A Little History of Poetry
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A Little History of Poetry
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Narrated by:
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Ralph Lister
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By:
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John Carey
About this listen
The Bookseller (UK) Editor's Choice
A vital, engaging, and hugely enjoyable guide to poetry, from ancient times to the present, by one of our greatest champions of literature
What is poetry? If music is sound organized in a particular way, poetry is a way of organizing language. It is language made special so that it will be remembered and valued. It does not always work - over the centuries countless thousands of poems have been forgotten. This little history is about some that have not.
John Carey tells the stories behind the world’s greatest poems, from the oldest surviving one written nearly four thousand years ago to those being written today. Carey looks at poets whose works shape our views of the world, such as Dante, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Whitman, and Yeats. He also looks at more recent poets, like Derek Walcott, Marianne Moore, and Maya Angelou, who have started to question what makes a poem “great” in the first place. This little history shines a light on the richness and variation of the world’s poems - and the elusive quality that makes them all the more enticing.
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Best-selling historian and philosopher Will Durant devoted his entire life to studying the most significant eras, individuals, and achievements of human history. Here is a summation of Durant's work, as he presents the best of world history. Filled with Durant's renowned wit, knowledge, and unique ability to explain events in simple and exciting terms, it is a concise liberal arts education.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Puzzled
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By: Will Durant
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The Higher Self
- The Magic of Inner and Outer Fulfillment
- By: Deepak Chopra MD
- Narrated by: Deepak Chopra
- Length: 6 hrs and 32 mins
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 374
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 372
Welcome on a behind-the-scenes tour of creation, an experience that will change forever the way you understand reality.
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3 out of 5 stars
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It's A Book, Not A Show
- By Krandall/Shivaji on 11-01-15
By: Deepak Chopra MD
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Keats
- A Brief Life in Nine Poems and One Epitaph
- By: Lucasta Miller
- Narrated by: Sally Scott
- Length: 10 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 50
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 43
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Story5 out of 5 stars 42
Miller, through Keats’s poetry, brilliantly resurrects and brings vividly to life, the man, the poet in all his complexity and spirit, living dangerously, disdaining respectability and cultural norms, and embracing subversive politics. Keats was a lower-middle-class outsider from a tragic and fractured family, whose extraordinary energy and love of language allowed him to pummel his way into the heart of English literature; a freethinker and a liberal at a time of repression, who delighted in the sensation of the moment.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A Romantic Life
- By David on 05-03-22
By: Lucasta Miller
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Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea
- Why the Greeks Matter
- By: Thomas Cahill
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 7 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 338
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 155
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Story4 out of 5 stars 155
Best selling history writer Thomas Cahill continues his series on the roots of Western civilization with this volume about the contributions of ancient Greece to the development of contemporary culture. Tracing the origin of Greek culture in the migrations of armed Indo-European horsemen into Attica and the Peloponnesian peninsula, he follows their progress into the creation of the Greek city-states, the refinement of their machinery of war, and the flowering of intellectual and artistic culture.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Super super
- By Richard on 12-28-03
By: Thomas Cahill
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Spoon River Anthology
- By: Edgar Lee Masters
- Narrated by: Patrick Fraley, Edward Asner
- Length: 4 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 108
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 75
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Story4 out of 5 stars 74
From a cemetery in a mythical small town in Illinois, the dead speak about their lives. Each free-verse monologue stands as an epitaph for the person speaking, yet the play is ultimately about life, not death. Featuring 50 performers with specially commissioned original music, this is the only audio version of this landmark classic available.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Magnificent American poetry
- By Admiral Pike on 04-14-05
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A Season in Hell & The Drunken Boat
- English and French Edition
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- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 99
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 83
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 83
Originally distributed as a self-published booklet, A Season in Hell by Arthur Rimbaud quickly established him to be the "first punk" and a visonary mentor to the Beat poets for both his recklessness and fiery poetry according to famous poet of the Beat Generation, Allen Ginsberg.
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5 out of 5 stars
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English Version Great - French Missing
- By Earth Lover on 02-21-19
By: Arthur Rimbaud
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Primitive Mythology
- The Masks of God Series, Volume I
- By: Joseph Campbell, David Kudler - editor
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- Length: 19 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 146
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 124
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 124
The author of such acclaimed books as The Hero With a Thousand Faces and The Power of Myth discusses the primitive roots of mythology, examining them in light of the most recent discoveries in archaeology, anthropology, and psychology.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Epic speculation into the origins of our mythic consciousness
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By: Joseph Campbell, and others
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Wagnerism
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- By: Alex Ross
- Narrated by: Alex Ross
- Length: 28 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 143
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 122
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 119
Alex Ross, renowned New Yorker music critic and author of the international best seller and Pulitzer Prize finalist The Rest Is Noise, reveals how Richard Wagner became the proving ground for modern art and politics - an aesthetic war zone where the Western world wrestled with its capacity for beauty and violence.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Not Just for Wagner Experts!
- By Rupert Pupkin on 09-26-20
By: Alex Ross
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The Greek Way
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- Narrated by: Nadia May
- Length: 8 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 314
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 253
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 250
Based on a thorough study of Greek life and civilization, of Greek literature, philosophy, and art, The Greek Way interprets their meaning and brings a realization of the refuge and strength the past can be to us in the troubled present. Miss Hamilton's book must take its place with the few interpretative volumes which are permanently rooted and profoundly alive in our literature.
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3 out of 5 stars
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...Not as Good as The Echo of Greece
- By The Masked Reviewer on 11-04-16
By: Edith Hamilton
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Leaves of Grass
- By: Walt Whitman
- Narrated by: Robin Field
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- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 209
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 148
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Story4 out of 5 stars 151
One of the great innovators in American letters, Walt Whitman created a daringly new kind of poetry that became a major force in world literature. Leaves of Grass is his masterpiece, written in a pure, uninhibited style, combining sensual and mystical sensibilities. Its bold, joyous voice, its expansive optimism, and its transcendental vision made it uniquely American.
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4 out of 5 stars
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No chapters! Can't skip to a particular poem :(
- By April Antoniou on 02-08-13
By: Walt Whitman
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Bulfinch’s Mythology
- The Age of Fable, or Stories of Gods and Heroes
- By: Thomas Bulfinch
- Narrated by: Jonathan Cowley
- Length: 13 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 69
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 57
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Story4 out of 5 stars 58
First published in three separate volumes from 1855 to 1863, Bulfinch's Mythology quickly became the standard source of classic tales from ancient Greece and Rome, the Norse tradition, and beyond. This edition contains the full text of The Age of Fable, or Stories of Gods and Heroes, the first volume of Bulfinch's seminal work. From stories of the Greek gods of Mt. Olympus to retellings of the Iliad and the Odyssey, from descriptions of mythological monsters to tales of Hindu and Egyptian deities, Bulfinch's versions of these classic stories bring their characters to life.
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4 out of 5 stars
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new stories, and covers alot.
- By Felisa Kay on 03-28-17
By: Thomas Bulfinch
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De Profundis
- By: Oscar Wilde
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- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 40
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 38
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 38
At its heart, De Profundis is a love letter and is better known as the De Profundis papers. Written in 1897, while Oscar Wilde was imprisoned in Reading Gaol, De Profundis would become one of his best-known works. The papers include Wilde's account of living a lavish lifestyle and his relationship with Lord Alfred Douglas, both of which he credited for his eventual downfall and imprisonment. The second half of the papers is Wilde's account of prison life and his spiritual awakening.
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1 out of 5 stars
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This Work Really Is Wilde Going Off...
- By James E. Lytle on 05-16-21
By: Oscar Wilde
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Leaves of Grass
- 1855 Edition
- By: Walt Whitman
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
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- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 55
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 48
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 48
In 1855, Walt Whitman published, at his own expense, the first edition of Leaves of Grass, a visionary volume of 12 poems. Showing the influence of a uniquely American form of mysticism known as Transcendentalism, the writing is distinguished by an explosively innovative free-verse style and previously unmentionable subject matter. Exalting nature, celebrating the human body, and praising the senses and sexual love, this monumental work, now a classic of American poetry, was condemned as immoral upon publication.
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5 out of 5 stars
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password “primaeval”
- By Chas Carner on 05-28-20
By: Walt Whitman
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Lear
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- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 29
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 28
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Story5 out of 5 stars 28
King Lear is perhaps the most poignant character in literature. The aged, abused monarch is at once the consummate figure of authority and the classic example of the fall from majesty. He is widely agreed to be William Shakespeare's most moving, tragic hero. Award-winning writer and beloved professor Harold Bloom writes about Lear with wisdom, joy, exuberance, and compassion. He also explores his own personal relationship to the character.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Bloom being Bloom
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Homer Box Set: Iliad & Odyssey
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 3,004
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,716
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,709
Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey are unquestionably two of the greatest epic masterpieces in Western literature. Though more than 2,700 years old, their stories of brave heroics, capricious gods, and towering human emotions are vividly timeless. The Iliad can justly be called the world’s greatest war epic. The terrible and long-drawn-out siege of Troy remains one of the classic campaigns. The Odyssey chronicles the many trials and adventures Odysseus must pass through on his long journey home from the Trojan wars to his beloved wife.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Oddball Translation
- By Joel Jenkins on 05-11-17
By: Homer, and others
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What listeners say about A Little History of Poetry
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Casey
- 08-11-21
Interesting details, great historical context, disappointingly Eurocentric
Despite providing a sky high overview of the history of poetry, this book does include many small, fascinating details about the lives of some of the greatest poets the world has ever known.
However the perspective is quite Eurocentric. I was very disappointed in the disproportionate amount of time spent on male English poets versus everyone else. Just two minutes dedicated to the great Maya Angelou.
I did enjoy the historical and political context provided in framing contributions to the world body of poetry.
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