Gaius Valerius Catullus (c. 84-54 BCE), one of the finest lyrical poets of classical times, was also among the bawdiest. He was capable of producing poems of such forthright and ribald sensuality that until recently they were all too often relegated to collections of erotica to protect the innocent minds of impressionable students. This collection of Catullus' poems incorporates the original Latin text and a facing English translation by James Michie, which is contemporary and lively, matching the spirit of the original, and also reveals the poets as he really was: a worldly, lusty man writing for his turbulent age.

Jean de la Fontaine (1621-95) freely plundered the works of Aesop, Phaedrus, Bidpai and others to transform the world's great fables into charming poems of astonishing originality, wit and verve. Here he depicts lions, frogs, donkeys, rats, insects, birds and wily foxes in situations that reveal the quirks, follies and frailties he observed in humankind. Sins of pride, greed and vanity come under humorous attack - a cunning fox tricks a crow out of his dinner, an arrogant hare loses a race to a steady tortoise, a merry cicada who sings all summer finds herself hungry in winter, and the goddess Juno scolds a peacock who covets a nightingale's song. But faith in human nature can also be found in poems such as those in which a wolf is saved from choking by a helpful stork, demonstrating an engaging belief in the possibilities of redemption.

Outstepping the literal bounds of genre, Euripides' Helen has been referred to by scholars as both a tragedy and a comedy. In this sensitive new translation by James Michie and Colin Leach, Euripides' fragile structure of subtlety, in both timing and tone, is beautifully preserved. From the myth ascribed to the Sicilian poet Stesichorus, Helen plays on the question of two Helens: one a phantom in Troy, and the other the real Helen who remained in Egypt. A myriad of reversals, thought-provoking examples of differing orders of reality, and juxtapositions of opposites, allow Euripides to comment on the futility of war and the distinction between appearance and reality.

A selection of poems of less than fourteen lines, considered by Kavanagh and Michie to be the best in the English language - from medieval times to the twentieth century.

Martial, the father of the epigram, was one of the brilliant provincial poets who made their literary mark on first-century Rome. His Epigrams can be affectionate or cruel, elegiac or playful; they target every element of Roman society, from slaves to schoolmasters to, above all, the aristocratic elite. With wit and wisdom, Martial evokes not “the grandeur that was Rome,” but rather the timeless themes of urban life and society.

Timeless meditations on the subjects of wine, parties, birthdays, love, and friendship, Horace’s Odes, in the words of classicist Donald Carne-Ross, make the “commonplace notable, even luminous.” This edition reproduces the highly lauded translation by James Michie. “For almost forty years,” poet and literary critic John Hollander notes, “James Michie’s brilliant translations of Horace have remained fresh as well as strong, and responsive to the varying lights and darks of the originals. It is a pleasure to have them newly available.”