René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke, better known as Rainer Maria Rilke, was a Bohemian-Austrian poet and novelist. He is "widely recognized as one of the most lyrically intense German-language poets". He wrote both verse and highly-lyrical prose. Several critics have described Rilke's work as inherently "mystical". His writings include one novel, several collections of poetry and several volumes of correspondence in which he invokes haunting images that focus on the difficulty of communion with the ineffable in an age of disbelief, solitude and profound anxiety. These deeply existential themes tend to position him as a transitional figure between the traditional and the modernist writers. - Summary by Wikipedia
23 episodes
This poem, by Franklin P. Adams, is the sequel to/answer to Dorothy Parker's poem, Women I'm Not Married To, with a decidedly different but equally humorous take on the matter. ( Summary by Michele Fry )
12 episodes
This Weekly Poem is taken from The Queens' Garden - Poems by Elizabeth Barrett Browning and others. - Summary by David Lawrence
19 episodes
McNeill died at an early age of 36 years, but during his brief life he established himself as the foremost literary figure of North Carolina and was hailed for many years by popular acclaim as the state's unofficial poet laureate. (David Lawrence
12 episodes
Walter "Walt" Whitman was an American poet, essayist, and journalist, in addition to publishing his poetry—was a volunteer nurse during the American Civil War. Whitman's major work, Leaves of Grass, was first published in 1855 with his own money. The work was an attempt at reaching out to the common person with an American epic. He continued expanding and revising it until his death in 1892. - Summary by Wikipedia
10 episodes
Arthur Macy did not consider his work of sufficiently high poetic standard to be published. Every one praised his choice of words, his wonderful facility in rhyme, the perfection of his metre, and the daintiness and delicacy of his verse. "All right," he would say, "but that is not Poetry with a big P, and that is the only kind that should be published. And there is mighty little of it." (from the introduction to Poems by Arthur Macy; written by William Alfred Hovey, June 7, 1905)
17 episodes
Ella Wheeler Wilcox was an American author and poet. Her works include Poems of Passion and Solitude, which contains the lines "Laugh, and the world laughs with you; weep, and you weep alone". This poem is taken for the collection 'Poems of Purpose'. - Summary by Wikipedia
16 episodes
Samuel Rogers was an English poet, during his lifetime one of the most celebrated, although his fame has long since been eclipsed by his Romantic colleagues and friends Wordsworth, Coleridge and Byron. His recollections of these and other friends such as Charles James Fox are key sources for information about London artistic and literary life, with which he was intimate, and which he used his wealth to support. He made his money as a banker and was also a discriminating art collector. - Summary by Wikipedia
21 episodes
Elizabeth Barrett Browning was an English poet of the Victorian era, popular in Britain and the United States during her lifetime.
Elizabeth Barrett wrote poetry from about the age of six. Her mother's collection of her poems forms one of the largest extant collections of juvenilia by any English writer. At 15 she became ill, suffering intense head and spinal pain for the rest of her life. Later in life she also developed lung problems, possibly tuberculosis. She took laudanum for the pain from an early age, which is likely to have contributed to her frail health. (Wikipedia)
18 episodes
What struck me in reading Mr. Dunbar's poetry was what had already struck his friends in Ohio and Indiana, in Kentucky and Illinois. They had felt, as I felt, that however gifted his race had proven itself in music, in oratory, in several of the other arts, here was the first instance of an American negro who had evinced innate distinction in literature. (W.D. Howells in the Introduction to The Compete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar)
19 episodes
Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev was a Russian novelist, short story writer, poet, playwright, translator and popularizer of Russian literature in the West.
This taken from his DREAM TALES AND PROSE POEMS translated by Constance Garnett (1861 - 1946) She was an English translator of nineteenth-century Russian literature. Garnett was one of the first English translators of Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoyevsky and Anton Chekhov and introduced them on a wide basis to the English-speaking public. - Summary by Wikipedia
18 episodes
John Milton Hay was an American statesman and official whose career in government stretched over almost half a century. Beginning as a private secretary and assistant to Abraham Lincoln, Hay's highest office was United States Secretary of State under Presidents William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt. Hay was also an author and biographer and wrote poetry and other literature throughout much of his life. - Summary by Wikipedia
18 episodes
William Cullen Bryant was an American romantic poet, journalist, and long-time editor of the New York Evening Post. He is also remembered as one of the principal authorities on homeopathy and as a hymnist for the Unitarian Church, both legacies of his father's enormous influence on him. - Summary by Wikipedia
21 episodes
Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. was an American physician, poet, and polymath based in Boston. A member of the Fireside Poets, he was acclaimed by his peers as one of the best writers of the day. His most famous prose works are the "Breakfast-Table" series, which began with The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table (1858). He was also an important medical reformer. In addition to his work as an author and poet, Holmes also served as a physician, professor, lecturer and inventor and, although he never practiced it, he received formal training in law. - Summary by Wikipedia
10 episodes
While at Trinity Collage, Wilde obtained a reputation for clever repartee and keen wit. He affected a superior air in his manners which irritated his fellow undergraduates, so that he once became the object of their practical joking. While at Oxford Wilde made his first essay in public as a writer by contributing several poems to Dublin magazines. - Temple Scott from the Introduction to Poems by Oscar Wilde (1906)
22 episodes
Matthew Arnold was an English poet and cultural critic who worked as an inspector of schools. He has been characterised as a sage writer, a type of writer who chastises and instructs the reader on contemporary social issues. (Wikipedia)
12 episodes
St. Andrews, but for its Town Council and its School Board, is a quiet place; and the University, except during the progress of a Rectorial Election, is peaceable and well-conducted. I hope these verses may so far reflect St. Andrews life as to be found pleasant, if not over exciting. This poem is taken from "The Scarlett Gown: Being Verses by A St. Andrews Man" - Summary by the author
19 episodes
LibriVox volunteers bring you 18 recordings of An Autumn Invitation by Edward Capern.
This was the Fortnightly Poetry project for October 21, 2018. ------
In 1848 Capern secured appointment with the Post Office as a letter-carrier. His first route between Bideford and Appledore, later between Bideford and Westleigh. His job required him to make a return trip between the two towns with a wait for two hours, to allow time for people to reply to letters he had just delivered (there were no post-boxes at that time). He used this time for his writings. Capern became known as "the Rural Postman of Bideford" - Summary by Wikipedia
18 episodes
LibriVox volunteers bring you 15 recordings of The Hearse-Horse by Bliss Carman.
This was the Weekly Poetry project for October 28, 2018. -------
Bliss Carman, FRSC was a Canadian poet who lived most of his life in the United States, where he achieved international fame. He was acclaimed as Canada's poet laureate during his later years.
Richard Hovey was an American poet..
He collaborated with Canadian poet Bliss Carman on three volumes of "tramp" verse: Songs from Vagabondia (1894), More Songs from Vagabondia (1896), and Last Songs from Vagabondia (1900), the last being published after Hovey's death. Hovey and Carman were members of the "Visionists" social circle along with F. Holland Day and Herbert Copeland, who published the "Vagabondia" series. - Summary by Wikipedia
15 episodes
LibriVox volunteers bring you 14 recordings of Any Woman To A Soldier by Grace Ellery Channing.
This was the Weekly Poetry project for November 4, 2018.
Grace Ellery Channing was a writer and poet who published often in The Land of Sunshine. Channing began her career as a writer by editing her grandfather's memoirs, Dr. Channing's Notebook (1887). She became an associate editor of The Land of Sunshine (later Outwest), and in her tenure as a writer and poet contributor to the publication, advocated for an increased reliance on Mediterranean practices for Los Angelenos. This included embracing the sun instead of avoiding it, eating lighter food, and taking in wine and afternoon naps. - Summary by Wikipedia
14 episodes
LibriVox volunteers bring you 9 recordings of Christy and The Pipers by Jean McKishnie Blewett.
This was the Fortnightly Poetry project for November 4, 2018. ------
This poem, set in Scotland, tells of a woman's reaction to the Pipes . ( David Lawrence)
9 episodes
LibriVox volunteers bring you 10 recordings of Please Buy My Verses by Anonymous.
This was the Weekly Poetry project for November 18, 2018. ------
PLEASE BUY MY VERSES.
PRICE: WHAT YOU PLEASE
The Bearer Lost His Eyesight While Blasting in December, 1868. - Summary by text
10 episodes
LibriVox volunteers bring you 13 recordings of His New Brother by Joseph Crosby Lincoln.
This was the Fortnightly Poetry project for November 18, 2018. ------
A friend has objected to the title of this book on the ground that, as many of the characters and scenes described are to be found in almost any coast village of the United States, the title might, with equal fitness, be "New Jersey Ballads," or "Long Island Ballads," or something similar.
The answer to this is, simply, the particular specimens here dealt with were individuals whom the author knew in his boyhood "down on the Cape." So, "Cape Cod Ballads" it is. - The author from the introduction.
13 episodes
LibriVox volunteers bring you 19 recordings of Thou Shalt Not Kill by G. K. Chesterton.
This was the Weekly Poetry project for November 25, 2018. ------
This Weekly Poem is taken from The Wild Knight and Other Poems by G. K. Chesterton - Summary by David Lawrence
19 episodes
LibriVox volunteers bring you 12 recordings of Said and Did by George MacDonald..
This was the Weekly Poetry project for December 2, 2018. ------
George MacDonald was a Scottish author, poet and Christian minister. He was a pioneering figure in the field of fantasy literature and the mentor of fellow writer Lewis Carroll. His writings have been cited as a major literary influence by many notable authors, including W. H. Auden, C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, Walter de la Mare, E. Nesbit, and Madeleine L'Engle. C. S. Lewis wrote that he regarded MacDonald as his "master". - Summary by Wikipedia
12 episodes
LibriVox volunteers bring you 8 recordings of Christmas at Church by Hattie Howard.
This was the Fortnightly Poetry project for December 2, 2018. ------
This Fortnightly Poem is taken from Poems by Hattie Howard, Pub 1902 (David Lawrence )
8 episodes
LibriVox volunteers bring you 12 recordings of Blessings for Chanukah by Jessie E. Sampter.
This was the Weekly Poetry project for December 9, 2018. ------
Jessie Sampter was a Jewish educator, poet, and Zionist pioneer. She was born in New York City and immigrated to Palestine in 1919. In her twenties, she joined the Unitarian Church and began writing poetry. Her poems and short stories emphasized her primary concerns: pacifism, Zionism, and social justice. - Summary by Wikipedia
12 episodes
LibriVox volunteers bring you 11 recordings of A Merry Christmas : two early birds by anonymous.
This was the Weekly Poetry project for December 11. 2018. ------
This Christmas pamphlet, dated 1890, from The Mail and Empire, a Toronto newspaper, solicits Christmas donations for the newspaper delivery boys. - Summary by David Lawrence
11 episodes
LibriVox volunteers bring you 14 recordings of Santa Claus, Kriss Kringle or St. NIcholas by Anomymous.
This was the Fortnightly Poetry project for December 16, 2018. ------
This poem was published in booklet form with illustrations in 1897. - Summary by David Lawrence
14 episodes
LibriVox volunteers bring you 18 recordings of Christmas Carol by Sara Teasdale.
This was the Christmas Weekly Poetry project for December 23, 2018. ------
This Christmas Poem is taken from Helen of Troy, and Other Poems by Sara Teasdale. - Summary by David Lawrence
18 episodes
LibriVox volunteers bring you 19 recordings of Blood Road by Katharine Lee Bates.
This was the New Year's Weekly Poetry project for December 30. 2018. ------
Katharine Lee Bates was an American writer, poet, professor, and social activist. Although she was a renowned author and professor during her lifetime, today she is primarily remembered as the author of the words to the anthem "America the Beautiful". For 25 years, she lived with her long-time friend and companion, Katharine Coman. This poem taken from 'America the beautiful and other poems' 1911. - Summary by Wikipedia
19 episodes
LibriVox volunteers bring you 23 recordings of Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost.
This was the Fortnightly Poetry project for January 6, 2019. ------
The meanings of this poignant poem--which entered the Public Domain in January 2019 and is being added to the Librivox Collection ASAP--range from appreciation of a simple New Hampshire snowstorm scene to reflections on death. Whose house is in the village? What promises need keeping? The poem can be interpreted on many different levels. Quoting Wikipedia: "At the funeral of former Canadian prime minister Pierre Trudeau, on October 3, 2000, his eldest son Justin rephrased the last stanza of this poem in his eulogy: 'The woods are lovely, dark and deep. He has kept his promises and earned his sleep.'" ( ~ Michele Fry)
23 episodes
LibriVox volunteers bring you 15 recordings of A Snow Storm by T.F. Young.
This was the Weekly Poetry project for January 6, 2019. ------
Pedantic critics may find fault with my modest productions, and perhaps justly, in regard to grammatical construction, and mechanical arrangement, but I shall be satisfied, if the public discern a vein of true poetry glittering here and there through what I have just written. The public are the final judges of compositions of this sort, and not the writer himself, or his personal friends. It is they, therefore, who must decide whether these humble attempts of my 'prentice hand, shall be numbered with writings that have been forgotten, or whether their author shall be encouraged to strike his lyre in a higher key, to accompany his Muse, while she tries to sing in a loftier strain.
THE AUTHOR.
PORT ALBERT, March, 1887.
15 episodes
LibriVox volunteers bring you 26 recordings of To the River by Edgar Allan Poe.
This was the Weekly Poetry project for January 13, 2019. ------
This Weekly Poem is taken from the Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe (1883)
26 episodes
LibriVox volunteers bring you 14 recordings of The Ghosts of Growth by George Parsons Lathrop.
This was the Weekly Poetry project for January 20, 2019. ------
The poet describes the beauties of nature after a snow fall, and the result of the mid-day sun. (D Lawrence)
14 episodes
LibriVox volunteers bring you 9 recordings of Paris Pair, Their Day's Doings by Beatrice Bradshaw Brown.
This was the Fortnightly Poetry project for January 20, 2019. ------
A poetic summary of a day in the life of two children in Paris. (D Lawrence)
9 episodes
LibriVox volunteers bring you 25 recordings of At A Lunar Eclipse by Thomas Hardy.
This was the Weekly Poetry project for January 27, 2019. ------
While Hardy wrote poetry throughout his life and regarded himself primarily as a poet, his first collection was not published until 1898. Initially, therefore, he gained fame as the author of such novels as Far from the Madding Crowd (1874), The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886), Tess of the d'Urbervilles (1891), and Jude the Obscure (1895). During his lifetime, Hardy's poetry was acclaimed by younger poets (particularly the Georgians) who viewed him as a mentor. - Summary by Wikipedia
25 episodes
LibriVox volunteers bring you 21 recordings of Knight - Errant by Madison Cawein.
This was the Weekly Poetry project for February 3, 2019. ------
Cawein's poetry allied his love of nature with a devotion to earlier English and European literature, mythology, and classical allusion. This certainly encompassed much of T. S. Eliot's own interest, but whereas Eliot was also seeking a modern language and form, Cawein strove to maintain a traditional approach. Although he gained an international reputation, he has been eclipsed as the genre of poetry in which he worked became increasingly outmoded. - Summary by Wikipedia
21 episodes
LibriVox volunteers bring you 18 recordings of Michael Angelo's "Dawn" by Margaret Steele Anderson.
This was the Weekly Poetry project for February 10, 2019. ------
Dawn is a sculpture by Italian Renaissance artist Michelangelo, executed for the Medici Chapel in the area of the tomb of Lorenzo de' Medici in Florence, Italy.
It is part of a second pair (the second being Dusk), which followed Day and Night in his work on the Chapel. - Summary by Wikipedia
18 episodes
LibriVox volunteers bring you 26 recordings of Picture-Books In Winter by Robert Louis Stevenson.
This was the Weekly Poetry project for February 17, 2019. ------
Robert Louis Stevenson was a Scottish novelist and travel writer, most noted for Treasure Island, Kidnapped, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, and A Child's Garden of Verses. - Summary by Wikipedia
26 episodes
LibriVox volunteers bring you 17 recordings of Lines. After the Manner of the Olden Time by George Pope Morris.
This was the Fortnightly Poetry project for February 17, 2019. ------
George Pope Morris was an American editor, poet, and songwriter. He was especially well-known was his poem-turned-song "Woodman, Spare that Tree! - Summary by Wikipedia
17 episodes
LibriVox volunteers bring you 14 recordings of A Hunting Song by Adam Lindsay Gordon.
This was the Weekly Poetry project for February 24, 2019. ------
Adam Lindsay Gordon was an Australian poet, jockey, police officer, and politician.
In this Weekly Poem he raises a glass "..to every sportsman, be he stableman or lord," (Wikipedia )
14 episodes
LibriVox volunteers bring you 20 recordings of The Castle-Builder by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
This was the Weekly Poetry project for March 3, 2019. ------
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was an American poet and educator whose works include "Paul Revere's Ride", The Song of Hiawatha, and Evangeline. He was also the first American to translate Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy and was one of the Fireside Poets from New England.
Longfellow wrote many lyric poems known for their musicality and often presenting stories of mythology and legend. He became the most popular American poet of his day and also had success overseas. He has been criticized, however, for imitating European styles and writing specifically for the masses. - Summary by Wikipedia
20 episodes
LibriVox volunteers bring you 23 recordings of It Is in Winter That We Dream of Spring by Robert Burns Wilson.
This was the Weekly Poetry project for March 10, 2019. ------
Robert Burns Wilson was an American painter and poet. Although his most famous poem was based on the battle cry "Remember the Maine," he was best known during his day as a nature poet. (Summary by Wikipedia)
23 episodes
LibriVox volunteers bring you 22 recordings of The Voice of the Void by George Parsons Lathrop.
This was the Weekly Poetry project for March 17, 2019. ------
George Parsons Lathrop was an American poet, novelist, and newspaper editor. He married Nathaniel Hawthorne's daughter, Rose Hawthorne. - Summary by Wikipedia
22 episodes
LibriVox volunteers bring you 15 recordings of Love's Language, by Ella Wheeler Wilcox.
This was the Fortnightly Poetry project for March 17, 2019. ------
One of Ella Wheeler Wilcox's most beautiful and passionate poems, originally published in her book, Poems Of Passion, 1883. - Summary by ~ Michele Fry
15 episodes
LibriVox volunteers bring you 15 recordings of On The Sea by Ivan Turgenev.
This was the Weekly Poetry project for April 14, 2019. ------
Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev was a Russian novelist, short story writer, poet, playwright, translator and popularizer of Russian literature in the West.
Constance Clara Garnett was an English translator of nineteenth-century Russian literature. Garnett was one of the first English translators of Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoyevsky and Anton Chekhov and introduced them on a wide basis to the English-speaking public. - Summary by wikipedia
15 episodes
LibriVox volunteers bring you 20 recordings of A Wet Day by Madison Cawein.
This was the Weekly Poetry project for April 21, 2019. ------
This Weekly Poem is in honor of April showers (bring on the May flowers!) taken from The Poems of Madison Cawein, Volume V, Poems of Meditation and of Forest and Field. - Summary by David Lawrence
20 episodes
LibriVox volunteers bring you 32 recordings of Sonnet 29 by William Shakespeare.
This was the Fortnightly Poetry project for April 23, 2019. ------
A perennial Shakespeare favorite. The sober, almost depressed beginning ends with the sun shining through. Here is a playful video performance, a visual treat, by LV member iBeScotty - https://youtu.be/5WEdVfiSoE0 (William Allan Jones)
32 episodes
LibriVox volunteers bring you 14 recordings of To S. M. A Young African Painter, On Seeing His Works.
This was the Weekly Poetry project for April 28, 2019. ------
The Authoress, Phillis Wheatley, was a Negro Servant To Mr. John Wheatley, Of Boston, In New-England. She was the first published African-American female poet, Wheatley was emancipated (set free) shortly after the publication of her book. - Summary by wikipedia
14 episodes
