There are 200 poems to explore in this collection—poems about love, and war; songs of the sea; tales of magic and adventure; rhythmic rhapsodies; nonsense verse; descriptions of the world (and the creatures in it), and of the seasons, and the soul. Many of the poems here will be familiar to you already. We have ransacked the common treasure hoard of “classics”, collecting those best-known, and best-loved masterpieces that have long stood the test of time. But we have also explored further beneath the mountain, and unearthed some rarer gems. You may enter the collection through the front door if you wish; the very first poem provides a key. But do not feel compelled to proceed directly forward. Those readers who best explore a collection of verse, do so as though in possession of map which, while appearing to guide their footsteps, is revealed on closer inspection to be a perfect and absolute blank. This book is organized thematically, with 10 poems for each of the following 20 themes: 1) Magic and Wonder 2) Animalia: Mammals 3) Animalia: Birds 4) Animalia: Creep, Crawl, and Fly 5) Love and Friendship 6) War and Conflict 7) The Natural World 8) Life and Inspiration 9) Sadness and Remembrance 10) Journeys and Adventures 11) Tales and Songs 12) Songs of the Sea 13) Reflecting on Things 14) Humour and Curiosities 15) Nonsense 16) Miniatures 17) Stars, Moon, and Night 18) Sleep, Dreams, and Lullabies 19) The Year Round; Spring and Summer 20) The Year Round; Autumn and Winter Included are masterpieces by Christina Rossetti, Edward Lear, Lewis Carroll, Emily Dickinson, Robert Burns, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Robert Louis Stevenson, Rudyard Kipling, Sara Teasdale, William Blake, Byron, Robert Frost and many other outstanding poets. Please view the preview of this book for a full listing. At Elsinore Books we pride ourselves on creating beautiful e-books, and devote great attention to formatting, and ease of navigation. This book contains a cleanly-styled contents page that permits easy movement between the poems. This book is part of the Best of Poetry series, which also includes: The Best of Poetry: Thoughts that Breathe and Words that Burn The Best of Poetry: Shakespeare, Muse of Fire

Continuing the Best of Poetry series, this anthology brings together 150 of the finest passages from Shakespeare’s plays and poetic works. We hope our selection will allow readers to rediscover the brilliance of Shakespeare’s poetic inventiveness, and the depth and subtlety of his insight as he creates and explores the minds of the most fully-realised and autonomous characters in all of fiction. The beauty in these fragments is best unlocked by reading them aloud, savouring the rhythms, the rich ambiguity of metaphor, and vivid evocation of scene. Learn them by heart if you can, and when inspired, revisit the complete plays and admire the passages anew in their native soil. As with other volumes in the Best of Poetry series, the works included here are organised thematically, and arranged in such a way that they may interpret and illumine one another. There are eleven themes: The Forms of Things Unknown; Reason and Rapture; The Purple Testament; Love; Immortal Time and Mortal Man; Ambition and Jealousy; Wrath and Vengeance; Mark the Music; The Tragic Soul; Grief and Death; and Sonnets. The passages are introduced by a small collection of quotations from some of the most perceptive interpreters of Shakespeare’s work. There then follows the main contents page, and an accompanying alphabetical index of plays to help you locate specific passages. At Elsinore Books we pride ourselves on creating beautiful e-books, and devote great attention to formatting, and ease of navigation. This book contains a cleanly-styled contents page that permits easy movement between the poems. We regularly update the formatting of our books, to ensure they will always remain perfectly accessible on all e-reader models. This book is part of the Best of Poetry series, which also includes: The Best of Poetry: Thoughts that Breathe and Words that Burn The Best of Poetry: A Young Person’s Book of Evergreen Verse

With a carefully chosen quote for each day of the year, this book will be a constant source of inspiration, accompanying you through the depths of winter to starry summer nights, and on again to Christmas and the New Year. You’ll encounter lines from novels, short stories, essays, journals, and poems, as well as zen-like meditations, and classic aphorisms. The quotes come from more than a hundred different authors—including many of the world’s great literary figures. There are quotes to inspire courage: “The thing is—fear can’t hurt you any more than a dream” (William Golding); ignite creativity: “The Possible’s slow fuse is lit/ By the Imagination!” (Emily Dickinson); and enjoin us to action and goodness: “Do not act as if you were going to live ten thousand years. Death hangs over you. While you live, while it is in your power, be good” (Marcus Aurelius). You’ll meet more playful inspiration in quotes from Douglas Adams and Dr. Seuss. And we’ve also found room for the kind of mystical reflections that poets such as Wallace Stevens so excelled in composing. In these quotes you’ll find a wealth of wisdom distilled into a few choice words. But of course, it is not always the full picture—while the main aim of this collection is to offer day-by-day inspiration, we hope it will also be a springboard for discovering new writers. When you are inspired by a writer’s words, we encourage you to seek out the original work, and rediscover the quote in its natural environment. We have rigorously tracked down the source of each quote and attributed it accordingly. This book was designed to be as easily navigable as possible on your e-reader. To begin, you need only turn to the Contents page and follow the link to the current month. We wish you an inspirational voyage of discovery.

This is an anthology for people who love story-telling. Our one hundred classic masterpieces were selected purely for their capacity to delight, instruct and charm. In this collection, readers will encounter some of the finest writing in world literature. We have chosen to arrange the stories thematically, dividing the anthology into ten parts as follows: 1) Characters 2) Animals 3) Epiphanies 4) Mystery and Adventure 5) Horror and Ghosts 6) Strange, Surreal and Fantastic 7) Humour, Satire and Tall Tales 8) Love 9) Summer Tales 10) Winter Tales Please view the preview of this book for a full listing of contents. We hope this arrangement will encourage readers to move between the different parts of the anthology as their interest takes them, discovering as they do so, the shared sensibilities of authors remote in time and place. Though these stories vary enormously in theme, tone and setting—from Russian snow storms, to spiritual epiphanies in Winesburg, Ohio—each of them has enthralled readers across generations; is exemplary in its attention to detail and evocation of mood; resists all simplistic and univocal interpretations, and remains as fresh and penetrating today as when it was first written. At Elsinore Books we pride ourselves on creating beautiful e-books, and devote great attention to formatting, and ease of navigation. This book contains a cleanly-styled contents page that permits easy movement between the stories. Contents: Part 1: Characters Gusev — Anton Chekhov Boule de Suif — Guy de Maupassant Alyosha the Pot — Leo Tolstoy Mateo Falcone — Prosper Mérimée Little Brother — Mary E. Mann Bartleby, The Scrivener — Herman Melville The Lightning-Rod Man — Herman Melville The Ambitious Guest — Nathaniel Hawthorne The Darling — Anton Chekhov A Simple Heart — Gustave Flaubert Part 2: Animals Sredni Vashta — Saki Kholstomer, The Story of a Horse — Leo Tolstoy A Dark-Brown Dog — Stephen Crane Kashtanka — Anton Chekhov The Cat That Walked By Himself — Rudyard Kipling The Black Cat — Edgar Allan Poe The Fly — Katherine Mansfield The Boar-Pig — Saki The Tiger Guest — Pu Songling Jackals and Arabs — Franz Kafka Part 3: Epiphanies Araby — James Joyce The Dead — James Joyce The Strength of God — Sherwood Anderson The Egg — Sherwood Anderson A Death in the Desert — Willa Cather Roman Fever — Edith Wharton The Story of an Hour — Kate Chopin Home Sickness — George Moore The Madonna of the Future — Henry James The Kiss — Anton Chekhov Part 4: Mystery and Adventure The Red-Headed League — Arthur Conan Doyle The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle — Arthur Conan Doyle The Arrow of Heaven — G. K. Chesterton The Sign of the Broken Sword — G. K. Chesterton The Purloined Letter — Edgar Allan Poe The Master of Mystery — Jack London The Problem of Cell 13 — Jacques Futrelle The Three Stranger — Thomas Hardy The Diamond as Big as the Ritz — F. Scott Fitzgerald A Jury of Her Peers — Susan Glaspell Part 5: Horror and Ghosts The Body Snatcher — Robert Louis Stevenson The Signal-Man — Charles Dickens August Heat — W. F. Harvey The Monkey’s Paw — W. W. Jacobs “Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come to You my Lad” — M. R. James The Phantom Coach — Amelia Edwards The Horla — Guy de Maupassant An Inhabitant of Carcosa — Ambrose Bierce Schalken the Painter — Sheridan Le Fanu The Cask of Amontillado — Edgar Allan Poe Please "Look inside" to see the complete listing.

The greatest fairy tales of all time. The 100 tales collected here throw open wide the gates to the realm of fairyland. Inside are princes and princesses, giants and dwarfs, heroes, heroines, simpletons, rogues, wizards, witches, ogres, trolls, elves, magical artefacts, and all manner of talking birds and beasts. As G. K. Chesterton has observed, fairyland is a place where happiness hangs upon a single thread: “Cinderella may have a dress woven on supernatural looms and blazing with unearthly brilliance; but she must be back when the clock strikes twelve. The king may invite fairies to the christening, but he must invite all the fairies or frightful results will follow. Bluebeard's wife may open all doors but one. A promise is broken to a cat, and the whole world goes wrong… A promise is broken to a yellow dwarf, and the whole world goes wrong.” This is also a world of contradiction and disproportion; where honesty may be a virtue, but so is the ability to tell the most outrageous lies conceivable. Here, the prize for treading on a cat’s tail, is a princess; and the penalty for expressing gratitude to a goblin, is a lifelong curse. In compiling this anthology, we have tried to include as many “tale types” as possible, and as much of the varied landscape of the fairy world—deserts, icefields, enchanted forests, underwater kingdoms—as we could fit in. Our principal sources are the great European collections of fairy tales and folk tales as compiled by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, Peter Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe, Hans Christian Andersen, Charles Perrault, Joseph Jacobs, and Alexander Afanasyev. But there are tales from further afield as well; from Asia, Africa and the Middle East. We have classified the tales thematically, and spread them evenly across ten chapters: 1) The Classic Characters: Heroes, Heroines, and their Foes 2) Birds and Beasts 3) Little; Big 4) The Ship of Fools 5) Quick Minds and Sharp Wits 6) The Royal Court 7) Into the World: Journeys, Quests, and Adventures 8) Magic and Witchcraft 9) Extraordinary Tales of Extraordinary Things 10) Tales for Winter We hope this structure will aid readers somewhat in their explorations. At the same time, we concur with W. H. Auden, who writes, “the way to read a fairy tale is to throw yourself in.”

In this seasonal treasure, Newbery Medalist Susan Cooper’s beloved poem heralds the winter solstice, illuminated by Caldecott Honoree Carson Ellis’s strikingly resonant illustrations. So the shortest day came, and the year died . . . As the sun set on the shortest day of the year, early people would gather to prepare for the long night ahead. They built fires and lit candles. They played music, bringing their own light to the darkness, while wondering if the sun would ever rise again. Written for a theatrical production that has become a ritual in itself, Susan Cooper’s poem "The Shortest Day" captures the magic behind the returning of the light, the yearning for traditions that connect us with generations that have gone before — and the hope for peace that we carry into the future. Richly illustrated by Carson Ellis with a universality that spans the centuries, this beautiful book evokes the joy and community found in the ongoing mystery of life when we celebrate light, thankfulness, and festivity at a time of rebirth. Welcome Yule!

Reference guide to poetry anthologies with descriptions and evaluations of each anthology.

The instant New York Times bestseller featured on NPR's Weekend Edition with Scott Simon! B. J. Novak (bestselling author of The Book With No Pictures) described this groundbreaking poetry collection as "Smart and sweet, wild and wicked, brilliantly funny--it's everything a book for kids should be." Lauded by critics as a worthy heir to such greats as Silverstein, Seuss, Nash and Lear, Harris's hilarious debut molds wit and wordplay, nonsense and oxymoron, and visual and verbal sleight-of-hand in masterful ways that make you look at the world in a whole new wonderfully upside-down way. With enthusiastic endorsements from bestselling luminaries such as Lemony Snicket, Judith Viorst, Andrea Beaty, and many others, this entirely unique collection offers a surprise around every corner. Adding to the fun: Lane Smith, bestselling creator of beloved hits like It's a Book and The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales, has spectacularly illustrated this extraordinary collection with nearly one hundred pieces of appropriately absurd art. It's a mischievous match made in heaven! "Ridiculous, nonsensical, peculiar, outrageous, possibly deranged--and utterly, totally, absolutely delicious. Read it! Immediately!" --Judith Viorst, bestselling author of Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day