Excerpt from The Choice of Achilles, and Other Poems 'Long life and ease, or glory and the grave, Still in my prime Oh for an oracle To sound above these tortures of the mind, And strike their brawling silent Never yet Since deepening manhood darkened first these lips, Bringing the larger choices of the soul, I doubted so before. Or better were it, Being so called by countrymen and friends, The eyes of Greece and Asia looking on As on a stage, to rise, to arm, to go With Godlike men, and on the plains of Troy Do battle for another's scath and wrong? Or to stay here, here honoured, here beloved, A little land's sole greatness? What to me Is Helen? What Atrides? Or the wrong Done to the hospitable board? Avenge, Zeus, thine own wrongs Nay, were she all in one, White as the blossom on an April thorn; Chaste Artemis, with Pallas' wisdom crowned On Aphrodite's bloom; the perfect flower, Not as she is the weed of womankind; Still, were she worth this stir? Ye Gods, I chafe That we, with weightier quarrels of our own, Old feuds unstanched, proud vassals ill-subdued, Life's sweet, strange thirst unslaked, unsatisfied, Should natheless for a woman's lightness bleed, And all too soon end all. Yet am I called, The eyes of Greece and Asia looking on, Watching me choose. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

This groundbreaking volume may well be the poetry anthology for the global village. As selected by J.D. McClatchy, this collection includes masterpieces from four continents and more than two dozen languages in translations by such distinguished poets as Elizabeth Bishop, W.S. Merwin, Ted Hughes, and Seamus Heaney. Among the countries and writers represented are: Bangladesh--Taslima Nasrin Chile--Pablo Neruda China--Bei Dao, Shu Ting El Salvador--Claribel Alegria France--Yves Bonnefoy Greece--Odysseus Elytis, Yannis Ritsos India--A.K. Ramanujan Israel--Yehuda Amichai Japan--Shuntaro Tanikawa Mexico--Octavio Paz Nicaragua--Ernesto Cardenal Nigeria--Wole Soyinka Norway--Tomas Transtromer Palestine--Mahmoud Darwish Poland--Zbigniew Herbert, Czeslaw Milosz Russia--Joseph Brodsky, Yevgeny Yevtushenko Senegal--Leopold Sedar Senghor South Africa--Breyten Breytenbach St. Lucia, West Indies--Derek Walcott

Excerpt from The Iliad of Homer So strong is this feeling that it regains an engrafted influence even when history witnesses that vast convulsions have rent and weakened it; and the Celtic feeling toward the Stuarts has been rekindled in our own days toward the granddaughter of George the Third of Hanover. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Excerpt from The Iliad, or Achilles' Wrath; At the Siege of Ilion: Reproduced in Dramatic Blank Verse Syllables from thirteen to seventeen: the average will probably be found to be about sixteen syllables yet each line has neither more nor less than six feet (measures, or metres), and is there. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Excerpt from Homer's Iliad The flight of cranes, murmur of bees that from their hollows in the rocks seek the spring flowers, swarming of flies to the spring milk, the west wind waving the grain, and the east and south raising the waves of the Icarian Sea; man, conscious of beauty in the world around, labouring upon the soil, tending his herds, labouring at the loom, the forge, the potter's wheel, and by the work of his hands adding new beauty; man, worshipping on hills and heaths the powers of Nature; sacrificing to the power of the air by lifting the head of the ox, and causing the blood of sacrifice to spirt towards the sky, sacrificing to the power of the sea by slaying the victim where its blood reddens the wave, and to the power of the under-world by making the blood pour from the lowered neck into a hollow of the ground; each warrior-chief his people's priest, earth, sea, and air, temple and Gods in one; the wealth and the worship of Nature, were in Homer's world. It was still night over Europe. Our earliest rays of intellectual light were yet to spread along the shores of the Mediterranean from that dawn in the cast which first shone upon Greece. Close to the source of light, closer than men of Attic or Achaian Greece, were the kindred people on the isles and mainland of that Asian shore to which afterwards the Greeks across the sea sent colonies. Here, in a far past to which we can assign no date, perhaps in the island of Chios, by the coast of Lydia, Homer lived. The energies of man, much occupied with strife, were shaping, under happiest conditions of race, soil, and climate, a new civilization, and fame of the deeds of heroes spread by song. Of Homer it has been inferred, from degrees of local knowledge observed in his characters of places, that his travels on the Aslan mainland may not have reached farther than Sardes, but that he must at least have voyaged among the Sporades by Icaria, Cos, Nisyrus, Rhodos, and across by Carpathos to Crete; again also across the Thracian Sea to Eubcea; and from Eubcea through some, parts of Greece in Europe. He sang by the way, doubtless, but not as others sang; for he first in Europe was a Master Poet, born to gather, as into one thought, the young life of his time. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

The great war epic of Western literature, translated by acclaimed classicist Robert Fagles, and featured in the Netflix series The OA A Penguin Classic Dating to the ninth century B.C., Homer’s timeless poem still vividly conveys the horror and heroism of men and gods wrestling with towering emotions and battling amidst devastation and destruction, as it moves inexorably to the wrenching, tragic conclusion of the Trojan War. Renowned classicist Bernard Knox observes in his superb introduction that although the violence of the Iliad is grim and relentless, it coexists with both images of civilized life and a poignant yearning for peace. Combining the skills of a poet and scholar, 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, brings the energy of contemporary language to this enduring heroic epic. He maintains the drive and metric music of Homer’s poetry, and evokes the impact and nuance of the Iliad’s mesmerizing repeated phrases in what Peter Levi calls “an astonishing performance.” This Penguin Classics Deluxe edition also features French flaps and deckle-edged paper. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators. 9780140275360

Excerpt from The Iliad of Homer: Translated Into English Verse The subject of the poem is wrath - wrath, the most ter rible of the passions; the passion which almost transforms man into a demon, which is productive of so much evil, and which in the end so surely entails upon its possessor retribution and remorse. This moral the poet teaches in the most striking manner, showing how Achilles, in in dulging his wrath, brought upon his countrymen a myriad of woes, and upon himself the most bitter anguish. The story is very short: the Greeks are en camped before Troy, upon which they make war for the sake of Menelaus, Whose wife the Trojan Paris has stolen away. Agamemnon, the general of the Greek forces, upon an unwarrantable pretext, robs Achilles of a beautiful cap tive maid; the chief in anger withdraws from his compau ions, praying to Jove that he would send destruction upon them. By the withdrawal of this distinguished warrior, the Greeks suffer great slaughter, and, with an offer of costly gifts, beg their champion to return. For a long time he refuses; but finally allows his friend Patroclus, clad in his armor, and accompanied by his Myrmidons, to take the field. The scale of battle is now turned, and the Trojans are driven back, but Patroclus is slain. The loss of his clear comrade deeply affects Achilles; and regard ing the Trojans as the cause of his bereavement, he issues from his retirement, and, after prodigies of valor, succeeds in routing the enemy and slaying Hector. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.