Great Short Poems from Antiquity to the Twentieth Century

Love and death, nature's beauty, the meaning of existence -- these poems reflect on humanity's age-old preoccupations in a mere twelve lines or less. More than 300 poems, created by famous and lesser-known writers from around the world, offer brief but meaningful meditations on life in both lighthearted and serious moods.

Ranging from an Old Testament psalm to modern verse, this compilation embraces poems from five different periods. Poems of antiquity include the works of Greek and Latin poets such as Publilius Syrus, Sappho, Plato, Catullus, and Horace. Strabo, Petrach, Villon, and Su T'ung-Po number among the medieval poets. From the early modern era come verses by Shakespeare, Milton, Voltaire, and Goethe. Nineteenth- and twentieth-century poets include Browning, Tennyson, and Wordsworth; Baudelaire, Rilke, and Apollinaire; Eliot, Frost, Housman, and Joyce. This compilation features the works of more than 150 other poets, each offering concisely expressed sentiments on subjects of enduring interest. Includes a selection from the Common Core State Standards Initiative: Dust of Snow.