To An Athlete Dying Young, glory never fades. Yet A.E. Housman (1859-1936) would remind us all that it is fleeting for the rest of us. Counted as one of the foremost classicists of his time, Housman is also ranked as one of the greatest scholars of all time by certain historians and held the Kennedy Professorship of Latin at Trinity College, Cambridge.
A.E. Housman's classic poem of an athlete who never knew defeat, save the one all runners meet.
The Negro Speaks of Rivers written by Langston Hughes (1902-1967) in 1920 just after his graduation from high school. On a trip to Mexico City, the train Hughes was riding crossed the Mississippi at St. Louis as the sun was setting.
Death Be Not Proud. A poet, a lawyer and a priest. The poetry of John Donne (1572-1631) is noted for its enthusiastic language and metaphorical resource. No stranger to sorrow, he experienced the deaths of four of his immediate family before his tenth birthday.
One of the greatest poems of the 20th century set to original music and interpretation.
John Donne: poet, clergyman, philosopher. What do we really have to fear if we know the author of life?