Poetry

Mythos by Stephen Fry is a compelling retelling of the classic Greek myths, reimagined with a wit and elegance that only Fry can deliver. This volume transports the reader to a world where mortals intertwine with the divine, and the timeless tales unfold in a spellbinding narrative that captures the imagination. From the cosmogony—the birth of the cosmos—to the exploits...

Bestselling author and Instagram sensation Jessica Urlichs returns with a new collection of beautifully observed poems about the ever-evolving journey of motherhood - the hard, the magic and the fleeting. ‘A raw and honest read that makes you feel seen and understood in a way that will bring you to tears.’ - Hilary Swank ‘A book to keep close and...

A collectible new Penguin Classics series offers beautiful, slim, clothbound editions of ten favourite poets. In 1855, Walt Whitman published his first collection of poetry, Leaves of Grass. The volume received great praise from leading Transcendentalist poet Ralph Waldo Emerson. This encouragement led to what would become a lifelong project, as Whitman expanded and rewrote the volume until his death...

The Odyssey by Homer is a monumental epic that has enthralled readers for centuries with its rich tapestry of adventure and human struggle. It chronicles the perilous journey of Odysseus, the cunning King of Ithaca, as he strives to return home after the fall of Troy. During this ten-year odyssey, Odysseus confronts myriad dangers, both natural and supernatural, that test...

The Instant Sunday Times Bestseller Selected poems from bestselling author and Instagram poet, Jessica Urlichs. 'These words awaken the magic of life by celebrating the ordinary.' - Giovanna Fletcher Motherhood is messy and beautiful, and hard and humbling. We adore our children and sometimes we miss ourselves. Beautiful Chaos is a collection of raw, honest poems about motherhood, capturing everything...

The great epic of Western literature, translated by the acclaimed classicist Robert Fagles. A Penguin Classic Robert Fagles, winner of the PEN/Ralph Manheim Medal for Translation and a 1996 Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, presents us with Homer's best-loved and most accessible poem in a stunning modern-verse translation. "Sing to me of the...

‘A vivid and imaginatively wrought divine world that is monstrous, magical and beautiful. It's a timely and achingly resonant reflection on conflict, fear and the unbreakable bonds of family conveyed in exquisite, evocative poetry.’ – Jennifer Saint, bestselling author of Hera and Ariadne ‘In a wholly original, incandescent take on the myth of Hekate, Nikita Gill captures the beauty, brutality...

New York Times Bestseller, chosen as Oprah's 'Books That Help Me Through' for Oprah's Book Club Chosen by Poetry Book Society as their special commendation 'No matter where one starts reading, Devotions offers much to love, from Oliver's exuberant dog poems to selections from the Pulitzer Prize-winning American Primitive, and Dream Work, one of her exceptional collections. Perhaps more important,...

The The Odyssey by Homer is a timeless epic that chronicles the adventures of the legendary Greek hero, Odysseus, as he endeavours to return home to Ithaca following the conclusion of the Trojan War. This monumental journey spans ten arduous years, during which Odysseus encounters a myriad of natural and supernatural challenges. From shipwrecks and ferocious battles to formidable monsters...

In this book, you'll discover the root cause of all psychological and emotional suffering and how to achieve freedom of mind to effortlessly create the life you've always wanted to live. Although pain is inevitable, suffering is optional. This book offers a completely new paradigm and understanding of where our human experience comes from, allowing us to end our own...

When Emily Wilson's translation of The Odyssey appeared in 2017—revealing the ancient poem in a contemporary idiom that was "fresh, unpretentious and lean" (Madeline Miller, Washington Post)—critics lauded it as "a revelation" (Susan Chira, New York Times) and "a cultural landmark" (Charlotte Higgins, Guardian) that would forever change how Homer is read in English. Now Wilson has returned with an...

In Paradise Lost, Milton produced a poem of epic scale, conjuring up a vast, awe-inspiring cosmos and ranging across huge tracts of space and time. Yet, by placing a charismatic Satan and naked Adam and Eve at the centre of this story, he also created an intensely human tragedy on the Fall of Man. Written when Milton was in his...

The story centres on the critical events in four days of the 10th and final year of the war between the Greeks and Trojans. It describes how the quarrel of Agamemnon and Achilleus sets in motion a tragic sequence of events, which leads to Achilleus' killing of Hektor and determines the ultimate fate of Troy. But Homer's theme is not...

For the last decade, Rob Sears has been painstakingly combing the words of Donald J. Trump for signs of poetry. To the surprise of many, he has found riches. By simply cutting up and reordering lines from Trump's tweets, Truths and transcripts, Sears has unearthed a trove of exquisite verse that was just waiting to be found. In this expanded...

The Prophet (Hero Classics) by Kahlil Gibran is a timeless masterpiece that delves into the profound conversations of the prophet Al-Mustafa as he prepares to sail back to his homeland after a twelve-year exile. During his final hours in the city of Orphalese, he shares his wisdom with a group of people who gather around him, seeking enlightenment on life's...

What is love? It is the gold thread connecting between our hearts. In this light-filled and multi-faceted book, her first since being awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, Han Kang draws together the threads of her work and life, tracing the connections between her interior and exterior worlds through a sequence of essays, poems, photographs and diaries. A book of...

I Still Believe in Miracles is a collection of poetry exploring themes of masculinity, love, grief, and connection. This is the trade debut from Instagram phenomenon Lucas Jones, perfect for fans of yung pueblo, Hussain Manawer, and Whitney Hanson. A collection of powerful contemporary poetry, I Still Believe in Miracles delves deeply into themes of masculinity, love, grief, and connection....

The Iliad, authored by Homer, stands as the greatest literary achievement of Greek civilisation and is now available in a stunning new clothbound edition. The Iliad plunges readers into the throes of the legendary Trojan War. Set during the conflict's final year, this epic poem paints a vivid picture of bloodshed, glory, and the immortal struggles of heroes. The tale...

For the first time, Rupi Kaur’s heartfelt love poems are together in one intimate and timeless collection!love will comeand when love comeslove will hold youlove will call your nameSince her groundbreaking debut with the bestselling milk and honey, Rupi Kaur’s poetry has become a source of comfort, empowerment, and emotional truth for millions around the world. Now, for the first...

Beautifully designed clothbound edition of this brilliant translation. Part of Penguin's beautiful hardback Clothbound Classics series, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith, these delectable and collectible editions are bound in high-quality colourful, tactile cloth with foil stamped into the design. Describing Dante's descent into Hell midway through his life with Virgil as a guide, Inferno depicts a cruel underworld in...

The brand new poetry collection from the internationally bestselling poet and TikTok phenomenon, Whitney Hanson the love of my life is a poetry collection that traces the process of rediscovering a love for life after change, disconnection, and personal upheaval. Using the metaphor of fires, the book is structured in three sections: Burning, Ashes, and Reclamation—to reflect the cycles of...

Black Sugarcane is a landmark debut collection by Nafanua Purcell Kersel. Restless in form and address, these engaging and generous poems ricochet from light to dark, quiet to loud, calm to violence. We meet a loved twin sister as she dives towards the Sacred Centre, a grandmother who knows everything by heart, a shrugging office clerk, and Nafanua herself, an...

Explore the essence of life, love, nature, and time in exquisite verse with this elegantly designed edition of The Selected Poems of Emily Dickinson. Born in 1830 in Amherst, Massachusetts, to a prominent New England family and educated at Amherst Academy and Mt. Holyoke Female Seminary, Emily Elizabeth Dickinson lived most of her life in seclusion, devoted to writing. She...

I go down to the shore in the morning and depending on the hour the waves are rolling in or moving out, and I say, oh, I am miserable, what shall - what should I do? And the sea says in its lovely voice: Excuse me, I have work to do. Whether studying the leaves of a tree or mourning...

The Aeneid by Virgil, inspired by Homer and an inspiration for Dante and Milton, is an immortal poem at the heart of Western life and culture. Virgil chose as his hero Aeneas, the legendary survivor of the fall of Troy and father of the Roman race. In telling a story of dispossession and defeat, love and war, he portrayed human...

Discover Dante's original Inferno - the inspiration for Dan Brown's new novel - in this modern and acclaimed Penguin translation. Describing Dante's descent into Hell with Virgil as a guide, Inferno depicts a cruel underworld in which desperate figures are condemned to eternal damnation for committing one or more of the seven deadly sins. As he descends through nine concentric...

Selected Poems by Rumi is a mesmerising collection of profound and richly textured verses that delves into the depths of the human experience. This compilation showcases the unparalleled brilliance of Jelaluddin Rumi, a thirteenth-century Persian philosopher, mystic, scholar, and the founder of the Whirling Dervishes. Rumi's poetry transcends time, inviting readers on a spiritual journey that explores the universal themes...

A timeless and comprehensive anthology of enduring English language poetry, featuring entries from 150 British and American poets, including Alexander Pope, Lord Byron, Edna St. Vincent Millay, and Emily Dickinson. The last six hundred years in British and American literature have given us some of the most moving and memorable poems in all literature. Now, discover many of these same...

For the first time in Penguin Classics, a new translation of Sappho's complete poetry. More or less 150 years after Homer's Iliad, Sappho lived on the island of Lesbos, west off the coast of what is present-day Turkey. Little remains today of her writings, which are said to have filled nine papyrus rolls in the great library at Alexandria some...

First ever standalone edition of one of J.R.R. Tolkien’s most important poetic dramas, that explores timely themes such as the nature of heroism and chivalry during war, and which features unpublished and never-before-seen texts and drafts. In 991 AD, vikings attacked an Anglo-Saxon defence-force led by their duke, Beorhtnoth, resulting in brutal fighting along the banks of the river Blackwater,...

In summer when I picked dandelionsfor the geriatric guinea pig I changed the world.I killed a weed. I filled a mouth with gold. In this debut poetry collection, Sophie van Waardenberg considers girlhood and grief, love and its loss, distance and the return home, including at its heart a sequence of emotionally raw ‘Cremation Sonnets’. In its essence, this collection...

In his perfectly crafted haiku poems, Basho described the natural world with great simplicity and delicacy of feeling. These travel writings not only chronicle Basho's perilous journeys through Japan, but they also capture his vision of eternity in the transient world around him. The Narrow Road to the Deep North and Other Travel Sketches showcases Basho's exceptional ability to portray...

First published in the 1920s, The Prophet, Gibran's hugely popular guide to living, has sold millions of copies worldwide and is the most famous work of religious fiction of the twentieth century. The Prophet became the bible of 1960s culture and was credited with founding the New Age movement, yet it still continues to inspire people around the world today....

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of milk and honey and the sun and her flowers comes her greatly anticipated third collection of poetry. Rupi Kaur constantly embraces growth, and in home body, she walks readers through a reflective and intimate journey visiting the past, the present, and the potential of the self. home body is a collection...

From the author of the beloved international bestseller You Hung the Moon comes a stunning gift book full of hopes and dreams for children. You won't always get it right And mistakes aren't always wrong. Life is full of learning, Gaining wisdom is lifelong. A beautiful book detailing in prose the things a parent always wants their child to know...

Social media sensation Darby Hudson offers this collection of encouraging and humorous reflections to encourage others to continue expressing themselves, no matter what. You're Going to Be OK is a book on art, jobs, magic and muddling through. These hand-typed fragments were gathered by the train tracks at night over ten years, after author Darby Hudson worked meaningless jobs, trying...

Introducing Little Clothbound Classics: irresistible, mini editions of short stories, novellas, and essays from the world's greatest writers, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith. Over the course of six years, Rainer Maria Rilke wrote a series of letters to a young officer cadet, advising him on writing, love, suffering, and the nature of advice itself. These profound and lyrical letters...

Reflecting the voices of poets, soldiers, the families they left behind, and their comrades who would never return, The Penguin Book of First World War Poetry, previously published as In Flanders Fields, is edited with an introduction by George Walter in Penguin Classics. Unrivalled for its range and intensity, the poetry of the First World War continues to have a...

An anthology of some of the greatest poetry in the English language. Poetry and music have been associated with each other from the very beginning. The Penguin Book of English Song draws together a great variety of English poetry (including Irish, Scots and Welsh writers) that has reached a wider audience through the magic of music. Richard Stokes's rich anthology...

Best of Australian Poems 2025 is an annual anthology that collects both previously published and unpublished poems, creating a poetic snapshot and barometer of the year that was. Capturing the richness and diversity of Australian poetry from 1 July 2024 to 30 June 2025, the series, now in its fifth year, explores how poetic responses to the contemporary moment develop...

The twentieth-anniversary edition of the influential first poetry collection by Richard Siken An Atlantic choice for "Best American Poetry of the 21st Century (So Far)" Since winning the 2004 Yale Series of Younger Poets competition, Crush has become a modern classic. This twentieth-anniversary edition includes a new introduction by award-winning poet Dana Levin and a new afterword by the author.

THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER For the past decade, Lemn Sissay has composed a short poem as dawn breaks each morning. Life-affirming, witty, and full of wonder, these poems chronicle his own battle with the dark and are fuelled by resilience and defiant joy. Let the Light Pour In is a collection of the best of these poems, and a...

The War Poems Of Wilfred Owen features the greatest works of Wilfred Owen, the foremost poet of the First World War. This new hardback edition is published in commemoration of the war's end, a conflict that Owen's poetry ensures we shall never forget. "Orpheus, the pagan saint of poets, went through hell and came back singing. In twentieth-century mythology, the...

The whole performance is wonderfully intermediate - poised between the Bible and folk wisdom, between the Light Ages and the Dark Ages - and at the same time pulverisingly actual in its language. Heaney has caught the balance of these brilliantly; he has made a masterpiece out of a masterpiece. Andrew Motion, Financial Times What characterises this Beowulf is its...

Over the course of his short life, John Keats (1795-1821) honed a raw talent into a brilliant poetic maturity. This wide-ranging selection of Keats's poetry contains youthful verse, such as his earliest known poem Imitation of Spenser; poems from his celebrated collection of 1820 - including Lamia, Isabella, The Eve of St Agnes, Ode to a Nightingale and Hyperion -...

One of the great figures of English Romanticism, Coleridge's poems show diversity and imaginative genius. One of the major figures of English Romanticism, Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) created works of remarkable diversity and imaginative genius. The period of his creative friendship with William Wordsworth inspired some of Coleridge's best-known poems, from the nightmarish vision of the Rime of the Ancient...

In 1855, Walt Whitman published Leaves of Grass, the work which defined him as one of America's most influential voices, and which he added to throughout his life. A collection of astonishing originality and intensity, it spoke of politics, sexual emancipation and what it meant to be an American. From the joyful Song of Myself and I Sing the Body...

In The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer created one of the great touchstones of English literature, a masterly collection of chivalric romances, moral allegories, and low farce. A story-telling competition between a group of pilgrims from all walks of life is the occasion for a series of tales that range from the Knight's account of courtly love and the ebullient Wife of...

Winner of the 2023 Academy of American Poets Harold Morton Landon Translation Award "The best translation of a work of ancient literature that I read this year" - Emily Wilson The first female translator of the epic into English verse in over sixty years, Stephanie McCarter addresses accuracy in translation and its representation of women, gendered dynamics of power, and...

Every poem is a revelation - Florence Welch From the creator of the beloved @PoetryIsNotaLuxury Instagram account comes a gorgeous poetry anthology that serves as both a gift and a guide for readers through every season of life. In Summer, you’ll find lush landscapes and love poems suited for weddings and anniversaries, alongside expressions of joy and exhilaration. Autumn ushers...

In 1929, Robert Graves went to live abroad permanently, vowing 'never to make England my home again'. This is his superb account of his life, from his childhood and desperately unhappy school days to his time serving as a young officer in the First World War. Containing memorable encounters with fellow writers and poets, Goodbye to All That is a...

From the 2020 winner of the Thomas Shapcott Award comes a sophisticated, impressive and rich collection of poetry that unpacks the complexity of family, grief, and cross-cultural and queer identity. These richly allusive poems weigh violence and tenderness, wound and cure, history and future. Boldly and tenderly, they balance loss and gain, adventure and quiet, as they hum to one...

Yours Truly, by Isaiah Quinn is a love poetry collection written as a series of poems and letters dated, signed, and offered from the heart. Whether you are in love, a lover of love, or trying to find it again, this book offers words that feel personal, sincere, and timeless. Each page reads like a private note meant for someone...

Robin Kirkpatrick's superb translation of the most famous work of Italian literature, in a one-volume edition. The Divine Comedy describes Dante's descent into Hell with Virgil as a guide; his ascent of Mount Purgatory and encounter with his dead love, Beatrice; and finally, his arrival in Heaven. Examining questions of faith, desire and enlightenment, the poem is a brilliantly nuanced...

Celebrate the genius, passion, and poetry of William Shakespeare with this beautifully bound deluxe edition, featuring his complete plays and poems in one timeless collector's volume. No writer has shaped the English language or the human imagination like William Shakespeare. From the unforgettable tragedies of Hamlet and Macbeth to the wit and romance of A Midsummer Night's Dream and Much...

The Aeneid by Virgil stands as a monumental work in the annals of literature, a timeless epic that has profoundly influenced Western culture for over two millennia. This exquisite clothbound edition offers a beautiful presentation of Virgil's magnum opus, which not only celebrated the glory of ancient Rome but also explored deep human emotions and experiences. The story follows the...

Folly has no loftier aim than to entertain its readership and provide a publication that has longevity for New Zealand's writing community. This annual publication contains an eclectic curation of written works by New Zealand and international writers and art by some of New Zealand's best emerging artists. Folly 002 features work by writing and artwork by: Daniel Vernon, Diane...

A must-have book for all parents, this illustrated collection of tender, funny, radically honest poems about parenthood, based on a series of popular Instagram posts, is the perfect baby shower or Mother’s Day gift. Modern parenthood can feel indescribable. This poignant collection of poetry and art chronicles the ups and downs of a rollercoaster ride that every parent will recognize....

The world has reopened and so has the Poetry Pharmacy — the powerful final instalment in the hugely beloved series. After the tumult of the last years, William Sieghart is back to prescribe the perfect poem for a variety of life's ailments, offering hope and comfort to readers in need. Here, he draws on the emails he received from the...

Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair is Neruda's frank, sexual and romantic masterwork. This is one of the greatest collections of love poetry ever published. Inspired by Pablo Neruda's youthful relationships and injected with an expressive eroticism, these poems are as accomplished as they are evocative and sensual. First published in 1924 to international acclaim when Neruda was...

Discover and treasure one of the greatest war stories of all time with this luxurious edition of Homer's first great epic, The Iliad. Find yourself swept right into the emotion of the action and characters, including Achilles, Helen, Hector, and other heroes of Greek myth, as they endure the tenth and final year of the Greek siege of Troy. This...

After two busy years on the road, the Poetry Pharmacist is back on the page with new prescriptions, readers' most-loved poems, and more tried-and-true classics from the pharmacy vault. The Poetry Pharmacy is one of the best-selling (and most giftable) poetry anthologies of recent decades. Now, after huge demand for more prescriptions from readers and 'patients' alike, William Sieghart is...

‘Beautiful and uplifting’ Davina McCall ‘So inspiring, so heartfelt ... the way Donna writes is beyond beautiful.’ Lisa Snowdon Uplifting inspiration from the Sunday Times bestselling author of I Wish I Knew Wild Hope is Donna Ashworth's powerful new collection of wisdom to help us find hope, peace, self-acceptance, and inspiration on the days we feel worn down, helpless, or...

A new edition of Tolkien’s Tree and Leaf, complete with his rare translation and commentary of The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth, the Battle of Maldon. Fairy-stories are not just for children, as anyone who has read Tolkien will know. In his essay On Fairy-Stories, Tolkien discusses the nature of fairy-tales and fantasy and rescues the genre from those who would relegate...

Rilke's powerfully touching letters to an aspiring young poet, now in Penguin Classics. At the start of the twentieth century, Rainer Maria Rilke wrote a series of letters to a young officer cadet, advising him on writing, love, sex, suffering, and the nature of advice itself. These profound and lyrical letters have since become hugely influential for writers and artists...

An epic journey of adventure, endurance, and the search for home In The Odyssey, Homer crafts one of the oldest and most influential adventure stories in Western literature. The poem follows Odysseus, the cunning king of Ithaca, as he battles gods, monsters, and temptation on his ten-year quest to return home after the Trojan War. Facing shipwrecks, the wrath of...

As heard on BBC Radio 4, the essential prescriptions from 'Dr' Sieghart's poetic dispensary Truly a marvellous collection ... There is balm for the soul, fire for the belly, a cooling compress for the fevered brow, solace for the wounded, an arm around the lonely shoulder - the whole collection is a matchless compound of hug, tonic and kiss -...

This smart new paperback edition contains the fully-reset text of three medieval English poems, translated by Tolkien for the modern-day reader and containing romance, tragedy, love, sex, and honour. It features a beautifully decorated text and includes as a bonus the complete version of Tolkien’s acclaimed lecture on Sir Gawain. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Pearl are two...

The debut collection of poetry from Matariki Bennett (Ngāti Pikiao, Ngāti Whakaue, Ngāti Hinerangi) is a series of goodbyes and attempts to slow the shedding. It's a group of teenagers sparking up as they watch the great pacific garbage patch catapult into space and become a second moon, it's endless conversations with Grandmama about stars, it is the constant rebirth...

Grace Yee's follow-up to her triple award-winning poetry collection Chinese Fish. In the White Hills Cemetery in Bendigo, the remains of more than a thousand 'chinamen' lie interred, many in unmarked graves. Most were sojourners from the Canton region in south China who found themselves unable to return to their homeland. Joss: A History is inspired by the lived experiences...

David Eggleton explores the voices of New Zealand, Australia, and Polynesia in his latest collection, Lifting the Island. 'This is vital, elastic, expertly handled language in a Pacific voice of cultural and musical sensibility, poetry to be spoken aloud or in the mind.' — Cilla McQueen, MNZM, and former New Zealand Poet Laureate This own-voices collection is a kind of...

Translated by renowned Rumi expert Nader Khalili, over 120 poems on friendship from the Persian mystic poet and Sufi master have been carefully collected and curated in this beautifully illustrated edition. For more than eight centuries, Jalaluddin Muhammad Balkhi Rumi—commonly referred to simply as Rumi—has enchanted and enthralled readers from every faith and background with his universal themes of love,...

This volume contains all Sylvia Plath's mature poetry written from 1956 up to her death in 1963. The text is preceded by an introduction by Ted Hughes and followed by notes and comments on individual poems. There is also an appendix containing fifty poems from Sylvia Plath's juvenilia. For me, the most important literary event of 1981 has been the...

A lot can happen between the first sip of coffee and the last taste of whiskey. Coffee Days, Whiskey Nights is a collection of poetry, prose, and aphorisms that juxtaposes the hopefulness a brand new day can bring with the lingering thoughts that keep us up into the late-night hours. This book takes a look at the way a single...

In which the writings of the authors Thom Yorke and Stanley Donwood are gathered together. This commonplace book includes faxes, notes, fledgling lyrics, sketches, lists of all kinds and scribblings towards nirvana, as were sent between the two authors during the period 1999 to 2000 during the creation of the Radiohead albums Kid A and Amnesiac. This is a document...

Gilgamesh is a born leader, but in an attempt to control his growing arrogance, the Gods create Enkidu, a wild man, his equal in strength and courage. Enkidu is trapped by a temple prostitute, civilised through sexual experience and brought to Gilgamesh. They become best friends and battle evil together. After Enkidu's death, the distraught Gilgamesh sets out on a...

April is the cruellest month, breeding Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing Memory and desire, stirring Dull roots with spring rain . . . Published in 1922, The Waste Land was the most revolutionary poem of its time, offering a devastating vision of modern civilisation which has lost none of its power today.

Journey into Dante's nine circles of Hell in the epic poem, Inferno, with this elegant, unabridged edition featuring the classic translation by the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882). The Divine Comedy, written in the early fourteenth century by Dante Alighieri, continues to be essential reading for lovers of literature. The Inferno is the first part of Dante's masterpiece, The Divine...

The complete collection of Donne's poems, including his famous Holy Sonnets, 'The Flea' and 'The Sun Rising'. No poet has been more wilfully contradictory than John Donne, whose works forge unforgettable connections between extremes of passion and mental energy. From satire to tender elegy, from sacred devotion to lust, he conveys an astonishing range of emotions and poetic moods. Constant...