Other books that might interest you

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  The Iliad and The Odyssey

  Homer

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  The legendary poet of Greek antiquity Homer is surrounded by almost as much myth as the characters of his two epic poems The Iliad and The Odyssey. As two of the oldest extant works of Western literature they formed the foundations for Ancient Greek culture, and have been read, translated, adapted and enjoyed across the globe since the 8th century BC. 
   
  The Iliad takes place in the final weeks of the long-fought Trojan War. As the Greeks fight to reclaim the beautiful Helen, King Agamemnon seizes Briseis, the concubine of Achilles. In disgust the legendary warrior abandons the conflict, taking his men with him. 
   
  The Odyssey joins the heroic Odysseus on his epic and tumultuous journey home following the fall of Troy. Having angered the sea-god Poseidon he and his men are beset by obstacles including a man-eating Cyclops, deadly storms, and a witch who transforms her enemies into pigs. 
   
  The translations presented in this wonderful collection are easily accessible prose editions translated by highly-esteemed authors. The Iliad is translated by the late-Victorian novelist Samuel Butler, and The Odyssey by adventurer Lawrence of Arabia, T.E. Lawrence.

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  Female Poets of the Nineteenth...

  Ella Wheeler Wilcox

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  For much of history women have been seen rather than heard. Their thoughts, their views have lain too long in the shadows of our culture.  Whilst this traditional view has some merit it is not entirely accurate. 
  Here, gathered together in these volumes, we can, through their words, experience their lives; we can hear their voices, their thoughts, joys, loves and losses. 
  For the Female Poet there was always the confining hand of men to instruct that their time was perhaps spent more productively elsewhere.  These lines, these gilded verses often protest otherwise. 
  The contribution of women in these earlier centuries is immense and in this series we bring together poets who have created some of the most beautiful and expressive verses ever written.  And remember these words, these telling lines, have been written against the grain of society's male bias.  With their remembered words these female poets have given us a history that we can all now share. 
  This volume comes to you from Portable Poetry, a specialized imprint from Deadtree Publishing.  Our range is large and growing and covers single poets, themes, and many compilations.

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  Guess How Much I Love You?

  Luke Norris

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  'People are capable of anything. Including this. Including you.'
  At their twenty-week scan, an expectant couple's lives are changed forever.
  Compassionate, unflinching and painfully funny, Guess How Much I Love You? is a story about impossible choices and enduring love. Luke Norris's play opened at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in 2026, directed by Jeremy Herrin and starring Rosie Sheehy and Robert Aramayo.

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  A Rhyme A Dozen ― Christmas...

  Sara Teasdale, G K Chesterton,...

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  ‘A dime a dozen’ as known in America, is perhaps equal to the English ‘cheap as chips’ but whatever the lingua franca of your choice in this series we hereby submit ‘A Rhyme a Dozen’ as 12 poems on many given subjects that are a well-rounded gathering, maybe even an essential guide, from the knowing pens of classic poets and their beautifully spoken verse to the comfort of your ears. 
  1 - A Rhyme a Dozen - 12 Poets, 12 Poems, 1 Topic.  Christmas Carols - An Introduction 
  2 - Wondrous Sight For Men and Angels by Ann Griffiths 
  3 - Angels From the Realms of Glory by James Montgomery 
  4 - A Christmas Carol by Aubrey De Vere 
  5 - A Christmas Carol by G K Chesterton 
  6 - Christmas Carol by Sara Teasdale 
  7 - A Carol. I by Mildmay Fane, Earl of Westmorland 
  8 - A Christmas Carol by Samual Taylor Coleridge 
  9 - Carol by Ben Jonson 
  10 - In The Bleak Midwinter by Christina Georgina Rossetti 
  11 - Go, Tell It on the Mountain by John Wesley Work Jr 
  12 - The Darkling Thrush by Thomas Hardy 
  13 - We Three Kings of Orient Are by John Henry Hopkins Jnr

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  Winter Stranger - Poems

  Jackson Holbert

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  Winner of the Max Ritvo Poetry Prize, Jackson Holbert’s Winter Stranger is a solemn record of addiction and the divided affections we hold for the landscapes that shape us.In the cold, seminal countryside of eastern Washington, a boy puts a bullet through his skull in a high school parking lot. An uncle crushes oxycodone into “a thousand red granules.” Hawks wheel above a dark, indifferent river. “I left that town / forever,” Holbert writes, but its bruises appear everywhere, in dreams of violent men and small stars, the ghosts of friends and pills. These poems incite a complex emotional discourse on what it means to leave—if it’s ever actually possible, or if our roots only grow longer to accommodate the distance.Punctuated by recollections of loved ones consumed by their addictions, Winter Stranger also questions the capricious nature of memory, and poetry’s power to tame it. “I can make it all sound so beautiful. / You’ll barely notice that underneath / this poem there is a body / decaying into the American ground.” Meanwhile, the precious realities vanish—“your hair, your ears, your hands.”—leaving behind “the fucked up / trees,” the “long, cold river.” In verse both bleak and wishful, Holbert strikes a fine balance between his poetic sensibilities and the endemic cynicism of modern life.“It is clear now that there are no ends,” Holbert writes, “Just winters.” Though his poems bloom from hills heavy with springtime snow, his voice cuts through the cold, rich with dearly familiar longings: to not be alone, to honor our origins, to survive them.

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  Octopus Mind

  Rachel Carney

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  Octopus Mind plays with an array of rich and original metaphors to explore the intricacies of neurodiversity, perception and the human mind. These poems articulate the desire to understand and be understood by oneself and others in a complex world. They observe the nuances of creativity, art, relationships, and self-expression through the lens of neurodiversity, reflecting on the poet's experience of being diagnosed with dyspraxia as an adult. They delve into the challenges of neurodiversity, but also reveal its gifts.
  Poems respond to visual artists like Gwen John, whose paintings break new ground for women representing their own visions of themselves. Other poems suggest that this can be a struggle however, as Pablo Picasso paints not a woman but his own despair in 'Blue Nude', while Elizabeth Siddal reflects on her own image, fetishized by the Pre-Raphaelite painters, and Henri Rousseau's painting becomes an outlet for self-deception and frustration. 
  Some of the most stunning poems in this collection perform a kind of magic or sleight of hand, as dyspraxia is explored through unique and remarkable metaphors, including a series of artefacts in a museum, a walk along the seashore, and a swaying tree. The 'Octopus Mind' evokes the possibilities of what it means to be human, through obsession, self-deception, realisation, and acceptance.
  The speaker in Octopus Mind is endearingly humble and we journey with them beyond self-criticism to reclaiming the self. In 'Growing', the narrator declares 'I will grow // into myself, climbing, steady, / grip by grip, leaf by leaf'. In 'Understood' the narrator describes the complex process of re-imagining one's place in the world, armed with new knowledge: 'Slowly, we adjust / our own soft ignorance / unroll our prejudice / in gentle waves.' 
  "A poet of multiple uncanny self-portraits, of the 'octopus mind', who explores the gaps between mind and body, and body and world, with deft, diverse diagnoses."Damian Walford Davies
  "Extraordinary poems of self-encounter, of divergence, of bruised bodies out of balance with themselves, laid bare – and of new-found identities, and joyous release." Richard Marggraf Turley 
  "Rachel Carney's debut collection delights in its curiosity and surrealism. This is a collection that 'swims out into deep ocean currents' to explore the workings of the mind and the impacts of this on the self." Katherine Stansfield

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