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Selected Poetry 

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von; Luke, David (ed.) £12.99  <convert> 

Goethe viewed the writing of poetry as essentially autobiographical and the works selected in this volume represent over sixty years in the life of the poet. In early poems such as ‘Prometheus’, he rails against religion in an almost ecstatic fervour, while ‘To the Moon’ is an enigmatic meditation on the end of a love affair. The Roman Elegies show Goethe’s use of Classical metres in a homage to ancient Rome and its poets, and ‘The Diary’, suppressed for more than a century, is a narrative poem whose eroticism is unusually combined with its morality. And in selections from both parts of Faust, arguably his greatest and most profoundly personal work, Goethe creates an exhilarating depiction of humankind’s eternal search for truth.

Arranged chronologically, David Luke’s translations are set alongside the German originals to give a picture of Goethe’s poetic development. This edition also includes an introduction and notes placing the poems in the context of the poet’s life and times.

Selected Poems 

Byron, Lord; Wolfson, Susan, Manning, Peter (ed.) £11.99  <convert> 

Flamboyant, brilliant, daring in his life and poetry, relishing humour and irony, Byron became the quintessential European Romantic in an age of revolutions. Debate as to the nature and influence of his poetry continues, and in making their selection for this volume the editors have chosen poems that defined Byron for the nineteenth century and poems less well known then but of particular interest to today's readers. This Penguin Classic, based on the landmark Murray edition of 1832-4, is the only widely available selection to include Byron's own notes on the same page as the poetic texts, and to present the poems in the sequence of composition and/or first publication, thus providing a sense of Byron's developing career. It contains the complete texts of many longer works not readily available in their entirety, including Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, all but one of the 'Eastern tales', and the historical drama Sardanapalus, now regarded as a key text in the modern re-evaluation of Romanticism. The editors provide full notes, bibliography, a biographical sketch and detailed chronology of Byron's life and work.

Complete Poems 

Marvell, Andrew; Dunno, Elizabeth (ed.) £10.99  <convert> 

Member of Parliament, tutor to Oliver Cromwell's ward, satirist and friend of John Milton, Andrew Marvell was one of the most interesting and important poets of the seventeenth century. The Complete Poems demonstrates his unique skill and immense diversity to the full, and includes lyrical love-poetry, religious works and biting satire. From the passionately erotic To his Coy Mistress, to the astutely political Cromwellian poems and the profoundly spiritual On a Drop of Dew, in which he considers the nature of the soul, these works are masterpieces of clarity and metaphysical imagery. Eloquent and compelling, they remain among the most vital and profound works of the era - works by a figure who, in the words of T. S. Eliot, 'speaks clearly and unequivocally with the voice of his literary age'.

Inferno 

Carson, Ciaran £7.99  <convert> 

Wordsworth 

Wordsworth, William; Heaney, Seamus (ed.) £3.99  <convert> 

In this series, a contemporary poet advocates a poet of the past or present whom they have particularly admired. By their selection of verses and by the personal and critical reactions they express, the selectors offer intriguing insight into their own work. Here Seamus Heaney selects works from the great Romantic poet William Wordsworth.

Selected Poetry 

Coleridge, S. T.; Empson, William, Pirie, David (ed.) £9.95  <convert> 

In this unusual selection, one of the great poet-critics of the twentieth century encounters and re-appraises the greatest poet-critic of the nineteenth. William Empson, assisted by David Pirie, chooses from Coleridge's vast and uneven ouevre the salient poems, and edits and annotates them. Here is a classic example of Empson's techniques of creative and scholarly reading and the best possible introduction to the work of one of the most haunting poets in the English language.