Portable Poetry – förlag

John Dryden was born on August 9th, 1631 in the village rectory of Aldwincle near Thrapston in Northamptonshire. As a boy Dryden lived in the nearby village of Titchmarsh, Northamptonshire. In 1644 he was sent to Westminster School as a King''s Scholar. Dryden obtained his BA in 1654, graduating top of the list for Trinity College, Cambridge that year. Returning to London during The Protectorate, Dryden now obtained work with Cromwell''s Secretary of State, John Thurloe. At Cromwell''s funeral on 23 November 1658 Dryden was in the company of the Puritan poets John Milton and Andrew Marvell. The setting was to be a sea change in English history. From Republic to Monarchy and from one set of lauded poets to what would soon become the Age of Dryden. The start began later that year when Dryden published the first of his great poems, Heroic Stanzas (1658), a eulogy on Cromwell''s death. With the Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660 Dryden celebrated in verse with Astraea Redux, an authentic royalist panegyric. With the re-opening of the theatres after the Puritan ban, Dryden began to also write plays. His first play, The Wild Gallant, appeared in 1663 but was not successful. From 1668 on he was contracted to produce three plays a year for the King''s Company, in which he became a shareholder. During the 1660s and ''70s, theatrical writing was his main source of income. In 1667, he published Annus Mirabilis, a lengthy historical poem which described the English defeat of the Dutch naval fleet and the Great Fire of London in 1666. It established him as the pre-eminent poet of his generation, and was crucial in his attaining the posts of Poet Laureate (1668) and then historiographer royal (1670). This was truly the Age of Dryden, he was the foremost English Literary figure in Poetry, Plays, translations and other forms. In 1694 he began work on what would be his most ambitious and defining work as translator, The Works of Virgil (1697), which was published by subscription. It was a national event. John Dryden died on May 12th, 1700, and was initially buried in St. Anne''s cemetery in Soho, before being exhumed and reburied in Westminster Abbey ten days later.

Abul ʿAla Al-Maʿarri was born in December 973 in modern day Maarrat al-Nuʿman, near Aleppo, in Syria. He was a member of the Banu Sulayman, a noted family of Maʿarra, belonging to the larger Tanukh tribe that had formed part of the aristocracy in Syria dating back many hundreds of years. Aged only four he was rendered virtually blind due to smallpox and whilst this was thought to explain his pessimistic outlook on life and his fellow man it seems too young an age to support that. He was educated at Aleppo, Tripoli and Antioch and the area itself was part of the Abbasid Caliphate, the third Islamic caliphate, during what is now considered the Golden Age of Islam. During his schooling he began to write poetry, perhaps from as young as 11 or 12. In 1004-5 Al-Maʿarri learned that his father had died and, in commemoration, wrote an elegy in praise. A few years later, as an established poet and with a desire to see more of life and culture in Baghdad, he journeyed there, staying for perhaps as long as eighteen months. However, although he was respected and well received in literary circles he found the experience at odds with his growing ascetic beliefs and resisted all efforts to purchase his works. He was also by now a somewhat controversial figure and although on the whole respected his views on religion were now also causing him trouble. By 1010 with news of his mother ailing back at home he started the journey back to Ma’rra but arrived shortly after her death. He would now remain in Maʿarra for the rest of his life, continuing with his self-imposed ascetic style, refusing to sell his poems, living alone in seclusion and adhering to a strict vegetarian diet. Though he was confined, he lived out his years continuing his work and collaborating with others and enjoyed great respect despite some of the controversy associated with his beliefs. He is often now described as a "pessimistic freethinker". He attacked the dogmas of organised religion and rejected Islam and other faiths. Intriguingly Al-Maʿarri held anti-natalist views; children should not be born to spare them the pains of life. One of the recurring themes of his philosophy was the truth of reason against competing claims of custom, tradition, and authority. Al-Maʿarri taught that religion was a "fable invented by the ancients", worthless except to those who exploit the credulous masses. He went on to explain “Do not suppose the statements of the prophets to be true; they are all fabrications. Men lived comfortably till they came and spoiled life. The sacred books are only such a set of idle tales as any age could have and indeed did actually produce. However, Al-Maʿarri was still a monotheist, but believed that God was impersonal and that the afterlife did not exist. For someone who was not widely travelled Al-Maʿarri stated that monks in their cloisters or devotees in their mosques were blindly following the beliefs of their locality: if they were born among Magians or Sabians they would have become Magians or Sabians, further declaring, rather boldly, that "The inhabitants of the earth are of two sorts: those with brains, but no religion, and those with religion, but no brains." Abul ʿAla Al-Maʿarri never married and died aged 83, in May 1057 in his hometown, Maarrat al-Nu''man. Even on Al-Maʿarri''s epitaph, he wanted it written that his life was a wrong done by his father and not one committed by himself. Today, despite fundamentalists and jihadists at odds with his thinking and viewing him as a heretic, Al-Maʿarri is regarded as one of the greatest of classical Arabic poets as these translated work readily attest too.

James Thomson was born in Ednam in Roxburghshire around 11th September 1700 and baptised on 15th September. He was the fourth of nine children to father Thomas, the Presbyterian minister of Ednam and mother Beatrix.

Apart from the exact date of his birth several other facts of his life cannot be verified.

It is thought Thomson may have attended the parish school of Southdean, his father having been appointed minster there a few months after the birth of his son, before attending the grammar school in Jedburgh in 1712. Accounts of his early abilities are almost always negative. Poetry however was his great love. In this he was encouraged by Robert Riccaltoun, a farmer, poet and Presbyterian minister; and Sir William Bennet, a whig laird who was also the patron of Allan Ramsay. Very few early poems by Thomson survive. It seems that on each New Year’s Day he burned almost all of his year’s output.

In the autumn of 1715 he entered the College of Edinburgh on a career path that would take him to the Presbyterian ministry. In college he studied metaphysics, Logic, Ethics, Greek, Latin and Natural Philosophy. He also became a member of the Grotesque Club, a literary group. Here he met his lifelong friend to be; David Mallet.

In 1716 his father, Thomas, died. Again, facts are hard to come by but there is a colourful local legend that he died whilst performing an exorcism.

In 1719 Thomson completed his arts course but rather than graduate he instead entered Divinity Hall to become a minister.

However Thomson was also keen on literary pursuits. He managed to obtain publication of several of his poems in the ‘Edinburgh Miscellany’. With this as his calling card he followed Mallet to London in February 1725 in an attempt at further publishing success. For Thomson a career as a minister was now behind him.

In London, Thomson became a tutor to the son of Charles Hamilton, Lord Binning, via connections on his mother''s side of the family. Through David Mallet, who by 1724 was now also a published poet, Thomson met the great English poets of the day including Richard Savage, Aaron Hill and Alexander Pope.

Beatrix, Thomson''s mother died on 12th May 1725, around the time of his writing ‘Winter’, the first poem of ‘The Seasons’. ‘Winter’ was first published by John Millian in 1726 with a second edition incorporating revisions, additions and a preface later that same year.

By 1727, Thomson was working on ‘Summer’, which he published in February, whilst working at Watt''s Academy, a school for young gentlemen and a centre of Newtonian science.

That same year Millian published Thomson’s ‘A Poem to the Memory of Sir Isaac Newton’ in memory of the great scientist who had passed in March.

Thomson now left Watt''s academy hoping to further pursue his career. This was greatly helped by finding several patrons including Thomas Rundle, the countess of Hertford and Charles Talbot, 1st Baron Talbot.

Thomson worked hard to complete ‘The Seasons’ during the late 1720’s. ‘Spring’ was completed in 1728 and finally Autumn in 1730. Now the complete set of four could be published together as ‘The Seasons’.

During this period he also wrote other poems, as well as a play, his first, ‘The Tragedy of Sophonisba’ in 1729. The latter is best known today for its mention in Samuel Johnson''s Lives of the English Poets, where Johnson records that one ''feeble'' line of the poem – "O, Sophonisba, Sophonisba, O!" was parodied by the wags of the theatre as, "O, Jemmy Thomson, Jemmy Thomson, O!"

In 1730, he was appointed tutor to the son of Sir Charles Talbot, his patron and also Solicitor-General. Thomson would spend nearly two years with the young man on ‘the grand tour’ of Europe. On his return Talbot graciously arranged for Thomson to become a secretary in chancery, which gave him financial security during until Talbot''s death in 1737. Meanwhile, in 1734 Thomson’s major work ‘Liberty’ was published.

In 1740, he collaborated with Mallet on the masque ‘Alfred’ which was first performed at Cliveden, the country home of Frederick, Prince of Wales. Thomson''s words for ‘Rule Britannia’, from that masque, and set to music by Thomas Arne, became one of the best-known British patriotic songs. The Prince settled on him a pension of £100 per annum. He also introduced him to George Lyttelton, who became his friend and patron.

In later years, Thomson lived in Richmond upon Thames, and it was there that he wrote his final work ‘The Castle of Indolence’, which was published just before his untimely death on 27th August 1748. Johnson writes on Thomson''s death that "by taking cold on the water between London and Kew, he caught a disorder, which, with some careless exasperation, ended in a fever that put end to his life".

He was buried in St. Mary Magdalene church in Richmond.

Tagore was a true Renaissance man, distinguishing himself as a gifted philosopher, social and political reformer as well as a popular author in all literary genres. His most famous poem, extracts of which are recorded here, is Gitanjali which earned him the distinction of the first Asian writer to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913. His songs include both the Indian and Bangladeshi national anthems. Many of these titles are on our audiobook version which can be purchased from iTunes, Amazon and other digital stores.

Shelley is one of the most revered figures in the English poetical landscape. Born on the 4th August 1792 he has, over the years, become rightly regarded as a major Romantic poet. Yet during his own lifetime little of his work was published. Publishers feared his radical views and possible charges against themselves for blasphemy and sedition. On 8th July 1822 a month before his 30th birthday, during a sudden storm, his tragic early death by drowning robbed our culture of many fine expected masterpieces. But in his short spell on earth he weaved much magic. Queen Mab was Shelley’s first major poem and he pressed only 250 copies intended for friends and not a wider distribution. It is a fairy tale that offers a vision for a utopian society that might have a history of oppression and at present be riddled with misery but can have a future where humanity’s nobler characteristics can be in harmony with the world and work with nature to create a better society for all. Mary Shelley expressed his intentions as such:  He saw, in a fervent call on his fellow-creatures to share alike the blessings of the creation, to love and serve each other, the noblest work that life and time permitted him. In this spirit he composed Queen Mab.

Algernon Charles Swinburne was born on April 5th, 1837, in London, into a wealthy Northumbrian family. He was educated at Eton and at Balliol College, Oxford, but did not complete a degree. In 1860 Swinburne published two verse dramas but achieved his first literary success in 1865 with Atalanta in Calydon, written in the form of classical Greek tragedy. The following year "Poems and Ballads" brought him instant notoriety. He was now identified with "indecent" themes and the precept of art for art''s sake. Although he produced much after this success in general his popularity and critical reputation declined. The most important qualities of Swinburne''s work are an intense lyricism, his intricately extended and evocative imagery, metrical virtuosity, rich use of assonance and alliteration, and bold, complex rhythms. Swinburne''s physical appearance was small, frail, and plagued by several other oddities of physique and temperament. Throughout the 1860s and 1870s he drank excessively and was prone to accidents that often left him bruised, bloody, or unconscious. Until his forties he suffered intermittent physical collapses that necessitated removal to his parents'' home while he recovered. Throughout his career Swinburne also published literary criticism of great worth. His deep knowledge of world literatures contributed to a critical style rich in quotation, allusion, and comparison. He is particularly noted for discerning studies of Elizabethan dramatists and of many English and French poets and novelists. As well he was a noted essayist and wrote two novels. In 1879, Swinburne''s friend and literary agent, Theodore Watts-Dunton, intervened during a time when Swinburne was dangerously ill. Watts-Dunton isolated Swinburne at a suburban home in Putney and gradually weaned him from alcohol, former companions and many other habits as well. Much of his poetry in this period may be inferior but some individual poems are exceptional; "By the North Sea," "Evening on the Broads," "A Nympholept," "The Lake of Gaube," and "Neap-Tide." Swinburne lived another thirty years with Watts-Dunton. He denied Swinburne''s friends access to him, controlled the poet''s money, and restricted his activities. It is often quoted that ''he saved the man but killed the poet''. Algernon Charles Swinburne died on April 10th, 1909 at the age of seventy-two.

Philip Edward Thomas was born on 3rd March, 1878 at 14 Lansdowne Gardens in Stockwell, Lambeth, which was then a part of Surrey. His family had a rich Welsh heritage.

Thomas was educated at Battersea Grammar School before proceeding to St Paul''s School in London and then becoming a history scholar, between 1898-1900, at Lincoln College, Oxford.

Whilst still studying for his degree he married Helen Berenice Noble in June, 1899, in Fulham, London. Thomas had already decided by this time to fashion a career out of literature.

As a book reviewer he reviewed in the order of fifteen books a week and began to be published as both a literary critic, for the Daily Chronicle, and as a biographer. His writing talents also extended to writing on the countryside and, in 1913, a novel, The Happy-Go-Lucky Morgans was published.

Thomas is also responsible for the shepherding and mentoring of the career of maverick tramp poet W. H. Davies during the early years of the 20th Century. Despite Davies’s years of wanderlust he was encouraged to take up accommodation in a small cottage near to where Thomas, Helen and his family lived at Elses Farm, near Sevenoaks in Kent.

Ironically although Thomas believed that poetry was the highest form of literature and reviewed poetry books often it was only in 1914 that he began to write poetry himself. By this time, he was living at Steep, East Hampshire, and his early poems were published under the pseudonym of ‘Edward Eastaway’.

The American poet Robert Frost, who was living in England at the time, went to some lengths to encourage Thomas to continue writing poetry. Their friendship became so close that they planned to reside side by side in the United States. Frost''s classic poem, "The Road Not Taken", was inspired by his long walks with Thomas and the latter’s indecisiveness about which route to take.

Thomas wrote several revered poems. For many his lines on the now abandoned railway station at Adlestrop, written after his train made a stop at the Cotswolds station on 24th June, 1914, shortly before the outbreak of the First World War are his best.

Europe was now to be engulfed in a monumental armed struggle and many writers, poets and painters heeded the call to become part of the tide of humanity to serve their countries.

Thomas enlisted in the Artists Rifles in July 1915, despite being a mature married man who could have avoided enlisting without too much difficulty.

He was promoted to corporal, and by November 1916 had been commissioned into the Royal Garrison Artillery as a second lieutenant.

Philip Edward Thomas was killed in action soon after his arrival in France at Arras on Easter Monday, 9th April 1917. To soften the blow to his widow Helen, a fiction was concocted of a "bloodless death"; that Thomas was killed by the concussive blast wave from an exploding shell as he stood to light his pipe and that there was no mark on his body. (It was only decades later that a letter from his commanding officer, Franklin Lushington, written in 1936, was discovered stating that Thomas had been "shot clean through the chest".)

W. H. Davies was devastated by the death and his commemorative poem "Killed In Action (Edward Thomas)" is a moving tribute to the loss of his friend.

Thomas is buried in the Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery at Agny in France (Row C, Grave 43).

As a poet Thomas’s career was short but he has been grouped with the War Poets though his output of war poems is short in number, especially when set against those that feature the countryside. Aside from his poems and a novel Thomas wrote frequent essays and a number of travel books.

On Armistice Day, 11th November, 1985, Thomas was among the 16 Great War poets commemorated on a slate stone unveiled in Westminster Abbey''s Poet''s Corner. The inscription, written by fellow poet Wilfred Owen, reads: "My subject is War, and the pity of War. The Poetry is in the pity."

Thomas was described by British Poet Laureate Ted Hughes as "the father of us all."

Kabir, (meaning Great and one of the 99 names of God in Arabic), was a mystic and poet, born around 1440 whose work continues to be revered today by Muslims, Sufis, Sikhs and Hindus and is the founder of the Kabir Panth ("Path of Kabir"), a religious community mainly in India with approximately 10 million members. He was born in Varanasi to poor Muslim parents, although some say he was the child of a Brahmin widow and said of himself that he was "at once the child of Allah and Ram." He grew up learning his father’s craft of weaving and very unusually for a Muslim, overcame obstacles to become a disciple of Saint or Swami Ramananda, the leading pioneer of the Bhakti movement, which promoted salvation for all. We cannot be sure of what religious teaching he received in Ramananda’s ashram as Ramananda died when Kabir was 13 but we do know that he did not renounce his worldly life, as he married and had children, and was disdainful of professional piety which led to later persecution by religious authorities. This was further amplified by his progressive philosophy of social equality and his spiritual synthesis of Hindu ideas of karma and reincarnation and Muslim beliefs of one god and no idolatry or caste system. We do know that he had no formal education and remained almost entirely illiterate and expressed his poems as ‘bāņīs’ meaning utterances in Hindi although he borrowed from various dialects. His songs and couplets were part of a strong oral tradition in the region and although spread across northern India orally were also written down by two of his disciples, namely Bhāgodās and Dharmadās. Kabir’s style was inventive and imaginative and able to capture the attention of a wide range of Indians and provide a path to spiritual awakening which for Kabir was mainly about love and brotherhood and not to be divorced from daily life. “All our actions performed anywhere are our duties, and work is worship.” His work is understood and accessible to generations of Indians, more so than any other Saint and in India remains one of the most quoted mystic poets of all time. His ability to simplify and use examples of our universal daily life to enhance our spiritual well being and acceptance of our own self make his work very relevant today as is apparent in this volume. Kabir is thought to have lived an exceptionally long life and probably died in 1518. It is said that his Hindu followers wanted his body cremated and his Muslim followers wanted his body buried and a fight therefore ensued. When they finally lifted the cloth that covered his dead body they found flowers and took half each for his last rites.

Victor Hugo is best known most for his epic novels Les Miserables and The Hunchback Of Notre Dame. However in his day he was equally famed for his Poetry of which he wrote many volumes. The masterful Hugo loses none of his insightful scope writing on a smaller scale. Indeed, the disciplines and structures of his craft are heightened and the works represent a bold triumph. Readers will be instantly captivated by his words and themes. Portable Poetry is an imprint of Deadtree Publishing bringing the quality selections of poetry from the worlds most accomplished writers to audiobooks and e-book.

Victor Hugo is best known most for his epic novels Les Miserables and The Hunchback Of Notre Dame. However in his day he was equally famed for his Poetry of which he wrote many volumes. The masterful Hugo loses none of his insightful scope writing on a smaller scale. Indeed, the disciplines and structures of his craft are heightened and the works represent a bold triumph. Readers will be instantly captivated by his words and themes. Portable Poetry is an imprint of Deadtree Publishing bringing the quality selections of poetry from the worlds most accomplished writers to audiobooks and e-book.

The Poetry Of Thomas Hardy – An Introduction. Many giants of Literature originate from the shores of these emerald isles; Shakespeare, Dickens, Chaucer, The Brontes and Austen to which most people would willingly add the name Thomas Hardy. Far From The Madding Crowd, Tess Of The D’Urbervilles, The Mayor Of Casterbridge are but three of his literary masterpieces. But let us go further and add to his canon his Poems. Hardy himself thought he was a poet who wrote novels purely for the money. Indeed his poems were not published until he was in his fifties after his major novels were published and his reputation set. Today his poetry is more rightly regarded in its own right. Many of these poems are also available as an audiobook read for you by James Taylor, Gideon Wagner, Richard Mitchley, Tim Graham and Ghizela Rowe and available at iTunes, Amazon and other digital stores.

DH Lawrence – An Introduction. For many of us DH Lawrence was a schoolboy hero. Who can forget sniggering in class at the mention of Women In Love or Lady Chatterley’s Lover? Lawrence was a talented if nomadic writer whose novels were passionately received, suppressed at times and generally at odds with Establishment values. This of course did not deter him. At his death in 1930 at the young age of 44 he was more often thought of as a pornographer but in the ensuing years he has come to be more rightly regarded as one of the most imaginative writers these shores have produced. As well as his novels and plays he was also a masterful poet and wrote over 800 of them. In this collection we discover and nourish ourselves on a small part of that legacy that reveals much about the man and his views on life. Many of those poems are also available on our audiobook verson at iTunes, Amazon and other digital stores.

Arthur Conan Doyle – The Poetry. If ever a writer needed an introduction Arthur Conan Doyle would not be considered that man. After all, Sherlock Holmes is perhaps the foremost literary detective of any age. Add to this canon his stories of science fiction and horror, his historical novels, his political campaigning, his efforts in establishing a Court Of Appeal and there is little room for anything else. Except he was also a poet. Not perhaps the finest but his distinctive voice is certainly evident amongst his lines and verses. And it’s a voice worth listening too; something very different from what you might expect. Many of these poems are also available on our audiobook version at iTunes, Amazon and other digital stores.

Love is a universal feeling but a few lines of musings from a poet - assembled words perhaps softly spoken - can express a romance or desire that if we don''t yet have we''d probably like to. And so poets have burnished their dreams throughout history and across the globe, in every culture past and present. For most of us Indian Love Poetry tends to be the erotic and explicit Kama Sutra and The Perfumed Garden. Or the epic adventures in rather grander volumes such as The Epic Of Gilamesh or the Mahabrarata. But this Indian Love Poetry explores an altogether softer, gentler more soulful side. Many of the poems you will hear are by writers now forgotten or obscure but whose words speak with a clarity and beauty that belies the fact thy were written and translated, in some cases, many centuries ago from Sanskrit and Tamil and later Hindi, Urdu, Malayalam and Bengali. This selection includes such famed poets as Tagore and Rumi who carefully document observed facets and flakes of love. Men speak about their love and longing for a woman and, more unusually for its time, women speak of their love and longing for men. It''s a special and unique compilation and whilst new and different is something we can still share and understand. Many of these poems are also available on our audiobook version at iTunes, Amazon and other digital stores.

Poetry is a fascinating use of language. With almost a million words at its command it is not surprising that these Isles have produced some of the most beautiful, moving and descriptive verse through the centuries. In this series we look at individual poets who have shaped and influenced their craft and cement their place in our heritage. Here we look at the works of Rudyard Kipling; that great Victorian, that great writer of Empire, that great man; from ‘The Jungle Book’ to ‘The Man Who Would Be King’ to a great and voluminous poet with works of the calibre of ‘If’ and ‘On The Road To Mandalay’ a man at the top of his craft and always aware of his affect on the minds of us mere mortals. With our almost religious zeal to categorise and pigeon hole everything it should come as little surprise that one of the poems we learnt at school should so regularly be voted the best ever poem. Whether ‘If..’ deserves that credit or not is irrelevant to this empire wandering artist who was not only a fine story teller but a great poet of the Empire, its people and views. In today’ society some of what he had to say was undoubtedly wrong but of its time and we can learn much from that as well as all that was good about his other work. Many of the poems are also available as an audiobook from our sister company Portable Poetry. Many samples are at our youtube channel http://www.youtube.com/user/PortablePoetry?feature=mhee The full volume can be purchased from iTunes, Amazon and other digital stores. Among our readers are Richard Mitchley and Ghizela Rowe

Poetry is a fascinating use of language. With almost a million words at its command it is not surprising that these Isles have produced some of the most beautiful, moving and descriptive verse through the centuries. In this series we look at each calendar month through the eyes and minds of our most gifted poets to bring you a guide to the days within each. This volume of Poetry is all about April - the fourth month of the year in our Gregorian calendar heralding Spring in earnest and of course April Showers and perhaps other unsettled weather. For our poets including Wilfred Owen, Thomas Hardy, Robert Louis Stevenson, Henry Alford, Robert Browning, Henry Van Dyke, Percy Byssche Shelley and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow the month provides a rich source for them to muse upon. Many of the poems are also available as an audiobook from our sister company Portable Poetry. Many samples are at our youtube channel http://www.youtube.com/user/PortablePoetry?feature=mhee The full volume can be purchased from iTunes, Amazon and other digital stores. Among the readers are Richard Mitchley and Ghizela Rowe

Poetry is a fascinating use of language. With almost a million words at its command it is not surprising that these Isles have produced some of the most beautiful, moving and descriptive verse through the centuries. In this series we look at each calendar month through the eyes and minds of our most gifted poets to bring you a guide to the days within each . This volume of Poetry is all about December - The 12th and final month in the Gregorian calendar. Winter is upon the land and Christmas provides a source of celebration. The poets including such notables as John Keats, Lord Byron, William Shakespeare, Percy Bsysshe Shelley, Alfred Lord Tennyson reflect their views and extend their thoughts to us. Many samples are at our youtube channel http://www.youtube.com/user/PortablePoetry?feature=mhee Among the readers are Richard Mitchley and Ghizela Rowe The full volume can be purchased from iTunes, Amazon and other digital stores.

Being a Father is, of course, both a blessing and a responsibility. Modern day parenting in a frenetic fast changing world has to be both learnt and adapted from some inner well of memory from generations past as well as on the job experience. How to combine both the tenderness of love and support of modern views with the age old virtues of strength and leadership brings many difficulties to most men. Surprisingly then that poets have given Fathers both a courageous view of life as well as a dependability to be there for their children. In success or failure we can identify with their hopes and dreams. In this collection many of our greatest poets express their worded opinions of that unique role of Fatherhood – whether as one themselves or as a child reaching for that same mantle. Many of these titles are on our audiobook version which can be purchased from iTunes, Amazon and other digital stores.

English Poetry, Volume 1 – An Introduction. The English language has grown into the Worlds pre-dominant spoken language. It’s estimated there are over one million words with which to do this. It’s sources are rich and diverse, absorbing from other cultures and times without hesitation. It surely follows that when we add the talents of Shakespeare, Keats, Shelley, Kipling and Blake to a myriad of others that its beauty and reach entrance us with their thoughts and visions. In two volumes these remarkable poems present a wonderful companion through the long heritage of the English Language and its poets. Many of these titles are on our audiobook version which can be purchased from iTunes, Amazon and other digital stores.

Poetry is a fascinating use of language. With almost a million words at its command it is not surprising that these Isles have produced some of the most beautiful, moving and descriptive verse through the centuries. In this series we look at individual poets who have shaped and influenced their craft and cement their place in our heritage. Many nations have produced outstanding poets who they would gladly have represent their Culture. But can any Nation say they have an equivalent of Robbie Burns? Rabbie. The Ploughman Poet. The Bard (Of Scotland). This one poet is indelibly linked and intertwined with the culture and people of Scotland. His life, loves, politics, verse and songs speak as them and for them. From humble roots, the eldest son of seven born in 1759 to parents, both from tenant farming stock, the family endured both hardship and poverty. Burns endured the test and began to write first at 15 and to publish his first volume some two years later. He wrote in both true Scottish, dialect and English as well as turning his hand to song. Politically he was an inspiration to both liberalism and socialism as well as a Scottish parliament. His unique ability enabled him to appeal to all and quite rightly to be viewed as the National poet. As well as creating his own great works he was also an avid collector of Scottish Folk Songs preserving for posterity the works of others. However his own life was short dying at the young age of only 37. What further greatness would have lain before him is impossible to say. But, poetically, on the day of his death his son, Maxwell was born. His fame today is worldwide and celebrated in January each year with the Traditional Burns night. Each New Years Eve friends and families the world over link arms to ‘Auld Lang Syne’, giving immortality to his words and aims. As former Secretary General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan says: Burn’s poems dignify and illuminate the struggle faced by the vast majority of the world’s population today. In this slim volume the very best of his work is brought to you. Many of the poems are also available as an audiobook from our sister company Portable Poetry. Many samples are at our youtube channel http://www.youtube.com/user/PortablePoetry?feature=mhee The full volume can be purchased from iTunes, Amazon and other digital stores and is read for you by Gordon Kennedy

Mary Anne Evans was born in 1819. Her Father did not consider her a great beauty and thought her chances of marriage were slim. He therefore invested in her education. By 1850 she had moved to London to work at the Westminster Review where she published many articles and essays. Her view on literature had taken some time to coalescence but with the publication of parts of “Scenes From A Clerical Life” in 1858 she knew she wanted to be a novelist and as her 1856 titled essay “Silly Novels by Lady Novelists" stated not a ‘silly woman’s one at that. Success of course meant that her real name came out but it seemed not to affect how the public devoured her novels. Here, we look with a keen eye at her poetry. Although slim in number she is able to take a situation, scene or thought and bring us into its world with undeniable care. Many of these titles are on our audiobook version which can be purchased from iTunes, Amazon and other digital stores.

Poetry is a fascinating use of language. With almost a million words at its command it is not surprising that these Isles have produced some of the most beautiful, moving and descriptive verse through the centuries. In this series we look at individual poets who have shaped and influenced their craft and cement their place in our heritage. In this volume we look at the works of the American poet Amy Lowell. She was born into the prominent Lowell family in Brookline Massachusetts in 1874. Although her brother was to become President of Harvard she never entered college, her family considering it not proper for a woman. However she loved books and was an avid reader and collector. A socialite she travelled widely and first began to publish in 1910. Thought to be a lesbian the erotic themes within several of her poems are a wonderful loving tribute to that side of her. She published other poets and was working on a biography of the poet John Keats which brought forth the wonderful line "The stigma of oddness is the price a myopic world always exacts of genius. In becoming a major figure in the Imagist movement she clashed with Erza Pound frequently. In 1925 she died of a cerebral haemorrhage at the age of 51. The following year, she won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for What''s O''Clock. Many samples are at our youtube channel http://www.youtube.com/user/PortablePoetry?feature=mhee The full volume can be purchased from iTunes, Amazon and other digital stores.

Herman Melville was born in New York City on August 1st, 1819, the third of eight children.

At the age of 7 Melville contracted scarlet fever which was to permanently diminish his eyesight.

At this time Melville was described as being "very backwards in speech and somewhat slow in comprehension."

His father died when he was 12 leaving the family in very straitened times. Just 14 Melville took a job in a bank paying $150 a year that he obtained via his uncle, Peter Gansevoort, who was one of the directors of the New York State Bank.

After a failed stint as a surveyor he signed on to go to sea and travelled across the Atlantic to Liverpool and then on further voyages to the Pacific on adventures which would soon become the architecture of his novels. Whilst travelling he joined a mutiny, was jailed, fell in love with a South Pacific beauty and became known as a figure of opposition to the coercion of native Hawaiians to the Christian religion.

He drew from these experiences in his books Typee, Omoo, and White-Jacket. These were published as novels, the first initially in London in 1846.

By 1851 his masterpiece, Moby Dick, was ready to be published. It is perhaps, and certainly at the time, one of the most ambitious novels ever written. However, it never sold out its initial print run of 3,000 and Melville’s earnings on this masterpiece were a mere $556.37.

In succeeding years his reputation waned and he found life increasingly difficult. His family was growing, now four children, and a stable income was essential.

With his finances in a disappointing state Melville took the advice of friends that a change in career was called for. For many others public lecturing had proved very rewarding. From late 1857 to 1860, Melville embarked upon three lecture tours, where he spoke mainly on Roman statuary and sightseeing in Rome.

In 1876 he was at last able to publish privately his 16,000 line epic poem Clarel. It was to no avail. The book had an initial printing of 350 copies, but sales failed miserably.

On December 31st, 1885 Melville was at last able to retire. His wife had inherited several small legacies and provide them with a reasonable income.

Herman Melville, novelist, poet, short story writer and essayist, died at his home on September 28rh 1891 from cardiovascular disease.<

Horatio Alger, Jr. was born on January 13, 1832. A prolific American author, who specialised in the ‘rags to riches’ story. He wrote mainly for juveniles during America’s Gilded Age. Stories of impoverished boys rising from humble backgrounds and beginnings to lives fulfilling the American Dream through hard work, honesty and courage. Almost always it is an extraordinary act of honesty or bravery that turns the boy’s life around. For a time he was very successful but as America grew up his own ambitions did not and his new writings were not as able as his earlier ones such as this volume ''Paul The Peddler''

Horatio Alger, Jr. was born on January 13, 1832. A prolific American author, who specialised in the ‘rags to riches’ story. He wrote mainly for juveniles during America’s Gilded Age. Stories of impoverished boys rising from humble backgrounds and beginnings to lives fulfilling the American Dream through hard work, honesty and courage. Almost always it is an extraordinary act of honesty or bravery that turns the boy’s life around. For a time he was very successful but as America grew up his own ambitions did not and his new writings were not as able as his earlier ones such as this volume ''Phil The Fiddler''

Horatio Alger, Jr. was born on January 13, 1832. A prolific American author, who specialised in the ‘rags to riches’ story. He wrote mainly for juveniles during America’s Gilded Age. Stories of impoverished boys rising from humble backgrounds and beginnings to lives fulfilling the American Dream through hard work, honesty and courage. Almost always it is an extraordinary act of honesty or bravery that turns the boy’s life around. For a time he was very successful but as America grew up his own ambitions did not and his new writings were not as able as his earlier ones such as this volume ''The Cash Boy''

Poetry is a fascinating use of language. With almost a million words at its command it is not surprising that these Isles have produced some of the most beautiful, moving and descriptive verse through the centuries. In this series we look at individual poets who have shaped and influenced their craft and cement their place in our heritage. In this volume we look at the works of Sara Teasdale. Sara Trevor Teasdale was born on August 8, 1884 in St Louis, Missouri. A woman of poor health it was only at 14 that she was well enough to begin school. Her education finished in 1903 at Hosmer Hall and her first poetry publication was in 1907 with her second book in 1911. She was courted by various men among them Vachel Lindsay, a great poet but one who thought he could not provide a suitable standard of living for Sara so she married Ernst Filsinger in 1914. Sara’s third poetry collection, Rivers to the Sea, was published in 1915 and was a best seller, being reprinted many times. A year later, in 1916 the married couple moved to New York City. In 1917 she released the poetry collection Love Songs and the following year it won three awards: the Columbia University Poetry Society prize, the 1918 Pulitzer Prize for poetry and the annual prize of the Poetry Society of America. By 1929 Sara was deeply unhappy and lonely so she moved interstate for three months, in order to gain a divorce. She did not wish to inform Filsinger, and only at the insistence of her lawyers as the divorce was going through did she -Filsinger was shocked and surprised. After her divorce Sara remained in New York City and resumed her friendship with Vachel Lindsay, who was by this time married with children. 1931 Vachel Lindsay committed suicide. Two year later Sara to was dead - overdosing on sleeping pills. She is buried in the Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis. Many samples of our audiobooks are at our youtube channel http://www.youtube.com/user/PortablePoetry?feature=mhee Complete volumes on many poets, themes and our other products can be purchased from iTunes, Amazon and other digital stores

Poetry is a fascinating use of language. With almost a million words at its command it is not surprising that these Isles have produced some of the most beautiful, moving and descriptive verse through the centuries. In this series we look at individual poets who have shaped and influenced their craft and cement their place in our heritage. In this volume we look at the works of Sara Teasdale. Sara Trevor Teasdale was born on August 8, 1884 in St Louis, Missouri. A woman of poor health it was only at 14 that she was well enough to begin school. Her education finished in 1903 at Hosmer Hall and her first poetry publication was in 1907 with her second book in 1911. She was courted by various men among them Vachel Lindsay, a great poet but one who thought he could not provide a suitable standard of living for Sara so she married Ernst Filsinger in 1914. Sara’s third poetry collection, Rivers to the Sea, was published in 1915 and was a best seller, being reprinted many times. A year later, in 1916 the married couple moved to New York City. In 1917 she released the poetry collection Love Songs and the following year it won three awards: the Columbia University Poetry Society prize, the 1918 Pulitzer Prize for poetry and the annual prize of the Poetry Society of America. By 1929 Sara was deeply unhappy and lonely so she moved interstate for three months, in order to gain a divorce. She did not wish to inform Filsinger, and only at the insistence of her lawyers as the divorce was going through did she -Filsinger was shocked and surprised. After her divorce Sara remained in New York City and resumed her friendship with Vachel Lindsay, who was by this time married with children. 1931 Vachel Lindsay committed suicide. Two year later Sara to was dead - overdosing on sleeping pills. She is buried in the Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis. Many samples of our audiobooks are at our youtube channel http://www.youtube.com/user/PortablePoetry?feature=mhee Complete volumes on many poets, themes and our other products can be purchased from iTunes, Amazon and other digital stores