Poems & Poetry

Read in English by Elizabeth P.; aniroo; KHand; Eva Davis; Jason in PanamaTom Kettle was an Irish economist, journalist, barrister, writer, poet, soldier and Home Rule politician. All these varied interests helped him compose beautiful and very witty poetry, until his death at the Western Front in World War I. This volume was published immediately after his death, and may give a good overview over the work and the many talents of this now almost forgotten writer. - Summary by Carolin

These inspiring tributes to Williams College and its graduates were written by Henry Rutgers Conger while still a Williams student. In each of these poems we experience Conger's deep expressions of camaraderie, his devotion and gratitude to his alma mater, his aspirations for his future and that of his classmates and his profound articulation of lessons learned at Williams designed to serve him and his colleagues well in their lives and careers. Henry Rutgers Conger's own brief life ended a mere twenty-one years after his graduation. This small book of Conger's poetry, commemoratively published by his own graduating class the year following his death, is a superb tribute to the talent and potential of this poet of Williams College, which as a further honor awards the annual Henry Rutgers Conger Memorial Literary Prize to a current Williams student. - Summary by Bruce Kachuk

These poems, from Herbert’s book The Temple, show the evolution of a soul’s relationship with God. Sudden reversals of mood are common, for although Herbert is best known for his quiet tone, he was not a tranquil man but proud and ambitious. He achieved tranquility by active effort. His works may be read autobiographically, for they are intensely personal. Yet through his personal experience we perceive a reality larger than the personal. For example, his many homely comparisons—to bowling, pulleys, laxatives, a blunted knife, sweeping a room—serve “for lights of Heavenly Truths,” as he says of scriptural references to matters of daily life like “a plough, a hatchet, leaven, boyes piping and dancing.” Hence we find in Herbert a startling simplicity of spirit, an almost mystical ability to make every sensory experience sacramental and to express deep and subtle emotions with perfect tact.

Read in English by Josh Mitteldorf47 poems, most of them sonnets, most on the subjects of beauty and death, touching the mystery just beyond the known. - Summary by Josh Mitteldorf

Recording of an assortment of wedding-themed poetry by various authors, read in honor of Kristin and Corey's wedding (April 2006). Congratulations, you two!

Recording of Selected Public Domain Poems by John Masefield. Read by Liam Neely. Maritime and metaphysical verse by John Masefield, English Poet and author, Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom from 1930 until his death. (Summary by Liam Neely)

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.

These three poems by the English poet and playwright John Drinkwater (1882-1937) come from The Collected Poems Of John Drinkwater, Volume 2, first published in 1923. This recording may be freely downloaded and distributed, as long as Voices of Today is credited as the author. It may not be used for commercial purposes or distributed in an edited or remixed form.

Gerald William Bullett was a British man of letters. He was known as a novelist, essayist, short story writer, critic and poet. He wrote both supernatural fiction and some children's literature. "Mice & Other Poems" is one of a series of small volumes of poetry published after WWI mostly by graduates of the University of Cambridge. The doyen of "Cambridge English", Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, had this to say about the series: "That since the War, young men in extraordinary numbers have taken to expressing themselves in verse is a plain fact, not to be denied: that they choose, as often as not, to express themselves in 'numbers' extraordinary to us can as hardly be contested. But the point is, they have a crowding impulse to say something; and to say it with the emotional seriousness proper to Poetry. For my part, I love the discipline of verse: but I love the impulse better.

Elizabeth Drury, daughter of Donne's patron, Sir Robert Drury, died in 1610. A year later Donne laments her hyperbolically as the soul of the created universe. In "An Anatomy of the World: The First Anniversary," he poetically scrutinizes that year-old corpse, the world, as if he were performing an autopsy (an "anatomy"). He finds it corrupt in every part, the dead woman having carried with her every spark of goodness it once contained. To commemorate the second anniversary of Miss Drury's death, Donne's "Progress of the Soul" (1612) celebrates her liberation from this world, urges readers to follow her example, and performs a cheerful spiritual meditation upon the process of death, burial, and corruption—cheerful because death frees us from the inconveniences of this life and serves as a portal to the next.

In 1921, American poet H.D. collected and published a selection of previously published poems by Marianne Moore. Although this angered Moore, as it was entirely unauthorized, she later accepted the edition as well made and used it as the basis for her own 1924 publication of Obersvations. Moore's unique poetry matches the experimentation underway during the American Modernist movement. Much of it incorporates seemingly out-of-place quotations into complex free verse that often uses Nature as a subject matter. Today, despite the self-motivated alteration of her poetry in later life, done much to the dismay of her devotees, scholars consider Moore a significant American poet worthy of intense study in an a unalterable place in the canon.

Read in English by BettyB; Gaby; Algy Pug; Lilith Branda; Alexa B.; Michael Lucas; Jessi McDanielLewis Carroll's most enduring works are the Adventures of Alice in Wonderland, but he also wrote some very interesting poetry. The poems in this particular volume are called "serious" in the preface, and though they are written in Lewis Carroll's accessible style, they are addressed to adults, with many of the poems having themes such as love and death. - Summary by Carolin

Victoria Mary Sackville-West, The Hon Lady Nicolson, best known as Vita Sackville-West, was an English author and poet. Her long narrative poem, The Land, won the Hawthornden Prize in 1927. She won it again, becoming the only writer to do so, in 1933 with her Collected Poems. She helped create her own gardens in Sissinghurst, Kent, which provide the backdrop to Sissinghurst Castle. She was famous for her exuberant aristocratic life, her strong marriage, and her passionate affair with novelist Virginia Woolf. Poems of West and East is a short collection of her early work, which was published in 1917. (Summary by Wikipedia and Elizabeth Klett)

The superb skill and dexterity of D.H. Lawrence, a writer who profoundly influenced the literature of the twentieth century, is very evident in this collection of poems conceived during the years of The Great War. Lawrence, living a semi-nomadic lifestyle in England throughout these years, seized the opportunity to write of events and their effects from an objective but by no means dispassionate perspective.

This is a collection of poems by C. Maurice Stebbins. The titular poem is a Christmas poem, but it is dark and somber in tone. The following shorter pieces are very varied, making for a beautiful little collection. - Summary by Carolin

Read in English by Michael Landu; Jim Locke; Larry Wilson; Nemo; FoonThis is a volume of poetry by George Meredith. The first four poems are the cycle A Circle of Life, the rest of the poems are miscellaneous collected poems. - Summary by Carolin

A selection of poems in the Lancashire dialect by the foremost exponent of the form. A printer by training, Edwin Waugh left his trade for secretarial work and began his literary career in 1852. His first dialect poem, 'Come whoam to thi' childer and me', was written at the Clarence Hotel, Manchester, on 10 June 1856 and published in the Manchester Examiner the following day. The best known Lancashire dialect poem of its day, it inspired numerous followers whose dialect poetry and prose provided an often nostalgic accompaniment to the sound and fury of the industrial revolution. This selection of dialect poems was published shortly after Waugh's death alongside a selection of his standard English poetry. It consists of the poems that editor George Milner judged to be presentable and is accompanied by a critical introduction and commentary on Waugh's use of the Rochdale variety of the Lancashire dialect. - Summary by Phil Benson

The Raven and Other Poems, by Edgar Allan Poe. Read by Phil Chenevert "Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore— While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, As of some one gently rapping—rapping at my chamber door. "Tis some visitor," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door — Only this and nothing more." Those sonorous and somber words of Edgar Allan Poe that begin The Raven are part of most everyone's fond educational memories. Beautiful and haunting to hear and even more fun to read aloud. In this recording I have just attempted to express my enjoyment of the beauty in some favorite Poe poems. Beside The Raven, there are Alone; A Dream Within A Dream; Annabel Lee; City In the Sea; The Bells; A Dream Within a Dream; Annabel Lee; Dreamland; Evening Star; Lenore; Eldorado; A Valentine and "The Happiest Day". Hopefully listeners will enjoy hearing them half as much as I enjoyed the selfish pleasure of recording them. (Summary by Phil Chenevert)

Read in English by Lian Pang; Sonia; Diana Schmidt; Anusha Iyer; Gaby; AjaThis is a collection of 16 poems by William Allingham, selected and brought together by his admirer William Butler Yeats several years after Allingham's death. - Summary by Carolin

Patrick Brontë (father of the famous Brontë sisters, Charlotte, Emily and Anna) is mainly remembered as a father, reverend and teacher, but he also was a poet and a novelist. Cottage Poems, his first published work, he gives gentle spiritual advice and guidance to the community, colleagues and members of his congregation in the form of lyrical letters. Even if one is simply interested in his daughters' works, it is still interesting to see where the sisters' inspiration to write may have come from. (Summary by Mary Kay)

A concise collection of poems translated from the great German poet Rilke into formal English verse. Although the translation may be freer than some modern texts, this selection, which spans early and later writings and includes a preface refreshingly focused on the poet's artistic development, provides a nice entrée into Rilke's world. (Summary by Eva Davis)

Published in 1847, five years after her epic poem, 'Dionysus the Areopagite', 'Poems For My Children' was Ann Hawkshaw's second collection of poetry. The poems are dedicated to her six children and many are written in an intimate conversational style. 'Ada', the final poem in the collection, is a memorial for her second child, who had died of hydrocephalus shortly before her fifth birthday. Five historical poems, set in the times of the Druids, the Romans the Saxons, the Normans and the Crusades, punctuate the collection and anticipate her later collection, 'Sonnets on Anglo-Saxon History'. (Phil Benson)

A collection of poems by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, his first book of poetry after having become poet laureate in 1850. Among the "other poems" is The Charge of the Light Brigade, the most well-known poem in this collection. However, the bulk of the text is the poem Maud, which explores love, courtship, loss, grief, and purpose through the eyes of the emotionally unstable poet narrator. (Summary by TriciaG)

"I publish these poems, few though they are, because it is not likely that I shall ever be impelled to write much more. I can no longer expect to be revisited by the continuous excitement under which in the early months of 1895 I wrote the greater part of my first book, nor indeed could I well sustain it if it came; and it is best that what I have written should be printed while I am here to see it through the press and control its spelling and punctuation. About a quarter of this matter belongs to the April of the present year, but most of it to dates between 1895 and 1910. September 1922" - Summary by Preface

Read in English by Melissa Perry; Peter Yearsley; Nemo; Tomas Peter; Eva Davis; Jack Allan; Larry Wilson; annie70This is a collection of poems by DH Lawrence. Most of the poems concern love and neighboring emotions, but some poems also concern other themes. - Summary by Carolin

A selection of Shakespeare's poems from The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900. (Summary by Clarica)

This is a collection of poetry by Robert Bridges. This collection also contains some poems written right after World War I, reflecting the state of international politics very impressively."This miscellaneous volume is composed of three sections. The first twelve poems were written in 1913, and printed privately by Mr. Hornby in 1914.The last of these poems proved to be a “war poem,” and on that follow eighteen pieces which were called forth on occasion during the War, the last being a broadsheet on the surrender of the German ships. All of these verses appeared in some journal or serial. There were a few others, but they are not included in this collection, either because they are lost, or because they show decidedly inferior claims to salvage.The last six poems or sonnets are of various dates." - Summary by Carolin

Songs of Innocence and of Experience: Shewing the Two Contrary States of the Human Soul are two books of poetry by the English poet and painter, William Blake. Although Songs of Innocence was first published by itself in 1789, it is believed that Songs of Experience has always been published in conjunction with Innocence since its completion in 1794. Songs of Innocence mainly consists of poems describing the innocence and joy of the natural world, advocating free love and a closer relationship with God, and most famously including Blake's poem The Lamb. Its poems have a generally light, upbeat and pastoral feel and are typically written from the perspective of children or written about them.

A collection of poems by Lowell, one of the Fireside poets with Longfellow, Whittier, Holmes, and Bryant, including a sketch of his life. The collection is composed of the title piece, a retelling of an Arthurian legend, as well as 17 other poems. - Summary by Fritz