Shakespeare's Sonnets

Wordsworth’s Prelude is the consummation of his achievement as the great founder of English romanticism. An autobiography in verse, it tells of his childhood in the Lake District, his student days in Cambridge, his passion for the French Revol...

Samson Agonistes, the 'dramatic poem' by John Milton, was published in 1671, three years before the poet's death. Written in the form of a Greek tragedy, with the Chorus commenting on the action, it follows the biblical story of the blind Samson as ...

As Vergil had surpassed Homer by adapting the epic form to celebrate the origin of the author’s nation, Milton developed it yet further to recount the origin of the human race itself and, in particular, the origin of and the remedy for evil; t...

The famous Middle English poem by an anonymous English poet is beautifully translated by fellow poet Simon Armitage in this edition. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight narrates in crystalline verse the strange tale of a green knight who rudely interrup...

These two great poems date from Shakespeare’s early years and are full of passion and invention. In Venus and Adonis, the goddess of love pleads with the beautiful boy to submit to her advances and become her love – but he only want...

No poet is more closely identified with the First World War than Wilfred Owen. His striking body of work, grim to the point of brutality yet, at the same time, majestic and awe-inspiring, defines the war for us. It is in each of these famous poems t...

A collection of the best-known poems by Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–1889). One of the Victorian era’s greatest writers, Hopkins’ reputation has continued to grow since his death. Our Great Poets series, launched in 2007, has proven...

‘Of Man’s First Disobedience, and the Fruit of the Forbidden Tree, whose mortal taste Brought Death into the World, and all our woe…’ Paradise Lost is the greatest epic poem in the English language. In words remarkable for t...

‘Of Man’s First Disobedience, and the Fruit of that Forbidden Tree, whose mortal taste Brought Death into the World, and all our woe.’ So begins the greatest epic poem in the English language. In words remarkable for their richness...