This remarkable anthology of poems and prose on the human condition brings together a wide range of romantic and humanist thought from around the world. The greatest of philosophers and poets have contemplated the seasons of life in their own time: nature, birth, childhood, love, marriage, parenthood, reflection, the end of life, and all those days in between that give us rich and surprising experiences.Compiled by accomplished writer and noted humanist Jim Herrick, this volume draws together some of the most powerful poems and meditations from Maya Angelou, W.H. Auden, Samuel Butler, e.e. cummings, Albert Camus, Robert Creeley, Emily Dickinson, John Donne, George Eliot, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Epicurus, Robert Frost, Kahlil Gibran, Thomas Hardy, Robert Herrick, Langston Hughes, Robert Ingersoll, John Keats, Rudyard Kipling, John Lennon, Lucretius, Ogden Nash, Thomas Paine, Sylvia Plath, Bertrand Russell, George Santayana, Sappho, Seneca, Shakespeare, George Bernard Shaw, Dylan Thomas, W.B. Yeats, Walt Whitman, and many other notables.These enlightening and stimulating words from many of the world's best-known authors are both realistic and powerful, offering readers the opportunity to feel the intensity of human experience and, perhaps, reconsider their own thoughts about life's passing seasons. Divided into nineteen sections that encompass the major watershed periods in human existence, this volume is designed to be enjoyed independently or as a useful complement to various ceremonies, such as births, graduations, weddings, celebrations, funerals, and much more.