LibriVox volunteers bring you 16 different recordings of Sympathy, by Paul Laurence Dunbar in honor of Martin Luther King Day. Listeners will recognize a line from this poem as being the title of Maya Angelou's 1969 novel I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. This was the weekly poetry project for the week of January 14th, 2007.
16 episodes
Edgar Allan Poe (1809 - 1849) is widely famed as one of the greatest writers of all time. He is best known for his works of horror, such as "The Tell Tale Heart." However, and this is less known, Poe also wrote many love poems. In this collection of forty-eight poems by Edgar Allan Poe we will go through a wide variety of themes, from horror and raw creepiness in "The Raven" to pure love in "A Valentine" to depression in "Alone." Throughout all of his poems Poe kept a very strong meter and rhyme scheme. This is most obvious in "The Bells." (Summary by Shurtagal)
48 episodes
LibriVox volunteers bring you 34 different recordings of Jabberwocky, by Lewis Carroll. This was the weekly poetry project for the week of January 21st, 2007.
34 episodes
Charlton Miner Lewis' version of Gawayne and the Green Knight, a late 14th century alliterative romance, is written in modern language telling the story of the Green Knight's challenge to Gawayne, and the romance between Sir Gawayne and Lady Elfinheart. The name Gawayne is often also spelled Gawain. (Summary by Betsie Bush)
4 episodes
Librivox’s Short Poetry Collection 021: a collection of 20 public-domain poems.
20 episodes
LibriVox volunteers bring you 13 different recordings of The Phantom-Wooer by Thomas Lovell Beddoes. This was the weekly poetry project for the week of January 28th, 2007.
13 episodes
American poet Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass, is a collection of poems notable for its frank delight in and praise of the senses, during a time when such candid displays were considered immoral. Where much previous poetry, especially English, relied on symbolism, allegory, and meditation on the religious and spiritual, Leaves of Grass exalted the body and the material world.
Whitman was inspired to begin Leaves of Grass after reading an essay by Ralph Waldo Emerson which expressed a need for a uniquely American poet. When the book was first published, Whitman sent a copy to Emerson, whose praiseful letter of response helped launch the book to success. Whitman’s hero, Abraham Lincoln, read and enjoyed an early version of Leaves of Grass. Despite such high recommendations, Whitman faced charges of obscenity and immorality for his work, but this only led to increased popularity of the book.
Whitman continually revised and republished Leaves of Grass throughout his lifetime, notably adding the “Drum-Taps” section after Lincoln’s assassination. The book grew from 12 poems in its first publication, which Whitman paid for and typeset himself, to nearly 400 poems in its final, “Death Bed Edition.” This recording is of the final edition.
(Summary adapted from wikipedia.org by Annie Coleman)
34 episodes
Librivox’s Short Poetry Collection 022: a collection of 20 public-domain poems.
20 episodes
LibriVox volunteers bring you 23 different recordings of Sonnet 43 by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. This was the weekly poetry project for the week of February 4th, 2007.
23 episodes
LibriVox volunteers bring you 9 different recordings of A Match by Algernon Charles Swinburne. This was the weekly poetry project for the week of February 11th, 2007.
9 episodes
Librivox’s Short Poetry Collection 023: a collection of 20 public-domain poems.
20 episodes
Robert Frost, who lived from March 26, 1874 to January 29, 1963, was a winner of 4 Pulitzer prizes and one of America’s best loved poets. This selection of his poems is a short walk through the variety of his simplistic natural themes and complex social understandings. (Summary by Becky Miller, Canal Winchester, Ohio)
8 episodes
The sweetest songs the world has ever heard are the lullabies that have been crooned above its cradles. The music of Beethoven and Mozart, of Mendelssohn and Schumann may perish, but so long as mothers sing their babies to sleep the melody of cradle lullabies will remain. Of all English and American writers the one who sang most often and most exquisitely these cradle songs was Eugene Field, the children's poet. His verses not only have charm as poetry, but a distinct song quality and a naive fancy that is both childlike and appealing. That they were written out of Eugene Field's deep and genuine love of children and out of his sympathetic understanding of their wondering minds is evident from the fact that his lullabies have taken a high and what seems to be a permanent place in the world's classic literature of childhood. (Excerpted by Becky Miller from the Introduction by Edwin Osgood Grover to “Cradle Lullabies” by Eugene Field, published in 1909)
12 episodes
LibriVox volunteers bring you 9 different recordings of Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight by Vachel Lindsay. This was the weekly poetry project for the week of February 18th, 2007.
9 episodes
E. Nesbit (Edith Bland) was a prodigious 19th century children’s writer who produced over 60 books of fiction for children. This book of poems has many elements which would appeal to children but there’s also some exploration of her feelings of love, lust and longing which your average 10 year old would find downright yucky. There are also moments of joy, moments of sugary sweetness and moments of sharp insight in this collection which contains views from many angles. Recurring themes of love, death, gardens and fairies give us a fine insight into the lively imagination of E. Nesbit. (Summary by Jim Mowatt.)
1 episodes
Librivox’s Short Poetry Collection 025: a collection of 20 public-domain poems.
20 episodes
Ophelia, poem of the week for February 25, 2007; read here by twelve of our readers. This was published in 1920 in "Collected Poems 1901-1918" by Walter De la Mare.
Ophelia loved Hamlet, was repulsed by him, and went insane. She drowned in a stream, gathering flowers of remembrance. This is one of a number of poems that De La Mare wrote about Shakespeare characters. (Summary by Peter Yearsley)
12 episodes
A collection of Australian writing from the public domain.
7 episodes
LibriVox volunteers bring you 15 different recordings of Miracles, by Walt Whitman. This was the weekly poetry project for the week of March 4th, 2007.
15 episodes
LibriVox’s Short Poetry Collection 026: a collection of 20 public-domain poems.
20 episodes
LibriVox volunteers bring you 11 different recordings of O, it was out by Donnycarney, by James Joyce, in celebration of St. Patrick's Day. This was the weekly poetry project for the week of March 11th, 2007.
11 episodes
LibriVox volunteers bring you 17 different recordings of I’m Nobody, by Emily Dickinson. Dickinson’s text of this poem contains two possible versions of it. There is a great deal of discussion among academics as to which she preferred. Only one version forms part of this collection. This was the weekly poetry project for the week of March 18th, 2007.
17 episodes
Long Poems Collection 005: a collection of 10 public-domain poems longer than 5 minutes in length.
10 episodes
LibriVox’s Short Poetry Collection 027: a collection of 20 public-domain poems.
20 episodes
William Shakespeare (April 26, 1564 – April 23, 1616) remains widely to be considered the single greatest playwright of all time. He wrote in such a variety of genres - tragedy, comedy, romance, &c - that there is always at least one monologue in each of his plays. Some of these teach a lesson, some simply characterize Shakespeare at his best, some are funny, some sad, but all are very moving. Each monologue will touch everybody differently. Some people will be so moved by a particular monologue that they will want to record it. So here are the first fifteen monologues. (Summary by Shurtagal).
A pdf file of of the monologues in this collection is available here
15 episodes
LibriVox volunteers bring you 15 different recordings of Lines Written in Early Spring by William Wordsworth. This was the weekly poetry project for the week of March 25th, 2007.
15 episodes
John Clare (1793 - 1864) was a farm labourer in the village of Helpstone, Northamptonshire, who became arguably England’s greatest nature poet. He rose to fame when his ‘Poems Descriptive of Rural Life and Scenery’ was published in 1820. His language preserves many local dialect words in a mixture of classical forms and heart-felt love of country life and nature. The poems in this collection are from his early career, and are largely free of pointers to his later mental illness. (Summary by David Barnes).
20 episodes
LibriVox readers present the second collection of monologues from Shakespeare’s plays. Containing 15 parts. William Shakespeare (April 26, 1564 – April 23, 1616) remains widely to be considered the single greatest playwright of all time. He wrote in such a variety of genres - tragedy, comedy, romance, &c - that there is always at least one monologue in each of his plays. Some of these teach a lesson, some simply characterize Shakespeare at his best, some are funny, some sad, but all are very moving. Each monologue will touch everybody differently. Some people will be so moved by a particular monologue that they will want to record it. (Summary by Shurtagal).
15 episodes
LibriVox volunteers bring you 9 different recordings of Dover Beach, by Matthew Arnold. This was the weekly poetry project for the week of April 8th, 2007.
9 episodes
LibriVox readers present the third collection of monologues from Shakespeare's plays. Containing 20 parts. - William Shakespeare (April 26, 1564 – April 23, 1616) remains widely to be considered the single greatest playwright of all time. He wrote in such a variety of genres - tragedy, comedy, romance, &c - that there is always at least one monologue in each of his plays. Some of these teach a lesson, some simply characterize Shakespeare at his best, some are funny, some sad, but all are very moving. Each monologue will touch everybody differently. Some people will be so moved by a particular monologue that they will want to record it. (Summary by Shurtagal).
20 episodes
A Boy's Will is Robert Frost's first full volume of poetry. Issued when Frost was approaching forty, it established his reputation and created a revolution in American poetry. With this publication, Frost became an established poet. He later became the major American poet of the twentieth century.A Boy's Will is characteristic of Frost's ability to conjure photographically clear physical images while ruminating on the complexities of the human condition, its frailties and strengths, and its temporal state, like that of his beloved New England landscape. (Summary by Becky Miller)
3 episodes
LibriVox volunteers bring you 15 different recordings of A Dream within a Dream by Edgar Allan Poe. This was the weekly poetry project for the week of April 15th, 2007.
15 episodes
LibriVox’s Short Poetry Collection 028: a collection of 20 public-domain poems.
20 episodes
LibriVox volunteers bring you 17 different recordings of Foreign Lands by Robert Louis Stevenson. This was the weekly poetry project for the week of April 22nd, 2007.
17 episodes
Emily Dickinson has come to be regarded as one of the quintessential poets of 19th century America. A very private poet with a very quiet and reclusive life, her poetry was published posthumously and immediately found a wide audience. While she echoed the romantic natural themes of her times, her style was much more free and irregular, causing many to criticize her and editors to "correct" her. In the early 20th century, when poetic style had become much looser, new audiences learned to appreciate her work. Here collected are many of her most contemplative, most rebellious, and "dark" works, expressing her frustrations with the behavioral confines of her times, and the confines of being human and unknowing of eternity. (Summary by Becky Miller)
25 episodes
LibriVox volunteers bring you 15 different recordings of What think you I take my pen in hand? by Walt Whitman. This was the weekly poetry project for the week of April 29th, 2007.
15 episodes
LibriVox volunteers bring you 8 different recordings of Song by Aphra Behn. This was the weekly poetry project for the week of May 6th, 2007.
8 episodes
LibriVox’s Short Poetry Collection 029: a collection of 20 public-domain poems.
20 episodes
John Clare (1793 - 1864) was a farm labourer in the village of Helpstone, Northamptonshire, who became arguably England's greatest nature poet. He rose to fame when his 'Poems Descriptive of Rural Life and Scenery' was published in 1820. His language preserves many local dialect words in a mixture of classical forms and heart-felt love of country life and nature. This volume comprises fifteen of his bird poems. (Summary by David Barnes).
15 episodes
Sonnets from the Portuguese, written ca. 1845–1846 and first published in 1850, is a collection of forty-four love sonnets written by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. The poems largely chronicle the period leading up to her 1846 marriage to Robert Browning. The collection was acclaimed and popular even in the poet's lifetime and it remains so today. Elizabeth was initially hesitant to publish the poems, feeling that they were too personal. However, Robert insisted that they were the best sequence of English-language sonnets since Shakespeare's time and urged her to publish them. To offer the couple some privacy, she decided that she might publish them under a title disguising the poems as translations of foreign sonnets. Therefore, the collection was first to be known as Sonnets from the Bosnian, until Robert suggested that she change their imaginary original language to Portuguese, probably after his nickname for her: "my little Portuguese." (Summary from Wikipedia)
44 episodes
LibriVox volunteers bring you 11 different recordings of the Fisher’s Boy by Henry David Thoreau. This was the weekly poetry project for the week of May 13th, 2007.
11 episodes
LibriVox volunteers bring you 27 different recordings of Drinking Alone by Moonlight by Li Bai in Mandarin, Cantonese and English. This was the weekly poetry project for the week of May 20th, 2007.
27 episodes
LibriVox’s Short Poetry Collection 030: a collection of 20 public-domain poems.
20 episodes
Poems by Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell was a volume of poetry published jointly by the three Bronte sisters, Charlotte, Emily and Anne in 1846, and their first work to ever go in print. To evade contemporary prejudice against female writers, the Bronte sisters adopted androgynous first names. Marked by profound sentiments, gravity and melodious harmony, the poems are strewn on the fields of soulful love, rueful reminiscence and the immortal yearnings of a Christian soul, and represent a fragrant assemblage of noetic flowers from the glebes of olden England. For those not familiar with the Bronte sisters' poetry, it should be noted that many of their poems were written in the context of their fictional, shared worlds of Gondal and Angria. (Written by Ellis Christoff)
60 episodes
In celebration of Memorial Day in the United States, 2007, LibriVox volunteers bring you twelve different recordings of Dirge for Two Veterans by Walt Whitman. This was the weekly poetry project for the week of May 27th, 2007 (summary by Karen Savage).
12 episodes
LibriVox’s Short Poetry Collection 031: a collection of 20 public-domain poems.
20 episodes
A light and whimsical collection of poems by the celebrated children's author E Nesbit, in collaboration with Saretta Nesbit. (Summary by David Barnes)Read by David Barnes, Lizzie Driver, Sarah McIntyre, Stuart Pyle, Cori Samuel, and Peter Yearsley.
1 episodes
LibriVox volunteers bring you eleven recordings of Nippon by Alfred Noyes. This was the weekly poetry project for the week of June 9th, 2007.
11 episodes
This book contains verse for young and old. It is full of fantastic stories, breathtaking images, and brilliant rhymes. Including classics from "The Duel" to "The Delectable Ballad of Walter Lot," the author, a devout Christian, keeps his religious overtones to a minimum. When listening, please keep in mind that the text was originally written in the 1800s. -- Summary by Squid Varilekova
43 episodes
LibriVox’s Short Poetry Collection 032: a collection of 20 public-domain poems.
20 episodes
