Mother Goose Treasury: A Beautiful Collection of Favorite Nursery Rhymes, by Parragon Books and Priscilla Lamont (Illustrator)
“Cuddle up on the sofa with this beautiful book, open the pages and take a look. There are lovely pictures and familiar rhymes, to share with your child before sleepy time. Join Mother Goose, kings, and twinkling stars, let your dreams and imagination take you far. This is the perfect book for reading aloud and sharing, and will be treasured by children throughout their childhood. For centuries Mother Goose has been gathering a collection of magical, well-loved tales. Journey to remarkable places and far away lands, and see the worlds come to life!”
Paul Revere’s Ride, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (Author), Ted Rand (Illustrator)
“Longfellow's tribute to the famous revolutionary hero begins with the stirring cadence that American schoolchildren have committed to memory for over a century. Now illustrator Ted Rand brings these vivid and beautiful lines to life as dramatically as the poet's immortal message inspires." The clatter of hooves seems to echo in Rand's evocative paintings of that famed midnight ride...."
Where the Sidewalk Ends: Poems and Drawings, by Shel Silverstein (Author, Illustrator)
“Shel Silverstein, the New York Times bestselling author of The Giving Tree, A Light in the Attic, Falling Up, and Every Thing On It, has created a poetry collection that is outrageously funny and deeply profound. Come in . . . for where the sidewalk ends, Shel Silverstein's world begins. You'll meet a boy who turns into a TV set, and a girl who eats a whale. The Unicorn and the Bloath live there, and so does Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout who will not take the garbage out. It is a place where you wash your shadow and plant diamond gardens, a place where shoes fly, sisters are auctioned off, and crocodiles go to the dentist. Shel Silverstein's masterful collection of poems and drawings stretches the bounds of imagination and will be cherished by readers of all ages. This is a collection that belongs on everyone's bookshelf. Makes a great gift for special occasions such as holidays, birthdays, and graduation.”
Gilgamesh the Hero, by Geraldine McCaughrean (Author/Adaptor)
“This is one of the oldest stories in the world, and it's about things that still matter to us today: friendship, fame, courage, happiness. Gilgamesh and Enkidu are friends -- best friends. Together they can work wonders, fight monsters, brave earthquakes, travel the world! But waiting in the dark is the one enemy they can never overcome. Retold by award-winning author Geraldine McCaughrean, and illustrated with great power by David Parkins, Gilgamesh the Hero is a story that will linger in the imagination long after the book has been put down.”
Poetry for Young People: Langston Hughes, by David Roessel (Editor) and Arnold Rampersad (Editor)
“WINNER OF THE 2007 CORETTA SCOTT KING ILLUSTRATOR HONOR AWARD! A fresh design and appealing new cover enliven this award-winning collection in the acclaimed Poetry for Young People series. Showcasing the extraordinary Langston Hughes, its edited by two leading poetry experts and features gallery-quality art by Benny Andrews that adds rich dimension to the words. Hughes’s magnificent, powerful words still resonate today, and the anthologized poems in this splendid volume include his best-loved works: “The Negro Speaks of Rivers”; “My People”; “Words Like Freedom”; “Harlem”; and “I, Too”--his sharp, pointed response to Walt Whitman’s “I Hear America Singing.”
Who Was Edgar Allan Poe?, by Jim Gigliotti
“Filled with broken hearts and black ravens, Edgar Allan Poe’s ghastly tales have delighted readers for centuries. Born in Boston in 1809, Poe was orphaned at age two. He was soon adopted by a Virginia family who worked as tombstone merchants. In 1827 he enlisted in the Army and subsequently failed out of West Point. His first published story, The Raven, was a huge success, but his joy was overshadowed by the death of his wife. Poe devoted his life to writing and his tragic life often inspired his work. He is considered to be the inventor of detective fiction and the father of American mystery writers. His work continues to influence popular culture through films, music, literature, and television.”
Poetry for Young People: Emily Dickinson, by Frances Schoonmaker Bolin (Editor)
“See the beauty and magic of the everyday world through the eyes of Emily Dickinson, one of America’s best-loved and most renowned poets. Flowers, birds, sunrises, sunsets, the moon, and even her own existence take on surprising meanings and colorful illustrations accompany more than thirty-five of her best-loved poems. An ideal way to introduce young readers to the marvels of prose, the Poetry for Young People series opens up the world of wonderful word images by pairing classic verses with beautiful illustrations, and by providing helpful definitions and commentary.”
Who Was Walt Whitman?, by Kirsten Anderson
“Walt Whitman was a printer, journalist, editor, and schoolteacher. But today, he's recognized as one of America's founding poets, a man who changed American literature forever. Throughout his life, Walt journeyed everywhere, from New York to New Orleans, Washington D.C. to Denver, taking in all that America had to offer. With the Civil War approaching, he saw a nation deeply divided, but he also understood the power of words to inspire unity. So in 1855, Walt published a short collection of poems, Leaves of Grass, a book about the America he saw and believed in. Though hated and misunderstood by many at the time, Walt's writing introduced an entirely new writing style: one that broke forms, and celebrated the common man, human body, and the diversity of America. Generations later, readers can still find themselves in Whitman's words, and recognize the America he depicts. Who Was Walt Whitman? follows his remarkable journey from a young New York printer to one of America's most beloved literary figures.”
Beowulf, by Michael Morpurgo (Author/Adaptor)
“Long ago a Scandinavian warrior fought three evils so powerful they threatened whole kingdoms. Standing head and shoulders above his comrades, Beowulf single-handedly saved the land of the Danes from a merciless ogre named Grendel and from his sea-hag mother. But it is his third terrible battle, with the death-dragon of the deep, in which he truly meets his match. Lovers of heroes, monsters, and the drama of battle will find this retelling as enthralling as it is tragic. Now in a handy black-and-white digest edition perfect for classroom use.”
Who Was William Shakespeare?, by Celeste Mannis
“The beloved plays of Shakespeare are still produced everywhere, yet the life of the world's most famous playwright remains largely a mystery. Young Will left the town of Stratford to pursue theater in London, where his work eventually thrived and made him a famous and wealthy man. With black-and-white illustrations that include a diagram of the famous Globe theater, Celeste Davidson Mannis puts together the pieces of Shakespeare's life and work for young readers.”
Sir Gawain & The Green Knight, by Michael Morpurgo (Author/Adaptor)
“Think yourself back in years, my friends. . . . It's New Year's Eve in Camelot, where King Arthur, Queen Guinevere, and all their good Knights wait breathlessly for an extravagant feast to begin. Suddenly, a strange and frightening Knight bursts into the hall — a giant of a man, green from head to toe, who mockingly challenges the Court to a shocking game. Only the chivalrous Sir Gawain dares to take on the hideous Green Knight. But over the unexpected course of his test, will Gawain prove as brave and honest as he'd like to believe? Welcome to a medieval world full of sword fights and shape-shifting, monsters and magic, and timeless characters both gallant and wonderfully human. Written anonymously in the fourteenth century, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is retold in its entirety by Michael Morpurgo in a lively and accessible narration that captures all the tale's drama and humor. Vivid illustrations by the celebrated Michael Foreman infuse this classic tale with the sights and colors of dragons, swords, and medieval pageantry.”
Dante’s Divine Comedy: As Told for Young People, by Dante Alighieri and Joseph Tusiani (Author/Adoptor)
“This is a retelling of Dante's Divine Comedy written especially for young people by poet, novelist and translator Joseph Tusiani. The author combines summary, paraphrase and Dante's own lines translated into English verse to tell a timeless story of sin and salvation.”
The Canterbury Tales, by Geoffrey Chaucer (Author) and Geraldine McCaughrean (Author/Adapter)
“A lively re-telling of the medieval classic. One fine spring day, thirty pilgrims set off from Harry Bailey's inn in Southwark for the shrine of Thomas A Becket in Canterbury. The innkeeper makes an offer that none of the travellers can refuse: a free dinner at his inn, on their return, to the person who can tell the best story. So begins the assortment of tales from such varied characters as the Knight, the Wife of Bath, the Miller and many more.”
Stories From the Faerie Queen: Eight Fairy Tales for Children, by Edmund Spenser (Author) and Jeanie Lang (Author/Adaptor)
“More than three hundred years ago there lived in England a poet named Edmund Spenser. He was brave and true and gentle, and he loved all that was beautiful and good. Edmund Spenser wrote many poems, and the most beautiful of all is the one called ‘The Faerie Queen.’ He loved so dearly all things that are beautiful and all things that are good, that his eyes could see Fairyland more clearly than the eyes of other men ever could. There are many, many stories in ‘The Faerie Queen,’ and out of them all I have told you only eight. Some day you will read the others for yourself. In this little book Miss Rose Le Quesne has made one pretty picture for each story. But when you are old enough to read for yourself ‘The Faerie Queen’ that Edmund Spenser wrote, you will find that there is a picture on every page. It is a pleasure to publish this new, high quality, and affordable edition of these timeless stories.”
Ruslan and Lyudmila, by Alexander Pushkin (Author) and Roger Clarke (Translator)
“In order to rescue his beloved Lyudmila, who has been abducted by the evil wizard Chernomor, the warrior Ruslan faces an epic and perilous quest, encountering a multitude of fantastic and terrifying characters along the way. The basis for Glinka's famous opera of the same name, Ruslan and Lyudmila - Pushkin's second longest poetical work - is a dramatic and ingenious retelling of Russian folklore, full of humour and irony.”
Singing School: Learning to Write (and Read) Poetry by Studying with the Masters, by Robert Pinsky
“Quick, joyful, and playfully astringent, with surprising comparisons and examples, this collection takes an unconventional approach to the art of poetry. Instead of rules, theories, or recipes, Singing School emphasizes ways to learn from great work: studying magnificent, monumentally enduring poems and how they are made? in terms borrowed from the “singing school” of William Butler Yeats’s “Sailing to Byzantium.” Robert Pinsky’s headnotes for each of the 80 poems and his brief introductions to each section take a writer’s view of specific works: William Carlos Williams’s “Fine Work with Pitch and Copper” for intense verbal music; Emily Dickinson’s “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” for wild imagination in matter-of-fact language; Robert Southwell’s “The Burning Babe” for surrealist aplomb; Wallace Stevens’s “The House Was Quiet and the World Was Calm” for subtlety in meter. Included are poems by Aphra Behn, Allen Ginsberg, George Herbert, John Keats, Mina Loy, Thomas Nashe, and many other master poets. This anthology respects poetry’s mysteries in two senses of the word: techniques of craft and strokes of the inexplicable.”
Gilgamesh: A New English Version, by Stephen Mitchell (Translator)
“An English-language rendering of the world's oldest epic seeks to convey the work's literary richness and follows the journey of conquest and self-discovery by the heroic king of Uruk, in an edition complemented by an introduction that places the story in its historical, spiritual, and cultural context. By the author and translator of The Book of Job and Tao Te Ching. 50,000 first printing.”
The Iliad, by Homer (Author), Robert Fitzgerald (Translator)
“Since it was first published, Robert Fitzgerald's prizewinning translation of Homer's battle epic has become a classic in its own right: a standard against which all other versions of The Iliad are compared. Fitzgerald's work is accessible, ironic, faithful, written in a swift vernacular blank verse that "makes Homer live as never before."
The Odyssey, by Homer (Author) and Robert Fitzgerald (Translator)
“Robert Fitzgerald's translation of Homer's Odyssey is the best and best-loved modern translation of the greatest of all epic poems. Since 1961, this Odyssey has sold more than two million copies, and it is the standard translation for three generations of students and poets. Farrar, Straus and Giroux is delighted to publish a new edition of this classic work. Fitzgerald's supple verse is ideally suited to the story of Odysseus' long journey back to his wife and home after the Trojan War. Homer's tale of love, adventure, food and drink, sensual pleasure, and mortal danger reaches the English-language reader in all its glory. Of the many translations published since World War II, only Fitzgerald's has won admiration as a great poem in English. The noted classicist D. S. Carne-Ross explains the many aspects of its artistry in his Introduction, written especially for this new edition.”
Complete Poetry and Writings, by Phillis Wheatley
“The extraordinary writings of Phillis Wheatley, a slave girl turned published poet. In 1761, a young girl arrived in Boston on a slave ship, sold to the Wheatley family, and given the name Phillis Wheatley. Struck by Phillis' extraordinary precociousness, the Wheatleys provided her with an education that was unusual for a woman of the time and astonishing for a slave. After studying English and classical literature, geography, the Bible, and Latin, Phillis published her first poem in 1767 at the age of 14, winning much public attention and considerable fame. When Boston publishers who doubted its authenticity rejected an initial collection of her poetry, Wheatley sailed to London in 1773 and found a publisher there for Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral.”
The Complete Poetry of Edgar Allan Poe, by Edgar Allan Poe (Author), Jay Parini (Introduction)
“Although best known for his short stories, Edgar Allan Poe was by nature and choice a poet. From his exquisite lyric “To Helen,” to his immortal masterpieces, “Annabel Lee,” “The Bells,” and “The Raven,” Poe stands beside the celebrated English romantic poets Shelley, Byron, and Keats, and his haunting, sensuous poetic vision profoundly influenced the Victorian giants Swinburne, Tennyson, and Rossetti. Today his dark side speaks eloquently to contemporary readers in poems such as “The Haunted Palace” and “The Conqueror Worm,” with their powerful images of madness and the macabre. But even at the end of his life, Poe reached out to his art for comfort and courage, giving us in “Eldorado” a talisman to hold during our darkest moments—a timeless gift from a great American writer.”
The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson, by Emily Dickinson (Author) and Thomas H. Johnson (Editor)
“This comprehensive and authoritative collection of all 1,775 poems by Emily Dickinson is an essential volume for all lovers of American literature. Only eleven of Emily Dickinson's poems were published prior to her death in 1886; the startling originality of her work doomed it to obscurity in her lifetime. Early posthumous published collections -- some of them featuring liberally "edited" versions of the poems -- did not fully and accurately represent Dickinson's bold experiments in prosody, her tragic vision, and the range of her intellectual and emotional explorations. Not until the 1955 publication of The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson, a three-volume critical edition compiled by Thomas H. Johnson, were readers able for the first time to assess, understand, and appreciate the whole of Dickinson's extraordinary poetic genius. This book, a distillation of the three-volume Complete Poems, brings together the original texts of all 1,775 poems that Emily Dickinson wrote.”
The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes, by Langston Hughes (Author), and Arnold Rampersad (Editor)
Here, for the first time, are all the poems that Langston Hughes published during his lifetime, arranged in the general order in which he wrote them. Lyrical and pungent, passionate and polemical, the result is a treasure of a book, the essential collection of a poet whose words have entered our common language. The collection spans five decades, and is comprised of 868 poems (nearly 300 of which never before appeared in book form) with annotations by Arnold Rampersad and David Roessel. Alongside such famous works as "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" and “Montage of a Dream Deferred,” The Collected Poems includes Hughes's lesser-known verse for children; topical poems distributed through the Associated Negro Press; and poems such as "Goodbye Christ" that were once suppressed.”
The Poems of Sappho, by Sappho (Author) and Mary Barnard (Translator)
“These hundred poems and fragments constitute virtually all of Sappho that survives and effectively bring to life the woman whom the Greeks consider to be their greatest lyric poet. Mary Barnard's translations are lean, incisive, direct?the best ever published. She has rendered the beloved poet's verses, long the bane of translators, more authentically than anyone else in English.”
The Aeneid by Virgil (Author), Robert Fagles (Translator)
“Fleeing the ashes of Troy, Aeneas, Achilles’ mighty foe in the Iliad, begins an incredible journey to fulfill his destiny as the founder of Rome. His voyage will take him through stormy seas, entangle him in a tragic love affair, and lure him into the world of the dead itself--all the way tormented by the vengeful Juno, Queen of the Gods. Ultimately, he reaches the promised land of Italy where, after bloody battles and with high hopes, he founds what will become the Roman Empire. An unsparing portrait of a man caught between love, duty, and fate, the Aeneid redefines passion, nobility, and courage for our times. Robert Fagles, whose acclaimed translations of Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey were welcomed as major publishing events, brings the Aeneid to a new generation of readers, retaining all of the gravitas and humanity of the original Latin as well as its powerful blend of poetry and myth. Featuring an illuminating introduction to Virgil’s world by esteemed scholar Bernard Knox, this volume lends a vibrant new voice to one of the seminal literary achievements of the ancient world.”
The Song of Roland, by Dorothy L. Sayers (Translator)
“On 15 August 778, Charlemagne’s army was returning from a successful expedition against Saracen Spain when its rearguard was ambushed in a remote Pyrenean pass. Out of this skirmish arose a stirring tale of war, which was recorded in the oldest extant epic poem in French. The Song of Roland, written by an unknown poet, tells of Charlemagne’s warrior nephew, Lord of the Breton Marches, who valiantly leads his men into battle against the Saracens, but dies in the massacre, defiant to the end. In majestic verses, the battle becomes a symbolic struggle between Christianity and paganism, while Roland’s last stand is the ultimate expression of honour and feudal values of twelfth-century France.”
The Divine Comedy, by Dante Alighieri (Author), Antony Esolen (Translator), Gustave Dore (Illustrator)
“Of the great poets, Dante is one of the most elusive and therefore one of the most difficult to adequately render into English verse. In the Inferno, Dante not only judges sin but strives to understand it so that the reader can as well. With this major new translation, Anthony Esolen has succeeded brilliantly in marrying sense with sound, poetry with meaning, capturing both the poem’s line-by-line vigor and its allegorically and philosophically exacting structure, yielding an Inferno that will be as popular with general readers as with teachers and students. For, as Dante insists, without a trace of sentimentality or intellectual compromise, even Hell is a work of divine art. Esolen also provides a critical Introduction and endnotes, plus appendices containing Dante’s most important sources—from Virgil to Saint Thomas Aquinas and other Catholic theologians—that deftly illuminate the religious universe the poet inhabited.”
Complete Sonnets and Poems: The Oxford Shakespeare, by William Shakespeare (Author) and Colin Burrow (editor)
“This is the only fully annotated and modernized edition to bring together Shakespeare's sonnets as well as all his poems (including those attributed to him after his death) in one volume. A full introduction discusses his development as a poet, and how the poems relate to the plays, and detailed notes explain the language and allusions. While accessibly written, the edition takes account of the most recent scholarship and criticism.”
Beowulf: A New Verse Translation, by Seamus Heaney (Translator)
“A brilliant and faithful rendering of the Anglo-Saxon epic from the Nobel laureate. Composed toward the end of the first millennium of our era, Beowulf is the elegiac narrative of the adventures of Beowulf, a Scandinavian hero who saves the Danes from the seemingly invincible monster Grendel and, later, from Grendel's mother. He then returns to his own country and dies in old age in a vivid fight against a dragon. The poem is about encountering the monstrous, defeating it, and then having to live on in the exhausted aftermath. In the contours of this story, at once remote and uncannily familiar at the end of the twentieth century, Seamus Heaney finds a resonance that summons power to the poetry from deep beneath its surface. Drawn to what he has called the "four-squareness of the utterance" in Beowulf and its immense emotional credibility, Heaney gives these epic qualities new and convincing reality for the contemporary reader.”
Paradise Lost, by John Milton (Author) and John Leonard (Editor, Introduction)
“In Paradise Lost, Milton produced a poem of epic scale, conjuring up a vast, awe-inspiring cosmos ranging across huge tracts of space and time. And yet, in putting a charismatic Satan and naked Adam and Eve at the center of this story, he also created an intensely human tragedy on the Fall of Man. Written when Milton was in his fifties—blind, bitterly disappointed by the Restoration, and briefly in danger of execution—Paradise Lost’s apparent ambivalence toward authority has led to intense debate about whether it manages to “justify the ways of God to men,” or exposes the cruelty of Christianity. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world.
The Complete Poems of John Keats, by John Keats (Author)
“'I think I shall be among the English Poets after my death,' John Keats soberly prophesied in 1818 as he started writing the blank verse epic Hyperion. Today he endures as the archetypal Romantic genius who explored the limits of the imagination and celebrated the pleasures of the senses but suffered a tragic early death. Edmund Wilson counted him as 'one of the half dozen greatest English writers,' and T. S. Eliot has paid tribute to the Shakespearean quality of Keats's greatness. Indeed, his work has survived better than that of any of his contemporaries the devaluation of Romantic poetry that began early in this century. This Modern Library edition contains all of Keats's magnificent verse: 'Lamia,' 'Isabella,' and 'The Eve of St. Agnes'; his sonnets and odes; the allegorical romance Endymion; and the five-act poetic tragedy Otho the Great.”
The Annotated Ancient Mariner: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, by Samuel Taylor Coleridge (Author) and by Gustave Dore (Illustrator)
“One of the most evocative, most famous, and most mysterious poems in the English language. This seaman's story is full of symbols, supernatural occurrences, moral implication and ambiguity; it has fascinated amateur and scholar alike for over a hundred and fifty years. This edition is the most comprehensive, most informative, and most elegant to ever appear. Included also is the first published version of the "Rime" -significantly different from the final version. Wonderful illustrations by the artist, Gustave Dore. Famous for his style of romantic realism suitable to the tone of the text.”
Faust, by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (Author) and Walter Kaufmann (Translator, Introduction)
“The best translation of Faust available, this volume provides the original German text and its English counterpart on facing pages. Walter Kaufmann's translation conveys the poetic beauty and rhythm as well as the complex depth of Goethe's language. Includes Part One and selections from Part Two.”
The Prophet, by Kahlil Gibran (Author)
“Kahlil Gibran’s masterpiece, The Prophet, is one of the most beloved classics of our time. Published in 1923, it has been translated into more than twenty languages, and the American editions alone have sold more than nine million copies. The Prophet is a collection of poetic essays that are philosophical, spiritual, and, above all, inspirational. Gibran’s musings are divided into twenty-eight chapters covering such sprawling topics as love, marriage, children, giving, eating and drinking, work, joy and sorrow, housing, clothes, buying and selling, crime and punishment, laws, freedom, reason and passion, pain, self-knowledge, teaching, friendship, talking, time, good and evil, prayer, pleasure, beauty, religion, and death.”
The Complete Poems of Anna Akhmatova, by Anna Akhmatova (Author) and Roberta Reeder (Editor)
“Initially published in 1990, when the New York Times Book Review named it one of fourteen "Best Books of the Year," Judith Hemschemeyer's translation of The Complete Poems of Anna Akhmatova is the definitive edition, and has sold over 13,000 copies, making it one of the most successful poetry titles of recent years. This reissued and revised printing features a new biographical essay as well as expanded notes to the poems, both by Roberta Reeder, project editor and author of Anna Akhmatova: Poet and Prophet (St. Martin's Press, 1994). Encyclopedic in scope, with more than 800 poems, 100 photographs, a historical chronology, index of first lines, and bibliography. The Complete Poems will be the definitive English language collection of Akhmatova for many years to come.”
Collected Poems in English, by Joseph Brodsky (Author)
“The poems of the legendary Nobel Laureate, in one volume at last One of the greatest and grandest advocates of the literary vocation, Joseph Brodsky truly lived his life as a poet, and for it earned eighteen months in an Arctic labor camp, expulsion from his native country, and the Nobel Prize in Literature. Such were one man's wages. Here, collected for the first time, are all the poems he published in English, from his earliest collaborations with Derek Walcott, Richard Wilbur, Howard Moss, and Anthony Hecht to the moving farewell poems he wrote near the end of his life. With nearly two hundred poems, several of them never before published in book form, this will be the essential volume of Brodsky's work.”
Richard Wilbur: Collected Poems 1943-2004
“With a distinguished career spanning more than sixty years, Richard Wilbur stands as one of America's preeminent men of letters. Collected Poems 1943-2004 is the comprehensive collection of Wilbur's astonishing, timeless work. It will serve as the most referenced trove of this beloved poet's best verses for many years to come.
Omeros, by Derek Walcott
“A poem in five books, of circular narrative design, titled with the Greek name for Homer, which simultaneously charts two currents of history: the visible history charted in events -- the tribal losses of the American Indian, the tragedy of African enslavement -- and the interior, unwritten epic fashioned from the suffering of the individual in exile.”
New and Collected Poems: 1931-2001, by Czeslaw Milosz (Author)
“New and Collected Poems: 1931-2001 celebrates the exceptional career of Czeslaw Milosz, from his first work, written when he was twenty, to his newest poems, published for the first time in English in this volume. Widely regarded as one of the greatest poets of our time, Czeslaw Milosz is a master of probing inquiry and graceful expression. From his early poems, in which he declares, "I, a faithful son of the black earth, shall return to the black earth" ("Hymn"), to his newest work, in which he sees himself as a lofty, gray-headed spirit "Saved by his amazement, eternal and divine" ("For My Eighty-eighth Birthday"), Milosz's poetry is infused with a tireless spirit and penetrating insight into fundamental human dilemmas. In "Report," he arrives at the staggering yet simple truth that "to exist on the earth is beyond any power to name." in "Craftsman," he looks back over a life that was difficult to lead, but in the end he is nonetheless "Praising, renewing, healing. Grateful because the sun rose for you and will rise for others."
The Hill We Climb: An Inaugural Poem for the Country, by Amanda Gorman (Author), Oprah Winfrey (Foreword)
“On January 20, 2021, Amanda Gorman became the sixth and youngest poet to deliver a poetry reading at a presidential inauguration. Taking the stage after the 46th president of the United States, Joe Biden, Gorman captivated the nation and brought hope to viewers around the globe. Her poem “The Hill We Climb: An Inaugural Poem for the Country” can now be cherished in this special gift edition. Including an enduring foreword by Oprah Winfrey, this keepsake celebrates the promise of America and affirms the power of poetry.”
