Arthur Macy was a Nantucket boy of Quaker extraction. His name alone is evidence of this, for it is safe to say that a Macy, wherever found in the United States, is descended from that sturdy old Quaker who was one of those who bought Nantucket from the Indians, paid them fairly for it, treated them with justice, and lived on friendly terms with them. In many ways Arthur Macy showed that he was a Nantucketer and, at least by descent, a Quaker. He often used phrases peculiar to our island in the sea, and was given, in conversation at least, to similes which smacked of salt water. Almost the last time I saw him he said, "I'm coming round soon for a good long gam."

This poem is taken from A Book of Women’s Verse published in 1921. (

This is a collection of 31 poems read by LibriVox volunteers for May 2015.

Shaikh Sa’di, also known as Saadi Shirazi, the nightingale of Shiraz, as Jami poetically calls this gifted poet, was born at Shiraz, the capital of Persia, near the end of the twelfth century. By turns, a student, a water-carrier, a traveller, a soldier fighting against the Christians in the Crusades, a prisoner employed to dig trenches before Tripoli. and an honored poet in his protracted old age at home, — his varied and severe experience took away all provincial tone, and gave him a facility of speaking to all conditions...

This is a collection of Julia Caroline Dorr's Sonnets, from her collected poems.

James Henry Leigh Hunt, best known as Leigh Hunt, was an English critic, essayist, poet, and writer.

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

Sam Walter Foss was an American librarian and poet. For many years the opening lines from Foss' The Coming American ("Bring me men to match my mountains / Bring me men to match my plains / Men with empires in their purpose / And new eras in their brains") were inscribed on a granite wall at the United States Air Force Academy to inspire cadets and officers, but they were removed in 2003 to harmonize in perception to the Air Force Academy's having become coeducational.

Edgar Allan Poe (born Edgar Poe) was an American author, poet, editor, and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story, and is generally considered the inventor of the detective fiction genre. He is further credited with contributing to the emerging genre of science fiction. He was the first well-known American writer to try to earn a living through writing alone, resulting in a financially difficult life and career...

A selection of poems in the Lancashire dialect by the foremost exponent of the form. A printer by training, Edwin Waugh left his trade for secretarial work and began his literary career in 1852. His first dialect poem, 'Come whoam to thi' childer and me', was written at the Clarence Hotel, Manchester, on 10 June 1856 and published in the Manchester Examiner the following day. The best known Lancashire dialect poem of its day, it inspired numerous followers whose dialect poetry and prose provided an often nostalgic accompaniment to the sound and fury of the industrial revolution...

Victor James William Patrick Daley was an Australian poet. He was born in Ireland, and was educated at the Christian Brothers at Devonport in England. He arrived in Australia in 1878, and became a freelance journalist and writer in both Melbourne and Sydney. He is notable for becoming the first author in Australia who tried to earn a living from writing alone. In Sydney in 1898, he founded the bohemian Dawn and Dusk Club, which had many notable members such as writer Henry Lawson. He died at Sydney of tuberculosis...

Adela Florence Nicolson (née Cory) was an English poet who wrote under the pseudonym Laurence Hope. Her father was employed in the British army at Lahore and she left for India in 1881 to join her father. In 1901, she published Garden of Kama, which was published a year later in America under the title India's Love Lyrics. She attempted to pass these off as translations of various poets, but this claim soon fell under suspicion. Her poems often used imagery and symbols from the poets of the North-West Frontier of India and the Sufi poets of Persia...

Portion of an article in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, VOL. XXVI July-December, 1829 "The late Earl of Eglinton, a distinguished member of a family not destitute of Celtic blood, and which has even been illustrious honour and patriotic feelings and principles, had a high opinion of the loyalty and bravery of the Canadian Highlanders, and left the following translation of one of their boat songs among his papers, set to music by his own hand."

The editor of the volume Made in the Trenches includes these poignant notes: Corporal Streets, in submitting these sonnets some months ago, wrote: "They express not only my feelings but the feelings of thousands of others who, like myself, are on the verge of departure from England." Cpl. Streets, in a letter accompanying later poems, also wrote: "They were inspired while I was in the trenches, where I have been so busy that I have had little time to polish them. I have tried to picture some thoughts that pass through a man's brain when he dies...

Arthur Hugh Clough (kluf) was an English poet, an educationalist, and the devoted assistant to ground-breaking nurse Florence Nightingale. He was the brother of suffragist Anne Clough, who became principal of Newnham College, Cambridge.

James Russell Lowell was an American Romantic poet, critic, editor, and diplomat. He is associated with the Fireside Poets, a group of New England writers who were among the first American poets who rivaled the popularity of British poets. These poets usually used conventional forms and meters in their poetry, making them suitable for families entertaining at their fireside. "Lowell's poem "The Present Crisis," an early work that addressed the national crisis over slavery leading up to the Civil War, has had an impact in the modern civil rights movement...

James Whitcomb Riley was an American writer, poet, and best-selling author. During his lifetime he was known as the "Hoosier Poet" and "Children's Poet" for his dialect works and his children's poetry respectively. 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".

Joseph Ashby-Sterry was an English poet and novelist. He works include Boudoir Ballads, a collection of poetry, now out of print. This poem is taken from the 1888 edition of The Lazy Minstrel.

This is a collection of 32 poems read in English by volunteers for December 2018.

This is a collection of 35 poems read in English by volunteers for August 2018.

This is a volume of poetry by Rosa Muholland. The poetry in this volume is varied, some read like fairy tales, some have a slightly sinister aspect. All poems share the very skillful execution of the verses, and the beauty of the images they evoke. - Summary by Carolin

This is a collection of 31 poems read by volunteers for April 2016.

This is a collection of 34 poems read by volunteers for July 2017. It includes a longer poem, Parliament of the Birds by Farid ud-Din Attar. Introduction by the reader: This is one of the best-loved classics of Sufi literature. In his own land, Attar is better known than Rumi or Hafiz. Translation is by Edward Fitzgerald, who 160 years ago brought the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayam to English-speaking audiences. Lacking governance and beginning to descend into anarchy, the birds come together to agree on leadership...

This is a collection of 38 poems read in English by volunteers for September 2018.

This is a collection of 23 poems read by volunteers for June 2016.

This is a collection of 29 poems read by volunteers for February 2016.

This is a collection of 28 poems read by volunteers for November 2016.

This is a collection of 30 poems read by volunteers for August 2016.

This is the second part of James Russell Lowell's collected poems: the Miscellaneous Poems. This series of poems covers, as the title implies, a wide range of topics, shaped into Lowell's beautiful poetry. - Summary by Carolin

This volume covers the age of expansion from the Revolution to the Civil War, including the creation of the Constitution, the Presidency of George Washington, the War of 1812, and the settling of the West, along with tales of Johnny Appleseed, the Alamo, the Gold Rush, the death of Jefferson, and The Wreck of the Hesperus. Authors include Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Francis Scott Key, John Greenleaf Whittier and Lord Byron. - Summary by Ed Humpal

One hundred and twenty six beautifully written poems about babies and childhood that capture the marvelous wonders of that age. - Summary by Maggie Travers

This is a collection of 35 poems read by volunteers for March 2016.