Other books that might interest you

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  Saundarya Lahari - Wave of Beauty

  Mani Rao, Karuna Sivasailam

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  'A joyful rendition of an iconic text' - Arundhathi Subramaniam 
   
  Saundarya Lahari is a popular Sanskrit hymn celebrating the power and beauty of Sakti, the primordial goddess. In one hundred verses, it underlines the centrality of the feminine principle in Indian thought. 
  Attributed to Adi Sankaracarya, Saundarya Lahari is a valuable source for understanding tantric ideas. Every verse is associated with yantras and encoded mantras for tantric rituals, and specific verses in the hymn are considered potent for acquiring good health, lovers, and even poetic skills. 
  This special audiobook edition of Saundarya Lahari, featuring the complete verses translated and narrated in English by Mani Rao and sung in Sanskrit by Karuna Sivasailaim, is an inspired, lyrical performance that renders the esoteric immediate and the distant near.

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  Autumn Fires

  Robert Louis Stevenson

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  LibriVox volunteers bring you 21 readings of Autumn Fires, from Robert Louis Stevenson's classic A Child's Garden of Verses. This was the weekly poetry project for October 18-24, 2015.

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  Cymbeline King of Britain

  William Shakespeare

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  Cymbeline, also known as The Tragedie of Cymbeline or Cymbeline, King of Britain, is a play by William Shakespeare set in Ancient Britain (c. 10–14)[a] and based on legends that formed part of the Matter of Britain concerning the early Celtic British King Cunobeline. Although listed as a tragedy in the First Folio, modern critics often classify Cymbeline as a romance or even a comedy. Like Othello and The Winter's Tale, it deals with the themes of innocence and jealousy. While the precise date of composition remains unknown, the play was certainly produced as early as 1611.
  Cymbeline, the Roman Empire's vassal king of Britain, once had two sons, Guiderius and Arvirargus, but they were stolen twenty years earlier as infants by an exiled traitor named Belarius. Cymbeline discovers that his only child left, his daughter Imogen (or Innogen), has secretly married her lover Posthumus Leonatus, a member of Cymbeline's court. The lovers have exchanged jewellery as tokens: Imogen with a bracelet, and Posthumus with a ring. Cymbeline dismisses the marriage and banishes Posthumus since Imogen — as Cymbeline's only child — must produce a fully royal-blooded heir to succeed to the British throne. In the meantime, Cymbeline's Queen is conspiring to have Cloten (her cloddish and arrogant son by an earlier marriage) married to Imogen to secure her bloodline. The Queen is also plotting to murder both Imogen and Cymbeline, procuring what she believes to be deadly poison from the court doctor. The doctor, Cornelius, is suspicious and switches the poison with a harmless sleeping potion. The Queen passes the "poison" along to Pisanio, Posthumus and Imogen's loving servant — the latter is led to believe it is a medicinal drug. No longer able to be with her banished Posthumus, Imogen secludes herself in her chambers, away from Cloten's aggressive advances.
  Although the play is named Julius Caesar, Brutus speaks more than four times as many lines as the title character; and the central psychological drama of the play focuses on Brutus' struggle between the conflicting demands of honour, patriotism, and friendship. 
  Among the most significant works William Shakespeare: Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth, Orpheus, Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar, Troilus and Cressida, The Tempest, Venus and Adonis, Antony and Cleopatra, Measure for Measure, The Winter's Tale and many more.

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  Barks and Purrs

  Colette

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  Barks and Purrs is a collection of seven episodes in the lives of Toby-Dog, a French Bulldog, and Kiki-the-Demure, a Maltese cat, living in a comfortable household. The episodes cover a hot afternoon, a train ride, and what happened when dinner was late or their mistress was ill. We hear about the first fire in autumn, a heavy storm, and about a visitor in the household.Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette-Willy was throughout her life a controversial French novelist. She published around 50 novels; the best known is "Gigi". (Summary by Availle)Dramatis personae:Kiki-the-Demure, a Maltese cat - Bob GonzalezToby-Dog, a French bull-dog - Troy Bond HE, master (of minor importance) - Matthew Reece SHE, mistress (of minor importance) - Roseanne Schmidt The Little Dog - rashadaNarrator - Sandra G Audio edited by Availle

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  Born in the USA - Exploring...

  Emily Dickinson, Nathaniel...

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  Poetry. A form of words that seems so elegantly simple in one verse and so cleverly complex in another.  Each poet has a particular style, an individual and unique way with words and yet each of us seems to recognise the path and destination of where the verses lead, even if sometimes the full comprehension may be a little beyond us. 
   
  Through the centuries every culture has produced verse to symbolize and to describe everything from everyday life, natural wonders, the human condition and even in its more hubristic moments, the crushing triumph of an enemy. 
   
  In the volumes of this series we take a look through the prism of individual regions of the United States through the centuries and decades. 
   
  The United States may be many things: the world’s policeman, a bully, a shameless purveyor of mass market culture but it also, in its better moments, a standard bearer for truth, transparency, equality and the more positive qualities of democracy. 
   
  Little wonder that’s its poets are rightly acknowledged as wonders of their art.  Leading lights in the fight against slavery and for equality, even if the rest of the Nation is finding it problematic to catch up.   
   
  In this volume we have collected verse from poets born in New England.  This corner of America where the first Europeans began to push the indigenous culture back from its home is a grid of small States that have been home to some of the greatest poets ever born anywhere, including Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Helen Hunt Jackson, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and Kathy Lee Bates.

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  Towards Democracy

  Edward Carpenter

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  “Civilization sinks and swims, but the old facts remain-the sun smiles, knowing well its strength.”  Edward Carpenter (1844-1929) wrote his prose poem, Towards Democracy, styled after Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass, in a summer burst of creativity.  “Early in 1881, no doubt as the culmination and result of struggles and experiences that had been going on, I became conscious that a mass of material was forming within me, imperatively demanding expression . . .”  An English intellectual,  Carpenter was in rebellion against Victorian prudery. Railing against Industrialization’s dehumanization, he preached a return to a simple life in harmony with Nature.  Towards Democracy reads like Beat poetry-wild flowing word associations, moments of insight so clear they hurt, interspersed with pure rant!   Included is an essay Carpenter wrote in 1894 explaining his intent and feelings in writing Towards Democracy.  - Summary by Sue Anderson

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