Showing titles in Poetry

Le Metamorfosi di Ovidio, insieme all'Iliade, l'Odissea e l'Eneide, è il libro più famoso ed importante che ci sia arrivato dall'antichità. Diviso in 15 libri, contiene circa 250 miti che hanno in comune il tema della trasformazione. Molti dei protagonisti di questi miti sono alla base della nostra cultura. Solo per fare qualche esempio: Eco, Narciso, Europa, Medea, Arianna, Pigmalione, Prometeo, Pan, Ermafrodito, Dedalo ed Icaro, Venere ed Adone.

Les femmes soulèvent à chaque époque - croyant l'inventer - la querelle de l'égalité des sexes, qui dure en vérité depuis que le monde est monde. Dans "Les femmes savantes", Molière s'attaque cependant moins au beau sexe qu'aux cuistres des deux bords. Si Bélise ou Philaminte revendiquent un savoir qui leur encombre la langue sans leur pénétrer l'esprit, l'art et la science de Trissotin se résument également à un ridicule jargon mondain.

Along with Virgil, Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus) was the greatest poet produced by Rome, and in many ways his work has had arguably an even greater impact. His brilliant expression and astonishing acumen continue to amaze readers today, either in their original Latin or in innumerable worldwide translations. Shakespeare's debt to Horace is incalculable, and it is difficult to read his Sonnets today without immediately being reminded of the famous Odes.

Abou Ben Adhem awakens to find an angel within his room writing the names of those who love The Lord inside a book of gold. To his shock, he discovers his is name will not be added and learns of the fate awaiting him.

Monsieur Jourdain est un commerçant qui a fait fortune dans les perruques. Il décide de vivre "en homme de qualité"' et ouvre sa maison aux arts et aux lettres... Cette comédie-ballet consacre l'image d'Epinal de l'arriviste, dont Molière moque allègrement la fatuité et l'ignorance. Le titre donné à la pièce est révélateur. Il nous apprend que pour Molière le sujet de l'œuvre, c'est M. Jourdain et sa propension vaniteuse à gagner une classe sociale qui n'est pas la sienne.

Many masters employed the form of the sonnet, including Petrarch, Spenser, Shakespeare, Keats, and Robert Bridges. However, the most celebrated, and oft quoted, examples are to be found in the collection by Shakespeare, first published in 1609. In the 154 poems, Shakespeare surveys and dissects the subject of love in all its guises, and its relationship with youth, age, illness, death, and memory.

A beautiful extract from the famous biblical hymn to love, read by Jenny Agutter.

"Les Fausses Confidences" est une comédie en trois actes et en prose de Marivaux jouée pour la première fois le 16 mars 1737 par les Comédiens Italiens à l'Hôtel de Bourgogne.

Charles Baudelaire is one of the greatest French poets. His most famous work, "Les Fleurs du Mal"("The Flowers of Evil"), was deemed scandalous at the time because of its themes of sex and death, lesbianism, corruption, wine, and the oppressiveness of living. The effect on fellow artists was "immense, prodigious, unexpected, mingled with admiration and with some indefinable anxious fear", while the regime of the Second Empire had Baudelaire prosecuted and fined for his "insult to public decency". Baudelaire's style had a tremendous influence on French poetry, and also on English writers; he was a pioneering translator, and created strong ties with the Anglo-Saxon literature.

Deux jeunes seigneurs parisiens, La Grange et Du Croisy, quittent fort mécontents la demeure de Gorgibus, riche bourgeois de province arrivé récemment à Paris pour marier sa fille Magdelon et sa nièce Cathos. Les deux amants n'ont pas été jugés suffisamment à la mode par les deux jeunes filles.

"La Dame aux camélias" raconte l'amour d'un jeune bourgeois, Armand Duval, pour une courtisane, Marguerite Gautier, atteinte de tuberculose. Dans le demi-monde parisien chic, où se côtoient riches amateurs et femmes légères, le jeune Armand Duval tombe amoureux de la jeune et belle Marguerite Gautier, une des reines de ce monde éphémère de la noce. Devenu l'amant de Marguerite, Armand obtient d'elle qu'elle renonce à sa vie tapageuse pour se retirer avec lui à la campagne, non loin de Paris.

Martial was a Latin poet from Hispania best known for his 12 books of Epigrams, published in Rome between A.D. 86 and 103, during the reigns of the emperors Domitian, Nerva and Trajan. In these short, witty poems, he cheerfully satirises city life and the scandalous activities of his acquaintances, and romanticises his provincial upbringing.

Victor Hugo is one of the best-known French writers, and is part of the greatest literary figures of all time. His poetry made him famous very early, cementing his reputation as one of the greatest lyric poets when he was only 20 years old. He was also a novelist and a dramatist, and furthered the cause of Romanticism, this exalted artistic movement which toyed with Sublime and soared on the winds of emotion.

Victor Hugo is one of the best-known French writers, and one of the greatest literary figures of all time. His poetry made him famous very early, cementing his reputation as one of the greatest lyric poets when he was only 20 years old. We have selected for you 28 of his most well-known and powerful poems, mostly from the immortal Autumn Leaves and Contemplations. They are, in order: Childhood; Death in Life; Epitaph; Have you nothing to say for yourself; How Butterflies are born; I am content; Inscription for a crucifix; Satire on the Earth; St John; etc.

Paris aux alentours de 1840. Délaissée par son mari après un an de mariage, Mathilde de Chavigny, jeune femme douce et sensible, tente de reconquérir son mari en lui confectionnant une petite bourse rouge. Alors qu'elle s'apprête à la lui offrir, elle obtient la preuve des infidélités de Chavigny qui lui montre une bourse de couleur bleue qu'une autre lui a donnée. Désabusée, Mathilde confie son chagrin à son amie Madame de Léry, femme vive, spirituelle et cynique.

"Les Fleurs du mal", in english "The Flowers of Evil" is a volume of French poetry by Charles Baudelaire. First published in 1857 it was important in the symbolist and modernist movements. The poems deal with themes relating to decadence and eroticism. Baudelaire dedicated the book to the poet Théophile Gautier, describing him as a "parfait magicien des lettres françaises" ("a perfect magician of French letters").The author and the publisher were prosecuted under the regime of the Second Empire as an "outrage aux bonnes mœurs" ("an insult to public decency").

This epic poem by Edmund Spenser is the longest poem in the English language. It is an allegorical work, written in praise of Queen Elizabeth I. Michael MacLiammoir reads a selection from Book III.

The poem written by Wilde while in exile about his time in Reading Prison and the hanging of Charles Thomas Wooldridge.

THE PARDONER’S TALE AND THE NUN’S PRIEST’S TALE FROM CHAUCER’S CANTEBURY TALES. It has been said that no translation, however studied and skilful, can do justice to the genius of Chaucer’s writing.

Commonly cited as one of the most important works of Anglo-Saxon literature, Beowulf is an epic poem that traces the exploits of the titular hero. After coming to the aid of the king of the Danes, whose mead hall is under constant attack by the monster Grendel, Beowulf slays Grendel's mother and goes on to become the king of the Geats.