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J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. One of the messages of the book is that power should be given to those who least want it, an idea embodied by the characters of Aragorn and Frodo Baggins. The...

I really like his later Romance plays - The Tempest, The Winter's Tale. They have a mellowness and serenity which I enjoy very much. :as-sleep:

Dead shalt thou lie; and nought
Be told of thee or thought,
For thou hast plucked not of the muses' tree:
And even in Hades' halls
Amidst thy fellow-thralls
No friendly shade thy shade shall...

Hi,

Just read a poem, by Hardy, today entitled "The Ruined Maid" which seems to me like a strong critique against society's treatment of women.

hope that helps,
David

Hi guys

Herodotus' Histories - I tried to read it once but there was just too much 'history', too much to keep in mind for it to be enjoyable.

Paradise Lost by John Milton. I've read Lycidas...

The Iliad and the Odyssey. They taught me about war and civilisation respectively.

Ok,

These aren't canonical titles but they are contemporary. Clive Barker's Abarat, books 1+2. And Neil Gaiman's Stardust. Both books about teenagers and aimed at teenagers.

Hope that's...

The wiley and resourceful Odysseus. And the wrathful Achilles. Two great, heroic but very different characters from the works of Homer.

Hey,

I lapped up Baudlaire and Rimbaud in my late teens and early twenties.

Rimbaud - prodigy and punk. My favourites were A Season in Hell and the famous letter he wrote about the poet as...

Hey, good topic.

When I first went to University I was hungry for knowledge - I had read a great deal but hadn't studied any of it. The first two years were a joy, I was getting exactly what I...

Here's one I'm surprised hasn't been mentioned yet:

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

Read the Rape of the Lock in college. Liked it. It seemed to me to be more than satire - also a celebration of the human imagination.

Didn't he also write translations of the Iliad and Odyssey?

I agree. It's like he is trying to finish the novel as quickly as he can just to get it out of the way. I think it is particularly true of 'It' and 'Rose Madder'. I also think he writes way too much....

Thanks for that, Brian. I didn't know he had written so much. He is definately a writer I want to spend more time with. I'll keep in mind your recommendations.

I think H.G. Wells' prose is beautiful. You wouldn't expect it from one of the father's of sci-fi.

John Keats is definately one of my favourites. I love especially the poems that are steeped in the Greek and Roman Classics - Ode on a Grecian Urn, Hyperion, Ode to Psyche, On First Looking into...

Another approach would be to view the poem as a celebration of Classical Aesthetics. From my own reading of the poem it seems that Keats is elevating Classicism over Romanticism. Of course, this is...

Bastable,

You might try reading the Old English epic, Beowulf (Seamus Heany's translation is good) and some of the associated Anglo-Saxon poems - The Seafarer, the Wanderer.

For modern poets,...

Hi guys,

I've just been reading Keats' Ode to a Nightingale, one of my favourite poems. I like the second stanza especially - it is like an Ode to drink!

Here it is:

O, for a draught of...

Hey Niamh, Cailin,

My Favourite Irish poet is Yeats - born to write poetry.
Also I love Heaney. Poets I want to read more of are Mangan, O'Rathaille and the poems of early Irish Christian monks,...

Hi Mono,

Thanks for the reply. I would be happy to say that Mrs Dalloway was written as a response to Ulysses - there are so many similarities that it would have to be so, the only other...

Hi Guys,

I really liked this book. Maybe it is pointless but I agree with King Mob that it doesn't have to have a point to be a good read. The journey is more important than the destination, as...

Hi Mono,

I read Mrs Dalloway in college and enjoyed it much. To me it was like a more accessible Ulysses. I now know that Ulysses was a major influence on Woolf when she was writing this novel,...

Who Goes With Fergus by W.B. Yeats

Who will go drive with Fergus now,
And pierce the deep woods woven shade,
And dance upon the level shore?
Young man, lift up your russet brow,
And lift your...

I read translations of Kafka when I was younger. I remember his prose as being so limpid and pure, even in translation. A unique writer, very hard to pin down. An angelic writer. A lot of people...