This is a volume of poetry by Canadian poet and prose writer Sir Charles G.D. Roberts. This volume starts with a series of poems on New York City, and then includes some other poems on miscellaneous subjects. The poems of the "Father of Canadian Poetry" will be enjoyed by all modern listeners who are fans of New York. - Summary by Carolin
32 episodes
This is a little volume of children's poetry by Indiana poet Evaleen Stein. The poems in this volume concern really anything that could be fun for children, from picking flowers to learning things in school to sledding in the winter. - Summary by Carolin
71 episodes
This is a volume of humorous poems by Australian poet Henry Lawson. - Summary by Carolin
66 episodes
El corsario es, ante todo, un poema autobiográfico que narra las aventuras de un tal Conrado, un corsario rechazado por la sociedad -no así por las mujeres- debido a su comportamiento escandaloso. Byron fue uno de los poetas que gozó en vida de más popularidad. Su existencia se enlazó con la historia política europea de un cuarto de siglo, y llegó a eclipsar en su patria y en su época la gloria de otros poetas. Byron fue un genial poeta romántico, que con sus obras y aun con su misma vida legendaria y anómala, era el prototipo del poeta romántico, hasta el extremo de asumir en él toda la escuela romántica que se designó con el nombre de byronismo. - Summary by Phileas Fogg
9 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
A book of poems grouped by subject by various authors, some well known, some not. Lots of fun poems to listen to at bedtime! ( Lynda Marie Neilson)
11 episodes
A collection of poetry by American poet Sara Teasdale. Her lyrical poems of love, nature's beauty, and death were much loved during the early nineteenth century. - Summary by AnnaLisa Bodtker
12 episodes
LibriVox volunteers bring you recordings of A Golden Day by Ella Wheeler Wilcox.
This was the Fortnightly Poetry project for March 31, 2019. ------
A delightful little poem describing what it feels like to greet a sunny spring day and let the rest of your cares slide away. - Summary by Michele Fry
19 episodes
LibriVox volunteers bring you 11 recordings of Before Edgehill Fight by Rudyard Kipling.
This was the Weekly Poetry project for April 7, 2019. ------
A real and down to earth poem about a the Battle of Edgehill. - Summary by Campbell Schelp
11 episodes
Here is a delightful collection of short verses for children by Mary Carolyn Davies. Seeing the world through child-like imagination, these light-hearted poems are of trains, fishing, gardening, fairies and so much more. - Summary by SweetHome
8 episodes
Después de viajar por España, Francia, Italia, el norte de África y Brasil, Oliverio Giraldo escribió "20 poemas para ser leídos en el tranvía". Estructurado en torno al Diario de viaje. - Resumen por Lucas Oliveira
20 episodes
LibriVox volunteers bring you recordings of Double Sestina - Ye Goatherd Gods by Phillip Sidney.
This was the Fortnightly Poetry project for May 5, 2019. ------
Poem is included in the book "Countesse of Pembroke's Arcadia" Ye Goatherd Gods" depicts the sorrows of two shepherds who love the same woman. She has left them both, however, and the two shepherds are dejected and heartbroken. They appeal to the gods, to nature, and to the heavens in their angst, and everything they see is altered because of their sorrows. The poem is hyperbolic and highly emotional, with the two speakers engaged in a traditional pastoral singing match.
Alternatively its stanzas are the lamentations of two broken hearted goatherds who pine after the goddess Urania, who was one of the nine Greek Muses, the muse of astronomy and Astrology.
A sestina is a fixed verse form consisting of six stanzas of six lines each, normally followed by a three-line envoi. The words that end each line of the first stanza are used as line endings in each of the following stanzas, rotated in a set pattern with all six words appearing in the closing three-line envoi. The six key words in this poem are:
mountaines;
vallies;
forrests;
musique;
morning;
evening.
This is a DOUBLE sestina with 12 stanzas instead of 6. ( Summary by William Jones )
4 episodes
Born in 1878, Thomas published his first book when he was 18. Having married while still at university, he supported his family by writing articles and books, some in the form of what we might call slow travel writing, compiled on walks throughout England and Wales. He came to poetry late, encouraged by Robert Frost, and wrote 144 poems between 1914, and 1917 when he was killed, two years after enlisting, and shortly after arriving in France.
His poetic life coincided with WW1, and though not a war poet, his is the poetry of loss, of life as it would never be again. What is powerful to the English imagination is his depiction of the fragility of the English countryside. This is inseparable from his deep understanding of the longings and regrets of those who would die. Transience and mortality are at the heart of his work. This is true in one of the country’s favourite poems, to be found on this recording: Adlestrop. He is important to other poets in that, at his best, his poetry is quietly, sometimes coldly, conversational, with a slow beat that takes us with him as he thinks through from line to line, and wraps us in his vision of life and the natural world. (Summary by Judith Brennan)
12 episodes
Eine Sammlung von 20 deutschen Gedichten für LibriVox.
Eine Liste weiterer kurzer Aufnahmen (Erzählungen, Gedichte, Märchen, Essays) in anderen LibriVox Sammlungen gibt es hier.
20 episodes
This is a collection of poems by Hilda Doolittle about topics relating to the ocean, nature, or both. It contains vivid and descriptive language to convey a wide range of emotions. - Summary by Campbell Schelp
28 episodes
Sara Teasdale never disappoints. This lovely book of lyrical poems reminds us of the eternal verities of love, loss and life. - Summary by AnnaLisa Bodtker
7 episodes
A collection of pieces, both fiction and non-fiction, that have as its subject a word beginning with a specific letter of the English alphabet. Subjects can range from coffee to tea, animals to vampires, law to emotions.
26 episodes
Published in 1921 (Prohibition went into effect in January 1920), "Hail and Farewell" is a collection of poems in honour of alcohol, drunkenness, and all things related.In "The Old Soak", an old codger grumbles and connives to get alcohol in the age of Prohibition. Part is narrative, and part is installments from The Old Soak's papers.
“I'm writing a diary. A diary of the past. A kind of gol-dinged autobiography of what me and Old King Booze done before he went into the grave and took one of my feet with him. In just a little while now there won't be any one in this here broad land of ours, speaking of it geographically, that knows what an old-fashioned barroom was like. They'll meet up with the word, future generations of posterity will, and wonder and wonder and wonder just what a saloon could have resembled, and they will cudgel their brains in vain, as the poet says."“Have you got any of it written?” we asked him. “Here's the start of it,” said he.
We present it just as the Old Soak penned it. - Summary by TriciaG & from the text
51 episodes
LibriVox volunteers bring you 17 recordings of Fruitionless by Ina Coolbrith.
This was the Fortnightly Poetry project for August 11, 2019. ------
A wistful poem, capturing in a few lines the joy and industry of 3 of natures creations (flowers, birds, and bees), with the listlessness we humans sometimes feel. (Michele Fry)
17 episodes
La compilation de poèmes intitulée "Les fleurs du mal" de Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867) fit fureur et scandale dès sa publication initiale. Du coup, six poèmes furent censurés pour immoralité et n'apparaîtront que dans les publications d'après 1949. Voici l'édition de 1896 qui est une compilation presque complète de 152 poèmes, témoins du réalisme et de l'esprit innovateur et provocateur de Baudelaire. - Summary by Sonia
152 episodes
This is a book of more modern poetry by various authors. - Summary by Lynda Marie Neilson
148 episodes
This is a collection of 39 poems read in English by LibriVox volunteers for November 2019.
39 episodes
2019 collection of items with a Christmas theme containing traditional stories, Christmas traditions, Christmas cakes. We hope you will enjoy it.
23 episodes
Although Edith Nesbit is best known for her innovative children's books and classic ghost stories, she was at heart a poet. She began writing poetry at the age of 14 and published over 20 volumes of poetry during her lifetime. Her poetry was praised by authors and poets such as Algernon Swinburne, Oscar Wilde, and literary critic, Andrew Lang. Although her timeless poetry is little read today, she still ranks at 323 of the top 500 poets. - Summary by AnnaLisa
9 episodes
This is a collection of 65 poems read in English by LibriVox volunteers for January 2020.
65 episodes
Lieder, Gedichte, Märchen und Geschichten, welche sich Singine für sich ausgedacht hat. Alles spielt in ihrer direkten Umgebung und so kommen viele Personen immer wieder vor wodurch man immer vertrauter mit Singine und ihrer Umgebung wird. Da sie keine Geschwister hat, liest sie alles dem Jagdhund Dorkas vor. Ihr Onkel rät ihr alles aufzuschreiben, was sie dann auch tut. - Summary by lorda
30 episodes
Let me introduce a Race
Void of Beauty and of Grace,
Extraordinary Creatures
With a Paucity of Features.
Though their Forms are fashioned ill,
They have Manners stranger still;
For in Rudeness they're Precocious,
They're Atrocious, they're Ferocious!
Yet you'll learn, if you are Bright,
Politeness from the Impolite.
When you've finished with the Book,
At your Conduct take a Look;
Ask yourself, upon the Spot,
Are you Goop, or are you Not?
For, although it's Fun to See them
It is Terrible to Be them! - Summary by Gelett Burgess
4 episodes
Eine Sammlung von 20 deutschen Gedichten für LibriVox.
Eine Liste weiterer kurzer Aufnahmen (Erzählungen, Gedichte, Märchen, Essays) in anderen LibriVox Sammlungen gibt es hier.
20 episodes
This is a collection of 54 poems read in English by LibriVox volunteers for May 2020.
54 episodes
This is a collection of 20 stories and/or poems, contributed by Librivox volunteers, pertaining to dreams. ( ~ Michele Fry)
20 episodes
Eine Sammlung von 20 deutschen Gedichten für LibriVox.
Eine Liste weiterer kurzer Aufnahmen (Erzählungen, Gedichte, Märchen, Essays) in anderen LibriVox Sammlungen gibt es hier.
20 episodes
This is a collection of 49 poems read in English by LibriVox volunteers for February 2020.
49 episodes
The first of many yearly-published Oxford poetry books. - Summary by Campbell SchelpPoets include:
Gerald H. Crow
Eric Dickinson
Esther Lilian Duff
T. W. Earp
Godfrey Elton (1892-1973)
H. R. Freston (1891-1916)
Russell Green
Naomi M. Haldane (Mitchison) (1897-1999)
H. C. Harwood
A. L. Huxley (1894-1963)
Leslie Phillips Jones
R. S. Lambert (1894-1981)
Agnes E. Murray
Robert Nichols (1893-1944)
Elizabeth Rendall (Milne) (1892-1985)
L. Rice-Oxley
Dorothy H. Rowe
Dorothy L. Sayers (1893-1957)
G. B. Smith (1894-1916)
Eric Earnshaw Smith
Hasan Shahid Suhrawardy (1890-1965)
E. Graham Sutton
J. R. R. Tolkien (1892-1973)
Sherard Vines (1890-1974)
H. T. Wade-Gery (1888-1972)
47 episodes
This best-selling book of poetry by A. A. Milne was first published in 1924. The poems describe the adventures of Christopher Robin. In it we are introduced to Mr. Edward Bear later known as Winnie-the-Pooh. The poems are timeless and capture the joy and wonder of being a young child. - Summary by AnnaLisa Bodtker
45 episodes
Donne’s Style
In John Donne’s day, a satire was such a poem as a satyr might compose. Satyrs were rough, savage creatures in Greek mythology, human to the waist but goat from there down. That is the reason that Donne’s style in these poems exceeds his normal difficulty in syntax, vocabulary, thought, and meter. His age enjoyed untangling such puzzles, and some poets cultivated obscurity as an art, called asprezza. Wordplay like “while bellows pant below” (Satyre 2), where the same syllables, stressed differently, produce two different words almost side by side, entertained them.
An acoustical analogue to obscurity, Donne’s rhymes are often deliberately lame, while his rhythms nearly defy scansion and yet refuse to become mere prose. By keeping the drum beat just barely audible, he makes us feel that we are stumbling, out of step—neither marching nor merely walking.
Why was this abuse of the reader enjoyable? Perhaps for the same reason that grafitti appeals to some people. At first glance Donne appears lax, but in fact he is naughty; not undisciplined but rebellious; he does not fail to abide by the rules but rather gives the impression of breaking them.
Metempsychosis
The poem appears to be incomplete, its “First Song” having no counterpart, no “Second Song.” Similarly its promise to end by identifying what celebrity the soul in question now inhabits is never fulfilled. On the contrary, the poem’s initial epic pretentions founder at the second generation of mankind rather than tracing human history from the Garden of Eden to modern England, as was proposed. In view of the author’s mock-heroic tone, however, the poem’s apparent incompletion may be part of the satire, so it does no harm to suppose it as complete as necessary to accomplish its purpose.
What it accomplishes is to demonstrate, by means of the Pythagorean doctrine of the transmigration of souls, the depravity of the object of the satire (identity unknown but perhaps easily guessed by Donne’s audience). According to this doctrine, also called metempsychosis, the various guises that a soul takes in its travels are rewards or punishments for its conduct in each of its incarnations. It is debatable whether this process always leads to purification. In this poem it appears rather to be simple unfolding, dilation, the full realization of the soul’s potential. This soul has an appalling capacity for evil, beginning ominously as the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge and never rising higher than the moral neutrality of a fish. (A modern reader unfamiliar with The Bhagavad Gita may rely on Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde as background to the concept of the dilation and degradation of a soul.)
The style of the poem reflects the theme of shape-changing, for Donne loves to employ words’ multiple senses in close proximity:
. . . Make my darke heavy Poëm light, and light . . . [not dark + not heavy]
. . . to heare / Whose story, with long patience you will long . . . [adjective + verb]
. . . Her, her fates threw . . . [object of verb + possessive]
. . . Her sinne had now brought in infirmities . . . [verbal particle + prefix]
. . . Ill steward of himself, himselfe in three yeares ends. . . . [object of preposition + object of verb]
. . . Yet them all these unkinde kinds feed upon . . . [adjective + noun]
Such wordplay is common in Donne’s satires, but in a poem chronicling the exploits of fishes, a sparrow, a wolf, and a mouse—all being the same individual in different forms—it seems especially appropriate. - Summary by Thomas Copeland
7 episodes
A.A. Milne wrote many poems to entertain his young son, Christopher Robin Milne, who appears to have been about three when "When We Were Very Young" was published. The book is a collection of 45 poems that celebrate a world and a point of view that a very young person could understand and enjoy. It became a best-seller.
Christopher Robin is introduced as a character in some of the poems. We first meet him in the Preface, "Just Before We Begin." In it we learn of a swan which he feeds upon a lake and who he has named "Pooh." Milne comments on the fortuitous rhyming of that name with the lowing of the local cattle, "moo," and intends us to believe that that led to the idea of writing the poems that comprise "When We Were Very Young." Later, of course, this name became attached to a rather lovable bear who had whole books of his adventures written by Milne over the next few years. We will meet that teddy bear in one of poems of this book!- Summary by Mark Smith
10 episodes
This is a collection of 51 poems read in English by LibriVox volunteers for March 2020.
51 episodes
Eine Sammlung von 20 deutschen Gedichten für LibriVox.
Eine Liste weiterer kurzer Aufnahmen (Erzählungen, Gedichte, Märchen, Essays) in anderen LibriVox Sammlungen gibt es hier.
20 episodes
This is a collection of 20 stories and/or poems, contributed by Librivox volunteers, pertaining to dreams. ( ~ Michele Fry)
20 episodes
Anthology of Russian / early Soviet poetry.Антология русской поэзии начала ХХ века. Некоторые авторы приобрели мировую известность, а некоторые совсем или почти забыты. Не удалось прочесть "Две кнструэмы" Алексея Чичерина: текст в основном состоит из непроизносимых сочетаний букв и знаков препинания, смотрите источник. - Summary by Mark Chulsky
10 episodes
Grossteils sehr kurze Gedichte! Paul Scheerbart wurde als früher Expressionist in der Glasbau-Architektur bekannt und entwickelte in seinen Werken auf humorvolle Weise und quer durch verschiedene Branchen und Inhalte seinen Stil. Oder war er ein Vorläufer das Surrealismus in der Literatur? Und warum nannten ihn viele DADAisten als Vorbild? Scheerbart spielt mit einfachen Worten und Inhalten, wirkt manchmal derb, manchmal clownesk. Oft mit satirisch-witzigem Unterton einen Seitenhieb austeilend, glaubt man öfters, den Spass zu spüren, den er vermutlich an seinen Werken hatte. Seine Bücher veröffentlichte er teils im selbst gegründeten Verlag, grossteils selbstillustriert, teils aber auch nicht und von Freunden illustriert. Auch in diesem ersten Frühwerk kann man in jedem Gedicht ein Kunstwerk finden. (Summary by schrm)
40 episodes
This is a collection of 63 poems read in English by LibriVox volunteers for April 2020.
63 episodes
Not nursery rhymes, but poems about different scenes of childhood. Poems about Grandpa, Grandma, story time, castor oil, “Wait till your pa comes home!”, and many more. These are sure to evoke nostalgia, lots of smiles, and maybe a couple sighs or tears. - Summary by TriciaG
115 episodes
En este libro se reúnen diversos poemas satíricos sobre diferentes circunstancias de la vida, tales como el matrimonio, la muerte, el amor, etc. Todos los poemas aquí presentados se encuentran escritos en versos rima, por lo que la lectura de los mismos mediante audio es muy agradable y divertida para pasar un buen rato. (Summary by KendalRigans)
57 episodes
Birds, Illustrated by Color Photography was a monthly publication of the Nature Study Publishing Company of Chicago. It includes short poems, anecdotes and factual descriptions of birds with accompanying color plates. The magazine was published from 1897-1907 under the various titles, "Birds," "Birds and all Nature," "Nature and Art" and "Birds and Nature." Later volumes were expanded to include animals, plants, etc. Summary by J. M. Smallheer
From the Preface of Vol 1 No 1:
"Of all animated nature, birds are the most beautiful in coloring, most graceful in form and action, swiftest in motion and most perfect emblems of freedom.
They are withal, very intelligent and have many remarkable traits, so that their habits and characteristics make a delightful study for all lovers of nature. In view of the facts, we feel that we are doing a useful work for the young, and one that will be appreciated by progressive parents, in placing within the easy possession of children in the homes these beautiful photographs of birds.
The text is prepared with the view of giving the children as clear an idea as possible, of haunts, habits, characteristics and such other information as will lead them to love the birds and delight in their study and acquaintance." NATURE STUDY PUBLISHING CO.
21 episodes
Birds, Illustrated by Color Photography was a monthly publication of the Nature Study Publishing Company of Chicago. It includes short poems, anecdotes and factual descriptions of birds with accompanying color plates. The magazine was published from 1897-1907 under the various titles, "Birds," "Birds and all Nature," "Nature and Art" and "Birds and Nature." Later issues were expanded to include animals, plants, etc. Summary by J. M. Smallheer
22 episodes
Lullaby-Land: Songs of Childhood is a book of children’s poetry by Eugene Field. Within the poems in this volume you will find some of his well-known works including The Duel, Wynken, Blynken and Nod, and Little Boy Blue. - Summary by SweetHome
4 episodes
Best known for her mystical writing, IntraMuros, Rebecca Ruter Springer was also a sensitive poet. This a short volume of her poems celebrating the sea. - Summary by Larry Wilson
20 episodes
Birds, Illustrated by Color Photography was a monthly publication of the Nature Study Publishing Company of Chicago. It includes short poems, anecdotes and factual descriptions of birds with accompanying color plates. The magazine was published from 1897-1907 under the various titles, "Birds," "Birds and all Nature," "Nature and Art" and "Birds and Nature." Later issues were expanded to include animals, plants, etc. Summary by J. M. Smallheer
16 episodes
Birds, Illustrated by Color Photography was a monthly publication of the Nature Study Publishing Company of Chicago. It includes short poems, anecdotes and factual descriptions of birds with accompanying color plates. The magazine was published from 1897-1907 under the various titles, "Birds," "Birds and all Nature," "Nature and Art" and "Birds and Nature." Later issues were expanded to include animals, plants, etc. Summary by J. M. Smallheer
18 episodes
