"The Story of the Late Mr. Elvesham" by H. G. Wells

"I set this story down, not expecting it will be believed, but, if possible, to prepare a way of escape for the next victim. He, perhaps, may profit by my misfortune. My own case, I know, is hopeless,and I am now in some measure prepared to meet my fate." So begins H. G. Wells's classic short story "The Story of the Late Mr. Elvesham." To read that short story in its entirety online, click here.

H. G. Wells (1866-1946)

English writer

"Of Modern Books" by Carolyn Wells

A pantoum is a Malay verse form consisting of an indefinite number of quatrains with the second and fourth lines of each quatrain repeated as the first and third lines of the following one. "Of making many books there is no end" (Ecclesiastes 12:12, King James Version). So reads the first line of the poem "Of Modern Books" by Carolyn Wells. That poem is a humorous pantoum about reading and books. To read that poem, that pantoum, click here.

Carolyn Wells (1862-1942)

American writer

Poem: a tanka by Saigyo Hoshi

Here is an untitled poem, a tanka, by Japanese poet Saigyo Hoshi (1118-1190).

Now indeed I know
that when we said "remember,"
and we swore it so,
it was in "we will forget"
that our thoughts most truly met.

(The original source of this poem and the original source of its anonymous translation into English are both unknown. The poem above was quoted in Benet's Reader's Encyclopedia.)

Saigyo Hoshi

in the Hyakunin Isshu

"September 1, 1939" by W. H. Auden

"We must love one another or die," wrote W. H. Auden (1907-1973) in his long poem "September 1, 1939." To read that poem in its entirety, click here.

Article: "Notes from Auden Land" by Austin Allen

Read this essay on why W. H. Auden is as essential to our times as George Orwell: Notes from Auden Land by Austin Allen

"Out of May's Shows Selected" by Walt Whitman

Here is a short poem by Walt Whitman for spring, the season of renewal.


OUT OF MAY'S SHOWS SELECTED

Apple orchards, the trees all cover'd with blossoms;
Wheat fields carpeted far and near in vital emerald green;
The eternal, exhaustless freshness of each early morning;
The yellow, golden, transparent haze of the warm afternoon sun;
The aspiring lilac bushes with profuse purple or white flowers.


Source: The Language of Spring: Poems for the Season of Renewal (2003), Selected by Robert Atwan, with an Introduction by Maxine Kumin

Walt Whitman (1819-1892)