Literature Posters

For those of you who are interested in world literature, we are doing a series of blog posts featuring images of history's greatest writers and poets that can be turned into excellent custom posters.

1. Lord Byron

Goerge Gordon Byron was a British Romantic Poet who is remembered as much for his lifestyle as his poetry. Once described as "mad, bad, and dangerous to know," Byron lived a life of excess and women. He also wrote excellent poetry, including the epic poem Don Juan which is considered his seminal work.

From Manfred:

"Speak to me!
For I have call’d on thee in the still night,
Startled the slumbering birds from the hush’d boughs,
And woke the mountain wolves, and made the caves
Acquainted with thy vainly echo’d name.
Which answer’d me—many things answer’d me—
Spirits and men—but thou wert silent all.
Yet speak to me! I have outwatch’d the stars,
And gazed o’er heaven in vain in search of thee,
Speak to me! I have wander’d o’er the earth,
And never found thy likeness—Speak to me!"

Byron

Lord Byron Poster Picture

2. William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare is widely regarded as the greatest literary figure of all time. His poems and plays are celebrated internationally and his plays have been performed more than any other playwrite. This image of Shakespeare is known as the Chandos portrait.

From Henry IV Part I

Prince Hal: I did never see such pitiful rascals.
Falstaff: Tut, tut, good enough to toss, fodd for powder, food for powder, they'll fill a pit as well as better. Tush, man, mortal men, mortal men.
Westmorland: Ay, but Sir John, methinks they are exceeding poor and bare...too beggarly.
Falstaff: Faith, for their poverty I know not where they had that. And for their bareness I am sure they never learned that of me.

William Shakespeare

Shakespeare Poster Picture

3. John Milton

John Milton, known as one of the most learned writers in the English language, is most famous for his work Paradise Lost. Released in 1667, Paradise Lost is a brilliant blank verse epic poem about the fall of Lucifer and the story of Adam and Eve.

From Paradise Lost

For who would lose,
Though full of pain this intellectual being,
Those thoughts that wander through eternity,
To perish rather, swallow’d up and lost
In the wide womb of uncreated night?

John Milton

John Milton Poster Picture

4. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Widely considered to be Germany's greatest writer, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and was the creator of the concept of world literature. Goethe's work includes Faust, The Sorrows of Young Werther, and many poems.

From Faust

Yes! to this thought I hold with firm persistence; The last result of wisdom stamps it true; He only earns his freedom and existence Who daily conquers them anew.

Goethe

Goethe Poster Picture

To print these images or any image into a custom poster visit PosterBurner.com