LibriVox volunteers bring you 10 recordings of To...As when with downcast eyes by Alfred Lord Tennyson. This was the Weekly Poetry project for August 15th, 2010.
10 episodes
LibriVox volunteers bring you 19 recordings of So Warmly We Met by Thomas Moore. This was the Weekly Poetry project for August 22nd, 2010.
19 episodes
Die Commedia, in späterer Zeit auch
Divina Commedia („Göttliche Komödie“) genannt, ist das Hauptwerk des italienischen Dichters Dante Alighieri. Sie gilt als bedeutendste Dichtung der italienischen Literatur und als eines der größten Werke der Weltliteratur.
(Zusammenfassung von Wikipedia)
34 episodes
Cette compilation comprend une série de poèmes lus, en langue française, pour LibriVox. (Ezwa)
25 episodes
LibriVox volunteers bring you 8 recordings of The Song of the Western Men by Robert Stephen Hawker.This was the Weekly Poetry project for August 29th, 2010.This poem is also known by the title of "Trelawny". Hawker wrote the song in 1824, telling of events that took place in 1688.
8 episodes
LibriVox volunteers bring you 10 recordings of Vitai Lampada by Sir Henry Newbolt.'Vitai lampada' is a quotation from De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of the Universe) by Lucretius and literally means 'The torch of life.'
This was the Weekly Poetry project for May 17th, 2010.
10 episodes
This is a collection of 41 poems read in English by LibriVox volunteers for July 2018.
41 episodes
LibriVox volunteers bring you 14 recordings of A Burnt Ship by John Donne. This was the Weekly Poetry project for September 17th, 2010.
14 episodes
LibriVox volunteers bring you 13 recordings of Song of the Kicking Horse by Bliss Carman. This was the Fortnightly Poetry project for September 26th, 2010.
13 episodes
This is a collection of poems read by LibriVox volunteers for the month of September and October 2010.
30 episodes
Diese Sammlung ist ein Adventskalender und enthält ein Türchen für jeden Tag vom 1. bis zum 24. Dezember.
24 episodes
This multilingual Christmas Short Works Collection for 2010 contains public domain short stories, essays, poems and scripture passages recorded by a variety of LibriVox members in English, German and Portuguese.
27 episodes
LibriVox volunteers bring you 13 recordings of Lines Written From Home by Anne Brontë. This was the Weekly Poetry project for October 3rd, 2010.
13 episodes
When the princess Devanaguy falls into a deep trance-like sleep, she is visited by the god Vishnu: who causes her to fall pregnant with his holy child, Christna.
Devanaguy’s sleep is prolonged supernaturally by Vishnu: allowing the god to relate to her his divine secrets through a series of ecstatic visions. Among the mysteries revealed to Devanaguy, she is shown how the gods will shortly powerfully intervene directly in human affairs. When the princess finally re-awakens: she is awestruck by her experiences, and bursts into a spontaneous rhapsody of praise.
Throughout her rapturous intercourse with Vishnu, Devanaguy boldly continues to desire answers to mankind's profoundest questionings:
- is it possible for mere mortals to comprehend the divine wisdom of the gods?
- can be it really be true that divine beings care enough for mankind to want to intervene in human affairs: to do them good?
(Introduction by Godsend)
11 episodes
Die Commedia, in späterer Zeit auch Divina Commedia („Göttliche Komödie“) genannt, ist das Hauptwerk des italienischen Dichters Dante Alighieri. Sie gilt als bedeutendste Dichtung der italienischen Literatur und als eines der größten Werke der Weltliteratur.
(Zusammenfassung von Wikipedia)
33 episodes
LibriVox volunteers bring you 14 recordings of Autumn by John Clare . This was the Weekly Poetry project for October 17th, 2010.
14 episodes
Die Commedia, in späterer Zeit auch Divina Commedia („Göttliche Komödie“) genannt, ist das Hauptwerk des italienischen Dichters Dante Alighieri. Sie gilt als bedeutendste Dichtung der italienischen Literatur und als eines der größten Werke der Weltliteratur.
(Zusammenfassung von Wikipedia)
33 episodes
LibriVox volunteers bring you 18 recordings of Love in a Cottage by Nathaniel Parker Willis. This was the Fortnightly Poetry project for October 24th, 2010.
18 episodes
This is a small collection of whimsical poems by the American physician and author Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. "The Deacon's Masterpiece" describes the "logical" outcome of building an object (in this case, a two-wheeled carriage called a shay) that has no weak points. The economic term "one hoss shay," referring to a certain model of depreciation, derives its name from this poem. "How the Old Horse Won the Bet" is a lighthearted look at a horse race. Finally, "The Broomstick Train" is a wonderfully Halloween-y explanation of how an electric tram really works. (Summary by Laurie Anne Walden)
4 episodes
Have you ever suggested a book for recording by LibriVox only to be told by some good-for-nothing admin that it can't be done because it's not in the Public Domain in the US? Then this project is dedicated to you. It consists of ten early Public Domain poems by some of the authors mention of whose most popular works is most likely to come in close proximity to the word "sorry" in the LV forums.Included are: JRR Tolkien, Aldous Huxley, George Orwell, Dorothy L Sayers, CS Lewis, William Faulkner, Kahlil Gibran, DH Lawrence, Robert Graves and Ernest Hemingway.(Summary by Carl Manchester)
10 episodes
LibriVox volunteers bring you 15 recordings of Stupidity by Amy Lowell. This was the Weekly Poetry project for October 31st, 2010.
15 episodes
Chaque mois, nous choisissons un poème qui est enregistré par un maximum de [i]librivoxeurs[/i] !Chanson d'automne est un des plus fameux poèmes de Paul Verlaine, paru dans Poèmes saturniens.(1866)Sa première strophe, légèrement modifiée, a été utilisé par Radio Londres le 5 juin 1944 à 21 h 15, peu avant le débarquement de Normandie pour informer un réseau de Résistance (le réseau VENTRILOQUIST) de l'imminence de l'action.
11 episodes
Cette compilation comprend une série de poèmes lus, en langue française, pour LibriVox. (Ezwa)
25 episodes
Il Canzoniere di Francesco Petrarca è stata una grande "rivoluzione" nella letteratura europea in volgare: è il primo caso di canzoniere stricto sensu, cioè una raccolta organica di liriche "costruita" dall'autore in una prospettiva di unitarietà.
E in effetti Petrarca, nonostante la intitolasse Rerum vulgarium fragmenta ("Frammenti di cose volgari"; il titolo "Canzoniere" verrà attribuito solo nel XVI sec.), ha scrupolosamente curato per tutta la vita la realizzazione di quest'opera, selezionando, limando, cambiando la disposizione dei componimenti, di cui persino il numero (366) ha un valore strutturale: i giorni dell'anno più un proemio, o dell'anno bisestile in cui era morta la donna amata (1348).
Naturalmente, fiumi di inchiostro sono stati versati per analizzare quest'opera la cui influenza sulla letteratura europea è stata così "fenomenale" da meritare un termine ad hoc: "Petrarchismo".
Ci basti dire qui che il Canzoniere, cantando - col linguaggio più melodico di tutta la lirica italiana - l'amore per un'unica donna, esprime magnificamente il sentimento del tempo. (Sergio Baldelli)
183 episodes
LibriVox volunteers bring you 9 recordings of Cana by James Freeman Clarke, from The World's Best Poetry, edited by Bliss Carman. This was the Weekly Poetry project for November 14th, 2010.Trivia: After hearing the song "John Brown's Body", Clarke suggested that Mrs. Julia Ward Howe write new lyrics; the result was "The Battle Hymn of the Republic". He published but few verses, but at heart was a poet. (summary by Wikipedia)
9 episodes
This is a collection of 35 poems read in English by LibriVox volunteers for June 2018.
Translated poems:
The Bride of Corinth, by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, translated by John Anster (1793-1867)
The Diwan of Abu'l-Ala by Abu al-Ala Al-Ma'arri, translated by Henry Baerlein (1875-1960)
35 episodes
LibriVox volunteers bring you 14 recordings of Verses on a Young Lady Playing on a Harpsicord and Singing by Tobias Smollett. This was the Weekly Poetry project for November 21st, 2010.Tobias George Smollett (19 March 1721 – 17 September 1771) was a Scottish poet and author. He was best known for his picaresque novels, such as The Adventures of Roderick Random (1748) and The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle (1751), which influenced later novelists such as Charles Dickens. (summary by Wikipedia)
14 episodes
LibriVox volunteers bring you 8 recordings of To Autumn by John Keats. This was the Fortnightly Poetry project for November 21st, 2010.To Autumn" is the final work in a group of poems known as Keats's "1819 odes".He composed "To Autumn" after a walk near Winchester one autumnal evening. The work marks the end of his poetic career as he needed to earn money and could no longer devote himself to the lifestyle of a poet. A little over a year following the publication of "To Autumn", Keats died in Rome."To Autumn" has been regarded by critics as one of the most perfect short poems in the English language and it is one of the most anthologised English lyric poems.
8 episodes
This is a collection of 23 poems read by LibriVox volunteers for March 2015.
Two poems of medium length in this collection:
#04 "Copernicus" (13:38) is from the volume "Watchers of the Sky" by Alfred Noyes.
#12 "A Joyful Meditation of the Coronation of King Henry the Eighth" (14:12). The original text was published as an eight-page pamphlet. In the surviving copy, the bottoms of the pages have been cropped. A total of three lines are therefore missing, and a further three have been reconstructed from their surviving portions. The html version of the poem shows these reconstructions. This poem has been read using modern English pronunciation. Some words have no modern equivalent, including such words as encensing, entenderment, soote, boote, withouten, inuentions, contrarious, and minnish which is short for dimminish.
Emyspery = hemisphere.
Quayre (quire) = an eight-page printed booklet.
Tene = harm, injury or hurt.
Rother = rudder
The "monk of bery" was John Lydgate of Bury St. Edmunds (c. 1370 - c. 1451) a monk and poet.
23 episodes
The Battle of Marathon is a rhymed, dramatic, narrative-poem by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Written in 1820, it retells powerfully The Battle of Marathon: during which the Athenian state defeated the much larger invading force during the first Persian invasion of Greece. (Summary from Wikipedia)
4 episodes
LibriVox volunteers bring you 17 recordings of Karawane by Hugo Ball. This was the Weekly Poetry project for December 5th, 2010.Ball wrote his poem "Karawane," which is a German poem consisting of nonsensical words. The meaning however resides in its meaninglessness, reflecting the chief principle behind Dadaism.Dada or Dadaism is a cultural movement that began in Zürich, Switzerland, during World War I and peaked from 1916 to 1922.[1] The movement primarily involved visual arts, literature—poetry, art manifestoes, art theory—theatre, and graphic design, and concentrated its anti-war politics through a rejection of the prevailing standards in art through anti-art cultural works. Its purpose was to ridicule what its participants considered to be the meaninglessness of the modern world. In addition to being anti-war, dada was also anti-bourgeois and anarchistic in nature.(summary from Wikipedia)
17 episodes
LibriVox volunteers bring you 5 recordings of To the Man of the High North by Robert Service. This was the Fortnightly Poetry project for November 28, 2010.Robert William Service (January 16, 1874 – September 11, 1958) was a poet and writer, sometimes referred to as "the Bard of the Yukon".His writing was so expressive that his readers took him for a hard-bitten old Klondike prospector, not the later-arriving bank clerk he actually was.In addition to his Yukon works, Service also wrote poetry set in locales as diverse as South Africa, Afghanistan, and New Zealand.
5 episodes
LibriVox volunteers bring you 12 recordings of My Heart and Lute by Thomas Moore . This was the Weekly Poetry project for December 12th, 2010"My Heart and Lute" is a song/poem by Thomas Moore.
In Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll, Alice recognizes the tune used in the song called Haddocks' Eyes sung by the White Knight. (Summary by Wikipedia)
12 episodes
LibriVox volunteers bring you 13 recordings of Christmas Morning by Eugene Field. This was the Fortnightly Poetry project for December 12, 2010.Eugene Field, Sr. (September 2, 1850 – November 4, 1895) was an American writer, best known for his children's poetry and humorous essays.
13 episodes
LibriVox volunteers bring you 10 recordings of The Christmas Tree by Anonymous. This was the Weekly Poetry project for December 19, 2010This poem taken from Christmas Entertainments by Alice Maude Kellogg, contianing fancy drills, acrostics, motion songs, tableaux, short plays, recitations in costume for children of five to fifteen years. (from book introduction)
10 episodes
Wordsworth was a defining member of the English Romantic Movement. Like other Romantics, Wordsworth’s personality and poetry were deeply influenced by his love of nature, especially by the sights and scenes of the Lake Country, in which he spent most of his mature life. A profoundly earnest and sincere thinker, he displayed a high seriousness tempered with tenderness and a love of simplicity. (summary from Bartleby.com)
13 episodes
This is a collection of poems recorded by LibriVox volunteers for the month of January 2011.
36 episodes
Sir Walter Raleigh (c. 1552 – 29 October 1618) was an English aristocrat, writer, poet, soldier, courtier, spy, and explorer. He is also well known for popularising tobacco in England.Raleigh's poetry is written in the relatively straightforward, unornamented mode known as the plain style. C. S. Lewis considered Raleigh one of the era's "silver poets", a group of writers who resisted the Italian Renaissance influence of dense classical reference and elaborate poetic devices.In poems such as "What is Our Life" and "The Lie", Raleigh expresses a contemptus mundi (contempt of the world) attitude more characteristic of the Middle Ages than of the dawning era of humanistic optimism. But, his lesser-known long poem "The Ocean to Cynthia" combines this vein with the more elaborate conceits associated with his contemporaries Edmund Spenser and John Donne, expressing a melancholy sense of history.A minor poem of Raleigh's captures the atmosphere of the court at the time of Queen Elizabeth I. His response to Christopher Marlowe's "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love" was "The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd". "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love" was written in 1592, while Raleigh's "The Nymph's Reply to The Shepherd" was written four years later. Both were written in the style of traditional pastoral poetry. They follow the same structure of six four-line stanzas employing a rhyme scheme of AABB. (Introduction by Wikipedia)
Sir Walter Raleigh (c. 1552 – 29 October 1618) was an English aristocrat, writer, poet, soldier, courtier, spy, and explorer. He is also well known for popularising tobacco in England.Raleigh's poetry is written in the relatively straightforward, unornamented mode known as the plain style. C. S. Lewis considered Raleigh one of the era's "silver poets", a group of writers who resisted the Italian Renaissance influence of dense classical reference and elaborate poetic devices.In poems such as "What is Our Life" and "The Lie", Raleigh expresses a contemptus mundi (contempt of the world) attitude more characteristic of the Middle Ages than of the dawning era of humanistic optimism. But, his lesser-known long poem "The Ocean to Cynthia" combines this vein with the more elaborate conceits associated with his contemporaries Edmund Spenser and John Donne, expressing a melancholy sense of history.A minor poem of Raleigh's captures the atmosphere of the court at the time of Queen Elizabeth I. His response to Christopher Marlowe's "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love" was "The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd". "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love" was written in 1592, while Raleigh's "The Nymph's Reply to The Shepherd" was written four years later. Both were written in the style of traditional pastoral poetry. They follow the same structure of six four-line stanzas employing a rhyme scheme of AABB. (Introduction by Wikipedia)Poems in this collection:
Epitaph
The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd The Lie
The Passionate Man’s Pilgrimage
Life
A Farewell to False Love
Praised be Diana’s Fair and Harmless Light
Farewell to the Court
To her Love when He had obtained Her
Nature that Washed Her Hands in Milk
A Vision upon this Conceit of the Fairy Queen
On the Cards and Dice
The Silent Lover
As You Came from the Holy Land
The Excuse
A Description of Love
An Epitaph Upon the Right Honorable Sir Philip Sidney, Knight, Lord Governor of Flushing
Another of the Same (the Faerie Queene)
The Ocean to Cynthia (fragment)
A Farewell to the Vanities of the World
1 episodes
LibriVox volunteers bring you 11 recordings of Echoes of Love’s House by William Morris. This was the Weekly Poetry project for January 9th, 2011.William Morris was an English textile designer, artist, writer, and socialist associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the English Arts and Crafts Movement. Morris wrote and published poetry, fiction, and translations of ancient and medieval texts throughout his life.Today, Morris's poetry is little-read. His fantasy romances languished out of print for decades until their rediscovery amid the great fantasy revival of the late 1960s following the phenomenal success of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. But his textile and wallpaper designs remain a staple of the Arts and Crafts Revival of the turn of the 21st century, and the reproduction of Morris designs as fabric, wrapping paper, and craft kits of all sorts is testament to the enduring appeal of his work. The William Morris Societies in Britain, the US, and Canada are active in preserving Morris's work and ideas.
11 episodes
LibriVox volunteers bring you 11 recordings of Impartiality by James Russell Lowell. This was the Weekly Poetry project for January 16, 2011.James Russell Lowell was an American Romantic poet, critic, editor, and diplomat. He is associated with the Fireside Poets, a group of New England writers who were among the first American poets who rivaled the popularity of British poets. These poets usually used conventional forms and meters in their poetry, making them suitable for families entertaining at their fireside. (Summary from Wikipedia)
11 episodes
LibriVox volunteers bring you 17 recordings of Two Musicians by Sarah Orne Jewett. This was the Fortnightly Poetry project for January 16, 2011.She published her first important story in the Atlantic Monthly at age 19, and her reputation grew throughout the 1870s and 1880s. Her literary importance arises from her careful, if subdued, vignettes of country life that reflect a contemporary interest in local color rather than plot. Jewett possessed a keen descriptive gift that William Dean Howells called "an uncommon feeling for talk — I hear your people." (summary by Wikipedia)
17 episodes
LibriVox volunteers bring you 4 recordings of Fatherland by Sir Henry Parkes. This was the Weekly Poetry project for January 23rd, 2011.Sir Henry Parkes, GCMG (27 May 1815 – 27 April 1896) was an Australian statesman, the "Father of Federation." As the earliest advocate of a Federal Council of the colonies of Australia, a precursor to the Federation of Australia, he is generally considered the most prominent of the Australian Founding Fathers.Parkes was described during his lifetime by The Times as "the most commanding figure in Australian politics". Alfred Deakin described him as "though not rich or versatile, his personality was massive, durable and imposing, resting upon elementary qualities of human nature elevated by a strong mind. He was cast in the mould of a great man and though he suffered from numerous pettinesses, spites and failings, he was in himself a large-brained self-educated Titan whose natural field was found in Parliament and whose resources of character and intellect enabled him in his later years to overshadow all his contemporaries".Parkes's literary work includes six volumes of verse, Stolen Moments (1842), Murmurs of the Stream (1857), Studies in Rhyme (1870), The Beauteous Terrorist and Other Poems (1885), Fragmentary Thoughts (1889), Sonnets and Other Verses (1895). It has been the general practice to laugh at Parkes's poetic efforts, and it is true that his work could sometimes be almost unbelievably bad. Yet though he had no real claims to be a poet he wrote some weak, sincere verse which has occasionally been included in Australian anthologies. (Summary from Wikipedia.)
4 episodes
Maria W. Stewart was America's first black woman political writer. Between 1831 and 1833, she gave four speeches on the topics of slavery and women's rights. Meditations From The Pen of Mrs. Maria W. Stewart—published in 1879, shortly before her death—is a collection of those speeches as well as her memoir, some meditations and prayers. They are political, poetical and sermon all at the same time; but in the mileu in which she lectured, they were a critically important part of the abolitionist movement years before the contributions of others such as Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth. Her speeches and essays espoused a return to Christian values and morality, but also proposed fundamental changes in gender roles in the midst of tremendous public opposition to the rights of blacks and of women. (Introduction by James K. White)
15 episodes
This book of poetry by G.K. Chesterton, originally published in 1922, contain 35 poems on a variety of subjects. (Summary by Maria Therese)
35 episodes
LibriVox volunteers bring you 10 recordings of An Apology for Sadness by Anne Lynch Botta. This was the Weekly Poetry project for March 13, 2011.Anne Charlotte Lynch Botta was an American poet, writer, teacher and socialite whose home was the central gathering place of the literary elite of her era.At Mrs. Botta's receptions every Saturday night, attendees would find the most well-known writers, actors and artists, such as Poe, Margaret Fuller, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Bronson Alcott, Louisa May Alcott, Horace Greeley, Richard Henry Stoddard, Andrew Carnegie, Mary Mapes Dodge, Julia Ward Howe, Charles Butler, Fitz-Greene Halleck, Delia Bacon, Grace Greenwood, Bayard Taylor, William Cullen Bryant, Helen Hunt Jackson, actress Fanny Kemble, Daniel Webster, and many more. Her friend Kate Sanborn started her literary lecturing career at these receptions. Said a Boston writer: "It was not so much what Mrs. Botta did for literature with her own pen, as what she helped others to do, that will make her name a part of the literary history of the country." (summary from Wikipedia)
10 episodes
LE CHATViens, mon beau chat, sur mon cœur amoureux:Retiens les griffes de ta patte,Et laisse-moi plonger dans tes beaux yeux,Mêlés de métal et d'agate.Lorsque mes doigts caressent à loisirTa tête et ton dos élastique,Et que ma main s'enivre du plaisirDe palper ton corps électrique,Je vois ma femme en esprit; son regard,Comme le tien, aimable bête,Profond et froid, coupe et fend comme un dard.Et, des pieds jusques à la tête,Un air subtil, un dangereux parfumNagent autour de son corps brun.
8 episodes
Each month a poem is chosen to be recorded by as many LibriVox volunteers as possible!
Chaque mois, nous choisissons un poème qui est enregistré par un maximum de librivoxeurs ais.
Perles de Rêve
Une perle luit et repose
Dans le sein d'une jeune rose
Au calice vermeil et pur.
- Que seras-tu, perle éphémère ?
- À l'aurore, vierge chimère,
Je serai nuage d'azur.
Une larme paraît et brille
Dans l'œil doux de la blanche fille
Que nul frisson n'agite encor.
- Que seras-tu, larme tremblante ?
- À la première aube troublante,
Je m'envolerai rêve d'or.
5 episodes
The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám (Persian: رباعیات عمر خیام) is the title that Edward Fitz-Gerald gave to his translation of a selection of poems, originally written in Persian and of which there are about a thousand, attributed to Omar Khayyám (1048–1131), a Persian poet, mathematician and astronomer. A Persian ruba'i is a two-line stanza with two parts (or hemis-techs) per line, hence the word "Rubáiyát" (derived from the Arabic root word for "four"), meaning "quatrains".
The translations that are best known in English are those of about a hundred of the verses by Edward FitzGerald (1809–1883). Of the five editions published, four were published under the authorial control of FitzGerald. The fifth edition, which contained only minor changes from the fourth, was edited after his death on the basis of manuscript revisions FitzGerald had left. FitzGerald also produced Latin translations of certain rubaiyat.
As a work of English literature FitzGerald's version is a high point of the 19th century and has been greatly influential. Indeed, The term "Rubaiyat" by itself has come to be used to describe the quatrain rhyme scheme that FitzGerald used in his translations: AABA. However, as a translation of Omar Khayyam's quatrains, it is not noted for its fidelity. Many of the verses are paraphrased, and some of them cannot be confidently traced to any one of Khayyam's quatrains at all. Some critics informally refer to the FitzGerald's English versions as "The Rubaiyat of FitzOmar", a nickname that both recognizes the liberties FitzGerald inflicted on his purported source and also credits FitzGerald for the considerable portion of the "translation" that is his own creation. In fact, FitzGerald himself referred to his work as "transmogrification". "My translation will interest you from its form, and also in many respects in its detail: very unliteral as it is. Many quatrains are mashed together: and something lost, I doubt, of Omar's simplicity, which is so much a virtue in him" (letter to E. B. Cowell, 9/3/58). (Introduction from Wikipedia)
This recording includes readings of all five editions by Edward Fitzgerald as well as the introduction to the third edition. (Note by Algy Pug)
6 episodes
The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám (Persian: رباعیات عمر خیام) is the title that Edward FitzGerald gave to his translation of a selection of poems, originally written in Persian and of which there are about a thousand, attributed to Omar Khayyám (1048–1131), a Persian poet, mathematician and astronomer. A Persian ruba'i is a two-line stanza with two parts (or hemistechs) per line, hence the word "Rubáiyát" (derived from the Arabic root word for "four"), meaning "quatrains". (Introduction by Wikipedia) The three translations by women comprise this collection of recordings of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. (Note by Amy Gramour)
4 episodes
The Amoretti (meaning little love poems) is a sequence of 89 sonnets written in the tradition of the Petrarchan sonnets, a popular form for poets of the Renaissance period. Spenser’s sequence has been largely neglected in modern times, while those of his contemporaries William Shakespeare and Sir Philip Sidney have been acclaimed. However, because of the artistic skill, along with the emotion and the humor exhibited, these poems deserve a broader hearing, even though they may be somewhat difficult for the present-day reader, partly through Spenser’s love for words and expressions that were already archaic in his time.Amoretti, written throughout the year 1594 and published the following year, violates at least one of the conventional elements of the Renaissance sonnet sequences. Other poets, including Petrarch and Sidney, chose as the inspiration for their sonnets a woman who was inaccessible to the poet, sometimes even married to someone else. They idealized this woman, seeming to be extravagantly suffering because of their passionate admiration, while in real life they might hardly know the lady and had no real interest in an actual love affair. Spenser, however, dedicated his verses to a woman that he actually loved and sought, Elizabeth Boyle, whom he then married.Also the sonnet series by other poets were usually despairing of any fruition in regard to the lady, and Spenser certainly does show much frustration himself in his efforts to achieve a closer relationship with his love; but as the series progresses, he gradually sees improvement in the success of his wooing, as his actual wedding nears. The poems feature elaborate imagery, loaded with metaphorical situations, saying much the same thing repeatedly in a wide variety of ways, with much clever creativity, sometimes impressive and sometimes a bit awkward. There is a rich vein of humor running through the whole sequence, often through mock passion, and there is even a bit of sensuality in some of the later sonnets. The better poems are often sharp and crystalline, sparkling in their freshness and originality. (Introduction by Leonard Wilson)
30 episodes
