Great Poems

By: Audible Studios

Narrated by: Maxine Peake, Bill Wallis, Rupert Penry-Jones, Jenny Agutter, Bill Paterson, Dean Lennox Kelly, Rupert Holliday Evans

An anthology of over 50 classic poems, read by some of our finest actors. This collection contains a selection of the very best poems, from verses inspired by love to war poetry, nature poems and children's rhymes. Here are much-loved favourites such as 'A Red, Red Rose', 'She Walks in Beauty', 'Anthem for Doomed Youth', 'If...', 'Kubla Khan', 'Ode to a Nightingale', 'Jabberwocky', 'My Shadow' and 'The Jumblies'; as well as timeless poems by such celebrated authors as Shakespeare, Burns, Byron, Shelley, Yeats, Kipling and Wordsworth.

Beautifully read by a wealth of well-known actors, these are poems that you will never tire of listening to. Performed by Maxine Peake, Bill Wallis, Rupert Penry-Jones, Jenny Agutter, Bill Paterson, Dean Lennox Kelly, Rupert Holliday Evans, Michael Jayston, Samantha Bond, Michael Maloney, David Schofield, Anthony Howell, Claire Rushbrook, Alex Jennings, Emilia Fox, Geoffrey Palmer and Julia McKenzie.

Public Domain (P)2014 Audible, Inc.

Great!

I enjoyed this. First couple of chapters a bit too many love poems for my taste but overall I enjoyed this listen and will listen again.

Chapter titles are unhelpful

Audible ought to take the extra time and actually include poem titles as the chapter names. Otherwise, the anthology is fine with a good mix of narration.

Poems, performed.

Loved most of the poems included in this book. It was nice to have multiple voices narrating, except some were way too soft/quiet to hear. I know they lower their voices for effect but if you can't hear the words ??? I'm a big fan of the chapters or divides between poems so I can stop and start easily.

The narrators did a wonderful job !

There's a little bit of everything for everyone in the content. It's not exactly what my personal choices would have been but it was quite enjoyable.

great book

I love these poems, very well read , probably the best of all poem books

Great selection of poetry

Well selected works and well performed. I very much enjoyed the characterizations of the poets.

excellent

every poem so delightfully read and the selection of poems were all to my liking . I'm finding that I really enjoy being read to. I do recommend.

Beautifully recited. I listen to this over and over.

Jenny Agutter's readings have such depth of emotion. Love poems, melancholy poems of youth lost, terribly sad poems about the waste that is war, while still honoring the warrior. I love this anthology.

Not for Poetry Snobs. Full Listing in Review.

This collection grew on me, and the narration is very very good.

I delayed reviewing this since I was initially disappointed/bemused with the selection and did not wish to dash off an unfair review. This does not have anything by John Donne or Dylan Thomas (for example), and nothing more recent than WH Davies (maybe the only living poet included). Some poets have more than one poem (the editor clearly is fond of Wilfred Owen as five are included). It is arranged in themes, and within the themes I felt the juxtaposition of the choices was a bit unique (e.g. blithely mixing centuries/wars).

However, I found myself choosing to listen to this anthology a fair few times and really appreciate the narration. For example the profoundly sad “Strange Meeting” (by Owen) stands out for me. Likewise I found the narration of “The Hunting of a Snark” made the poem finally enjoyable (having never really enjoyed nonsense poems before).

The poems are as follows:

Love Themed:
My Delight and thy delight, by Robert Bridges; Red Red Rose, Robert Burns; When I was 1 and 20 – AE Houseman; Ay Fond Kiss, Robert Burns; Sonnet 43, Elizabeth Barrett Browning; My true love hath my heart, Philip Sidney; Passionate Sheppard to his love, Christopher Marlowe; I love thee, Thomas Hood; To my loving Husband, Anne Bradstreet; Annie Laurie, William Douglas; She Walks in Beauty, Bryon; Loves Philosophy, Percy Bysse Shelley; (Extract of) Romeo & Juliet & Sonnet 18, Wm Shakespeare; He wishes for the Cloths of Heaven, Wm Butler Yeats;

War /Conflict / Grief Themed
1914, The Soldier, Rupert Brook; I saw his round mouths crimson, Owen; Vitaï Lampada, Newbolt; In Flanders fields, John McCrae; Anthem for doomed youth, Owen; Elegy in a Country Churchyard, GK Chesterton; Remember, Christina Rossetti; Ex Clerk, Kipling; Disabled, Owen; I have a rendezvous with death, Alan Seeger; The charge of the light brigade, Tennyson; Grief, Elizabeth Barrett Browning; In Gethsemane, Kipling; Dulce et decorum est, Owen; After Great Pain a Form of Feeling comes, Emily Dickinson; Strange Meeting, Owen

Sense of Place/Stages of Life
If, Rudyard Kipling; Leisure, WH Davies; To a butterfly, Wordsowrth; Innisfree, Wm Butler Yeats; Kubla Khan, Coleridge; (Extract of) Lady of Shallot, Tennyson; Ode to a Nightingale, Keats; The Rainbow, Wordsworth; (Extract of) Endymion, Keats; Auguries of Innocence, Blake; To Daffodils, Robert Herrick; From Cocoon forth a butterfly, Emily Dickinson

Nonsense /Children's poems
(Extract from) The Hunting of a Snark, Lewis Carroll; The Cow, RL Stephenson; Trioley, I wish I were a jelly fish, GK Chesterton; From Looking glass, Lewis Carroll; The song of Mr. Toad, Kenneth Graham; The pobble who has no toes, Lear; The Elephant, AE Housman; Jabberwocky, Lewis Carroll; The Camels Complaint, Charles Edward Carroll; My shadow, RL Stephenson.

Fantastic Collection

A great anthology of poems to listen to over and over again. Easy to follow.