Genre: Poetry (21 books)

The best classic books from the Poetry genre.

#101

RANK

Pale Fire

Vladimir Nabokov

Poetry

4.0 (6)

I was the shadow of the waxwing slain / By the false azure in the windowpane.Pale Fire, a poem in heroic couplets, of nine hundred ninety-nine lines, divided into four cantos, was composed by John Francis Shade (born July 5, 1898, died July 21, 1959) during the last twenty days of his life, at his residence in New Wye, Appalachia, U.S.A.

185

3 expert lists

Reviews

#106

RANK

Commedia

Dante Alighieri

Poetry

3.17 (6)

Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita/mi ritrovai per una selva oscura,/chè la diritta via era smarrita.Mildway upon the journey of our life I found myself within a forest dark, For the straightforward pathway had been lost.

180

2 expert lists

Reviews

#137

RANK

The Bell Jar

Sylvia Plath

Poetry

4.0 (8)

It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn't know what I was doing in New York.

141

4 expert lists

Reviews

#188

RANK

The Odyssey

Homer

Poetry

4.18 (11)

By now the other warriors, those that had escaped headlong ruin by sea or in battle, were safely home.Sing to me of the man, Muse, the man of twists and turns driven time and again off course, once he had plundered the hallowed heights of Troy.

102

2 expert lists

Reviews

#223

RANK

The Canterbury Tales

Geoffrey Chaucer

Poetry

4.0 (11)

When the sweet showers of April have pierced/ The drought of March, and pierced it to the root,/ And every vein is bathed in that moisture/ Whose quickening force will engender the flower;/ And when the west wind too with its sweet breath/ Has given life in every wood and field/ To tender shoots, and when the stripling sun/ Has run his half-course in Aries, the Ram,/ And when small birds are making melodies,/ That sleep all the night long with open eyes,/ (Nature so prompts them, and encourages);/ Then people long to go on pilgrimages,/ And palmers to take ship for foreign shores,/ And distant shrines, famous in different lands;/ And most especially, from all the shires/ Of England, to Canterbury they come,/ The holy blessed martyr there to seek,/ Who gave his help to them when they were sick.When in April the sweet showers fall And pierce the drought of March to the root, and all The veins are bathed in liquor of such power As brings about the engendering of the flower, When also Zephyrus with his sweet breath Exhales an air in every grove and heath Upon the tender shoots, and the young sun His half-course in the sign of the Ram has run, And the small fowl are making melody That sleep away the night with open eye (So nature pricks them and their heart engages) Then people long to go on pilgrimages And palmers long to seek the stranger strands Of far-off saints, hallowed in sundry lands, And specially, from every shire's end Of England, down to Canterbury they wend To seek the holy blissful martyr, quick To give his help to them when they were sick. (translated by Nevill Coghill, 1951)Once upon a time, as old stories tell us, there was a duke named Theseus; Of Athens he was a lord and governor, And in his time such a conqueror, That greater was there none under the sum.

1 expert lists

Reviews

#239

RANK

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare

Poetry

4.25 (4)

William Shakespeare's date of birth is not precisely known, but it probably preceded his baptism on April 26, 1564, in Stratfordon-Avon, by only a few days.