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

Ernest Vincent Wright was an American author known for his book Gadsby, a 50,000-word novel which, except for the introduction and a note at the end, did not use the letter "e". The biographical details of his life are unclear. A 2002 article in the Village Voice by Ed Park said he might have been English by birth but was more probably American. The article said he might have served in the navy and that he has been incorrectly called a graduate of MIT. The article says that he attended a vocational high school attached to MIT in 1888 but there is no record that he graduated. Park said rumors that Wright died within hours of Gadsby being published are untrue. - Summary by Wikipedia

This is a 1911 volume of poems by California poet George Sterling. Sterling was a particularly celebrated poet during his life time in California, though his fame remained local and hardly spread to the other shore of the United States, let alone to Europe. There were good reasons for this fame, however, as is demonstrated by this volume of particularly beautiful and evocative poetry. - Summary by Carolin

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.

From a relatively early age Moore showed an interest in music and other performing arts. He sometimes appeared in musical plays with his friends, such as The Poor Soldier by John O'Keeffe , and at one point had ambitions to become an actor. Moore attended several Dublin schools including Samuel Whyte's English Grammar School in Grafton Street where he learned the English accent with which he spoke for the rest of his life. In 1795 he graduated from Trinity College, which had recently allowed entry to Catholic students, in an effort to fulfill his mother's dream of him becoming a lawyer...

This is a volume of poetry by Belgian poet Émile Verhaeren, skillfully rendered into English verse by Charles Murphy. Although the English translation was published during World War I, the French original was published in 1905, and the topic of the poems is Verhaeren's love for his wife Marthe. - Summary by Carolin

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

This is a volume of 25 sonnets by American poet Nixon Waterman. The sonnets are written from the perspective of a school boy, and are very humorous, supported by some excellent illustrations by John A. Williams. - Summary by Carolin

A popular poet rather than a literary poet, in her poems she expresses sentiments of cheer and optimism in plainly written, rhyming verse. Her world view is expressed in the title of her poem "Whatever Is—Is Best", suggesting an echo of Alexander Pope's "Whatever is, is right." None of Wilcox's works were included by F. O. Matthiessen in The Oxford Book of American Verse, but Hazel Felleman chose no fewer than fourteen of her poems for Best Loved Poems of the American People, while Martin Gardner selected "The Way Of The World" and "The Winds of Fate" for Best Remembered Poems.

William Butler Yeats was an Irish poet and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. A pillar of both the Irish and British literary establishments, his earliest volume of verse was published in 1889, and its slow-paced and lyrical poems display Yeats's debts to Edmund Spenser, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and the poets of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. From 1900, Yeats's poetry grew more physical and realistic. In 1923, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

After writing two volumes on Misrepresentative Men, in which Harry Graham satirized ancient and contemporary famous men, a volume on the famous ladies was necessary. This volume contains several humorous poems on famous women, as well as some other humorous verses. Summary by Carolin

This poem is taken from Volume X, A Library of American Literature: An Anthology in Eleven Volumes. 1891. Vols. IX–XI: Literature of the Republic, Part IV., 1861–1889

Anna Katharine Green was an American poet and novelist. She was one of the first writers of detective fiction in America and distinguished herself by writing well plotted, legally accurate stories. Green has been called "the mother of the detective novel". - Summary by Wikipedia

This is a volume of poetry by Lilian Whiting. As the title of the volume already hints at, the poems share a dreamy atmosphere, and in that are a typical example of American poetry of the end of the 19th century. - Summary by Carolin

This is a volume of Benjamin King's collected verse, published shortly after his sudden death in 1894. The American humorist was very famous during his lifetime, and is still widely referenced and quoted until today. This volume was published in Chicago after his death, reportedly outselling any other volume of poetry in Michigan for 25 years after being published. It is also prefaced by two short biographies by John McGovern and Opie Read. - Summary by Carolin

This is a collection of 27 poems read by volunteers for January 2017.

This is an 1898 volume of poetry by American poet George Cabot Lodge. Its title-poem refers to the Sea, and the Sea does seem to be the main character of this book, making its appearance in many of the poems throughout the first part of the volume. The second part of the book is a collection of 40 sonnets on more varied topics. - Summary by Carolin

This is a volume of Canadian poet Arthur Weir. Many of the poems are set around the turn of a year, referencing the season in different ways, and touching upon almost every emotion and association we might connect with winter. - Summary by Carolin

This is a collection of ten humorous verses by Lord Alfred Douglas. - Summary by Carolin

Robert Browning is still well-known today as a distinguished English poet. His poetry is still widely read, recited, and taught in schools. In this little volume, Rose Porter has compiled a collection of his poems concerning Easter. - Summary by Carolin

Andrew Marvell was an English metaphysical poet, satirist and politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1659 and 1678. During the Commonwealth period he was a colleague and friend of John Milton. His poems range from the love-song "To His Coy Mistress", to evocations of an aristocratic country house and garden in "Upon Appleton House" and "The Garden", the political address "An Horatian Ode upon Cromwell's Return from Ireland", and the later personal and political satires "Flecknoe" and "The Character of Holland". - Summary by Wikipedia

George R. Sims was a journalist of the Victorian era who was mostly concerned with social reforms. He was very interested in the life of the poor. This is a dramatic monologue by an inmate at a workhouse, exposing the hypocrisy of the law. A vivid ballad which you would not be able to resist. - Summary by Stav Nisser. This was the fortnightly poem for January 29, 2017.

This is a collection of poems by Michael Field, the pseudonym of Katharine Harris Bradley and Edith Emma Cooper. Those poems are of interest not only because they are beautiful examples of aesthetic poetry, but also because many of them contain homosexuality as a theme. The joint authors lived openly as a lesbian couple for forty years around the turn of the 20th century. - Summary by Carolin

This is a volume of collected poetry by American poet Marian Longfellow. The poems lack a uniform theme, but, as the author puts it, "Among these "Contrasted Songs" I trust that the reader will find something to which the heart may respond." - Summary by Carolin

Who shall strike the wax of mystery from those priceless amphoræ, and give to the unsophisticated nostrils of the average reader the ravishing bouquet of wine pressed in a garden in Mitylene, twenty-five centuries ago? - Maurice ThompsonThis is a collection of the poetry of Sappho, in a "rather creative translation" by American poet John Myers O'Hara. - Summary by Carolin

This is a volume of poems by Kate Slaughter McKinney, poet laureate of the State of Alabama of 1931, who often went by the pen-name Katydid. The poems are cute and amusing, children will enjoy them. - Summary by Carolin

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

This is a collection of Easter poems by Lucy Larcom. The poems cover the entire circle of religious holidays, customs, and bible verses around Easter. - Summary by Carolin

This is a collection of Easter poems by Louisa Parsons Stone Hopkins. The poems all center around the Easter holiday, in both a religious as well as a more generally festive tone. - Summary by Carolin

Lockwood, Brooks & Co. Have nearly ready the volume of “Easter Hymns” selected by Miss J.E.C. Chapman, an accomplished lady of Boston, and introduced by a note from her uncle, Rev. Dr. J.I.T. Coolidge. The hymns are excellently chosen, and the volume will be brought out in tasteful style. It will commend itself to the favor of all Episcopalians, and to the devout in all denominations, to whom Easter is not a mere churchly date but a day of deep and glad significance. – The Publisher’s Weekly, March 18th, 1876.

My Grandma's father arrived in this country through New York City, and often spoke to my dad, when he was a boy, of what it was like to first see the Statue of Liberty. Most of my relatives arrived through Philadelphia or Boston, and didn't get to see the the "mighty woman with the torch" until later life, on vacation trips to New York City, when she was a must-see for them all. My Grandma always loved this Emma Lazarus poem, so I read this one especially for her, but also for all the other family members who came here "yearning to breathe free". And for those just like my family, who are still "♫♪coming to America, today♫♪".

John Donne was an English poet and cleric in the Church of England. He is considered the pre-eminent representative of the metaphysical poets. His works are noted for their strong, sensual style and include sonnets, love poems, religious poems, Latin translations, epigrams, elegies, songs, satires and sermons. His poetry is noted for its vibrancy of language and inventiveness of metaphor, especially compared to that of his contemporaries. Donne's style is characterised by abrupt openings and various paradoxes, ironies and dislocations...

Whitman claimed that after years of competing for "the usual rewards", he determined to become a poet. He first experimented with a variety of popular literary genres which appealed to the cultural tastes of the period. As early as 1850, he began writing what would become Leaves of Grass, a collection of poetry which he would continue editing and revising until his death. Whitman intended to write a distinctly American epic and used free verse with a cadence based on the Bible. At the end of June 1855, Whitman surprised his brothers with the already-printed first edition of Leaves of Grass. Whitman paid for the publication of the first edition of Leaves of Grass himself.

A concise collection of poems translated from the great German poet Rilke into formal English verse. Although the translation may be freer than some modern texts, this selection, which spans early and later writings and includes a preface refreshingly focused on the poet's artistic development, provides a nice entrée into Rilke's world.

Michael Earls, S.J. was a Jesuit priest, as well as a writer, poet, teacher, and administrator. - Summary by Wikipedia

This is a collection of 30 poems read by volunteers for August 2017.

This is the first published volume of poetry by Californian author and poet George Sterling. These poems are the beginning of Sterling's great career as a poet, and include a number of poems in the style for which he would become famous. That style is dark and with supernatural elements, in the tradition of Thomas Hood and Edgar Allan Poe. - Summary by Carolin

This is a collection of poems by DH Lawrence. Most of the poems concern love and neighboring emotions, but some poems also concern other themes. - Summary by Carolin

Thomas Fleming Day was an American sailboat designer and sailboat racer. He was the founding editor of Rudder, a monthly magazine about boats, and himself the first to win the annual New York to Bermuda race. Not so well-known today is the fact that Day also occasionally penned a poem about his passion for the sea and sailing. Those poems are collected in this volume. - Summary by Carolin and Wikipedia

This is a collection of 38 poems read by volunteers for September 2017.

This is a collection of 34 poems read by volunteers for June 2017.

This is a volume of ghost stories in verse by William Theodore Parkes. The poems in this volume are often humorous, and written in a parody of ye olde style of poetry."Dealing largely with ghosts and legends embracing a dash of diablerie such as would have been dear to the heart of Ingoldsby. There is a rugged force in 'The Girl of Castlebar' that will always make it tell in recitation; and even greater success in this direction has attended 'The Fairy Queen,' a story unveiling the seamy side, with quaint humour and stern realism...

The Dubliner, Thomas Moore, born in 1779 was a poet, composer, musician, and writer. He is most famous for the 10 volume work "Irish Melodies" published between 1807 and 1834 with Sir John Stevenson, which consists of 130 of his poems set to music, much of it based on old Irish airs. "The Last Rose of Summer" and "The Minstrel Boy" are two of the most well known. Many of these "Melodies" are included in this collection. He is perhaps most infamous for having burned, at the request of the Byron family, the manuscript of Byron's memoirs which Bryon had left to him for publication after his death...

John Donne was an English poet and cleric in the Church of England. Despite his great education and poetic talents, Donne lived in poverty for several years, relying heavily on wealthy friends. He spent much of the money he inherited during and after his education on womanising, literature, pastimes, and travel. In 1601, Donne secretly married Anne More, with whom he had twelve children. In 1615, he became an Anglican priest, although he did not want to take Anglican orders. He did so because King James I persistently ordered it. In 1621, he was appointed the Dean of St Paul's Cathedral in London. He also served as a member of Parliament in 1601 and in 1614.

Louise Imogen Guiney was an American poet, well-connected in the art of her time. Much of her life was spent in England, mostly at London and Oxford. This volume of poems contains, among other poems, 24 sonnets written in those two cities. - Summary by Carolin

"The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke" is a verse novel by Australian novelist and poet C. J. Dennis. The work was first published in book form in 1915 and sold over 60,000 copies in nine editions within the first year. A special pocket edition was even printed for the Australian soldiers in the trenches during the Great War. "The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke" tells the story of Bill, a larrikin of the Little Lonsdale Street push, who is introduced to a young woman by the name of Doreen. The book chronicles their courtship and marriage, detailing Bill's transformation from a violence-prone gang member to a contented husband and father. - Summary by Wikipedia

This is a volume of war poetry by English poet and playwright Robert Nichols. To quote Wikipedia: "On 11 November 1985, Nichols was among 16 Great War poets commemorated on a slate stone unveiled in Westminster Abbey's Poet's Corner. The inscription on the stone was written by a fellow Great War poet, Wilfred Owen. It reads: 'My subject is War, and the pity of War. The Poetry is in the pity.'" This particular volume of poetry contains his most well-known poems, and is also perhaps one of the most haunting collections of war poetry in the English language. - Summary by Carolin

This volume of poetry takes the reader, or rather the listener, along on a literary tour through Europe. R.M. Leonard has collected the finest poems by some of the most celebrated poets of the English language, all covering the subject of travel, and often concerning travelling to a certain city or region in Europe. - Summary by Carolin

This is a very cute little book of children's poetry. All poems are short and suitable for very young children to read or listen to. - Summary by Carolin

This is a volume of poetry written by the sisters Albion Fellows Bacon and Annie Fellows Johnston. Both of the sisters reached quite a level of fame in their own right, Ms Bacon primarily as a social reformer and Ms Johnston as an author of children's books. In this volume of poetry, they bring their two sets of skills together to write beautiful verses. - Summary by Carolin

Tom Kettle was an Irish economist, journalist, barrister, writer, poet, soldier and Home Rule politician. All these varied interests helped him compose beautiful and very witty poetry, until his death at the Western Front in World War I. This volume was published immediately after his death, and may give a good overview over the work and the many talents of this now almost forgotten writer. - Summary by Carolin

This is a collection of poetry by Hannah Lavinia Baily. They describe a number of different settings, prominently the sea in the titular poem, and bring in contemporary as well as mythical themes. - Summary by Carolin

This is a volume of poetry by English poet Richard Middleton. While hardly known to readers anymore today, Middleton's poems, stories, and essays were all very highly regarded during his lifetime and after his untimely death, having won the admiration of many of his contemporary critics and writers whose fame endured longer than that of Middleton himself. A look into this volume of poetry should convince the reader or listener that Middleton's poetry certainly deserves much more attention than is currently given it. - Summary by Carolin

Edgar Allan Poe was an American writer, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is widely regarded as a central figure of Romanticism in the United States and American literature as a whole, and he was one of the country's earliest practitioners of the short story. Poe is generally considered the inventor of the detective fiction genre and is further credited with contributing to the emerging genre of science fiction. - Summary by Wikipedia

James Whitcomb Riley was an American writer, poet, and best-selling author. 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". - Summary by Wikipedia

William Lisle Bowles was an English priest, poet and critic. The Wainsbeck is a sequestered river in Northumberland, having on its banks "Our Lady's Chapel," three-quarters of a mile west of Bothal. It has been commemorated by Akenside.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning was one of the most prominent English poets of the Victorian era, popular in Britain and the United States during her lifetime. - Summary by Wikipedia

We have all had mysterious charges added on to our hotel bills. - Summary by David Lawrence

A series of six volumes of Wheels anthologies was produced by members of the Sitwell family, the first in 1916. Apart from Edith, Osbert and Sacheverell Sitwell, the poets represented in the series include Nancy Cunard, whose family founded the Cunard shipping line, Aldous Huxley and Wilferd Owen, as well as a number of more obscure writers. - Summary by Algy Pug

Margaret Steele Anderson's tribute to the men left on board the doomed ship, some of whom followed the "Women and children first" tradition of the sea. - Summary by David Lawrence