867 Jean Baptiste Nicolas , scholar and career diplomat, published the first major French translation of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. This version is in prose and the collection contains 464 verses.In Nicolas’ view, Omar was no Epicurean reveler but rather a relentless spiritual seeker – his frequent allusions to wine and lovers are metaphors, expressive of a divine discontent that can only be resolved by union with a mystical beloved. However, most other translators and commentators regard Omar as a man who sampled and enjoyed both earthly and philosophical delights... |
By: Various | |
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Short Poetry Collection 173
This is a collection of 41 poems read by volunteers for October 2017. | |
Short Poetry Collection 175
This is a collection of 34 poems read by volunteers for December 2017. |
By: Henry Lawson (1867-1922) | |
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When Your Pants Begin To Go
Henry Archibald Hertzberg Lawson was an Australian writer and bush poet. Along with his contemporary Banjo Paterson, Lawson is among the best-known Australian poets and fiction writers of the colonial period and is often called Australia's "greatest short story writer". He was the son of the poet, publisher and feminist Louisa Lawson. - Summary by Wikipedia |
By: Bliss Carman (1861-1929) | |
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By the Aurelian Wall and Other Elegies
This is a small volume of beautiful melancholy verses by Canadian poet Bliss Carman. The poems share a common theme which is the death of persons known and unknown to the poet. - Summary by Carolin |
By: Robert Bridges (1844-1930) | |
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October and Other Poems
This is a collection of poetry by Robert Bridges. This collection also contains some poems written right after World War I, reflecting the state of international politics very impressively. "This miscellaneous volume is composed of three sections. The first twelve poems were written in 1913, and printed privately by Mr. Hornby in 1914. The last of these poems proved to be a “war poem,” and on that follow eighteen pieces which were called forth on occasion during the War, the last being a broadsheet on the surrender of the German ships... |
By: Louise Imogen Guiney (1861-1920) | |
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White Sail
This is a collection of poems by Louise Imogen Guiney. The collection is split into four parts. After the titular poem, which is its own part, this volume contains ten narrative poems concerning some well-known and some lesser known legends. The third part of the volume is one of lyrics, and the fourth contains a number of sonnets. - Summary by Carolin |
By: Ronald Ross (1857-1932) | |
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Philosophies
This is a volume of poetry by Ronald Ross. It was composed in India during Ross' intensive research of malaria. Ross was first to discover how mosquitoes transmit malaria and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine for this work in 1902. While this research is still well-known today, it is not very well-known that Ross also wrote poetry. This volume contains some of his poems, composed during his stay in India. - Summary by Carolin |
By: Roger Casement (1864-1916) | |
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Some Poems of Roger Casement
This is a small volume of poetry by Roger Casement. Casement was a diplomat for years, active especially in Africa, where he witnessed the dark side of British Imperialism. He began to devote his life to human rights, and is still recognised for his important work particularly in the Congo and in Peru. - Summary by Carolin |
By: Madison Cawein (1865-1914) | |
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End of Summer
Cawein's poetry allied his love of nature with a devotion to earlier English and European literature, mythology, and classical allusion. - Summary by Wikipedia |
By: William Wordsworth (1770-1850) | |
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Place Of Burial In The South Of Scotland
This poem is part of the "Ecclesiastical Sonnets," writen by Wordsworth between 1821 - 22. - Summary by David Lawrence |
By: Various | |
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Short Poetry Collection 176
This is a collection of 27 poems read by volunteers for January 2018 |
By: C. J. Dennis (1876-1938) | |
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Bill & Doreen's Married Life
"Bill & Doreen's Married Life " is the sequel to "Bill & Doreen's Courtship" and "Bill & Doreen Get Hitched", the latter two being "Selections from 'The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke'". "The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke" is a verse novel by Australian novelist and poet C. J. Dennis. The work was first published in book form in 1915 and sold over 60,000 copies in nine editions within the first year. A special pocket edition was even printed for the Australian soldiers in the trenches during the Great War... |
By: Griffith Alexander | |
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Life
"What is life?" we ask. "Just one darned thing after another," the cynic replies. Yes, a multiplicity of forces and interests, and each of them, even the disagreeable, may be of real help to us. It's good for a dog, says a shrewd philosopher, to be pestered with fleas; it keeps him from thinking too much about being a dog. - Summary by from the poem preface |
By: George MacDonald (1824-1905) | |
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Autumn's Gold
George MacDonald was a Scottish author, poet, and Christian minister. He was a pioneering figure in the field of fantasy literature and the mentor of fellow writer Lewis Carroll. His writings have been cited as a major literary influence by many notable authors including W. H. Auden, C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, Walter de la Mare, E. Nesbit and Madeleine L'Engle. - Summary by Wikipedia |
By: Archibald Lampman (1861-1899) | |
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Refuge
Archibald Lampman FRSC was a Canadian poet. "He has been described as 'the Canadian Keats;' and he is perhaps the most outstanding exponent of the Canadian school of nature poets." The Canadian Encyclopedia says that he is "generally considered the finest of Canada's late 19th-century poets in English." Lampman is classed as one of Canada's Confederation Poets, a group which also includes Charles G.D. Roberts, Bliss Carman, and Duncan Campbell Scott. - Summary by Wikipedia |
By: Michael Field (1862/1846-1913/1914) | |
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Triumph of Bacchus and Ariadne
This Fortnightly Poem is taken from Underneath the Bough, A Book of Verses by Michael Field. - Summary by David Lawrence |
By: L. | |
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Dark Ages, and Other Poems
This is a volume of poetry by a poet only going by the initial "L.". The poems are veried in tone and subject, set in different parts of the British Isles and Europe. Most of them have a historic background, though set several centuries after the titular "Dark Ages". - Summary by Carolin |
By: Charles Godfrey Leland (1824-1903) | |
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Songs of the Sea and Lays of the Land
This is a volume of poetry by Charles Godfrey Leland. The first half of this volume is taken up by the Songs of the Sea, with rather romantic songs about seafaring, mermaids, and adventures, and the second half of the volume contains the Lays of the Land, with poems focused on the things a seaman may encounter when he enters a port. - Summary by Carolin |
By: Unknown | |
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Life and Adventures of Chanticleer, the intelligent Rooster. An interesting Story in Verse for Children
This is, as the title already describes, the rhymed story of Chanticleer the Rooster, and his adventures. Follow the bird through his youth and school years, on a journey, through adventures, becoming a father and a family man and eventually a grandfather. - Summary by Carolin |