The Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern, is a work of enormous proportions. Setting out with the simple goal of offering "American households a mass of good reading", the editors drew from literature of all times and all kinds what they considered the best pieces of human writing, and compiled an ambitious collection of 45 volumes (with a 46th being an index-guide). Besides the selection and translation of a huge number of poems, letters, short stories and sections of books, the collection offers, before each chapter, a short essay about the author or subject in question...

Robert Burns, the national bard (poet) of Scotland was born on the 25th January, 1759. This is a collection of his poems and songs. This collection also includes works from other poets and writers who have written about Burns.

Some wonderful poems by Christopher Marlowe and others recorded ‘on location’ – in the churchyard of St Nicholas’, Deptford, and the Greenwich Foot Tunnel.

A collection of poetry selected and performed by Bob Gonzalez, rhapsode. Rhapsodes of Ancient Greece were “song-stitchers,” performing selections from the epics of Homer and Hesiod. The contemporary rhapsode performs the classical poetry of his or her language, culture, and tradition. Any particular collection and arrangement of poems for performance I term a “rhapsody.” In general terms, a rhapsody is an ecstatic expression of feeling and enthusiasm. In music, a rhapsody is an instrumental composition irregular in form and suggestive of improvisation...

"Originally modeled on the Psalms and other poetic passages (commonly referred to as "canticles") in the Scriptures, Christian hymns are generally directed as praise and worship to the monotheistic God. Many refer to Jesus Christ either directly or indirectly. Since the earliest times, Christians have sung "psalms and hymns and spiritual songs", both in private devotions and in corporate worship (Matthew 26:30; 1 Cor 14:26; Ephesians 5:19; Colossians 3:16; James 5:13; cf. Revelation 5:8-10; Revelation 14:1-5)...

A collection in celebration of 2012 Year of Reading Australia. Readers chose fiction, non fiction and poetry - we only asked that the readings should have some sort of Australian hook. So they can be by an Australian author, or about Australia, or just have a prominent bit of Australianess in the plot. Failing that: even being performed by Australians will do! :D .

Spring through Fall 1921 in Poetry, edited by Harriet Monroe. 2012 is the 100th Anniversary of Poetry magazine.

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 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 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

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

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

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

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

This is a collection of 28 poems read by volunteers for February 2017.

This is a collection of 22 poems read by volunteers for July 2016.

This selection of poems has many favourites from authors such as Edward Lear and Robert Browning, as well as less well known authors. We hope you enjoy the poems.Please note that sections 3 and 11 had two sources for the text of the poems; they are http://www.bartleby.com/337/202.html and http://www.bartleby.com/101/76.html.

We selected some of our favourite poets for this collection, including Dante, Fitzgerald, Keats, Barrett Browning, Lear, Carroll, Milton, Morris, Swinburne and Rossetti. We hope you enjoy listening to them. - Summary by Newgatenovelist

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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