The Greatest American Poetry

By: Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, Carl Sandburg

Narrated by: Bill Pullman, Meryl Streep, Elliott Gould, Burt Reynolds

Elliott Gould, Burt Reynolds, Meryl Streep, and a host of other celebrities read over 100 poems by four of America's greatest poets. Walt Whitman celebrates the brash and rugged individualism of his country in exuberant language. The spare, precise language of Emily Dickinson conveys her penetrating vision of the natural world and an acute understanding of the most profound human truths. Robert Frost draws his inspiration from everyday incidents, common situations, and rural imagery. Pulitzer Prize winner Carl Sandburg's poetry embodies a love of and compassion for the common man that earned him the nickname "poet of the people".

Copyright (P) and ©1998 Dove Audio, Inc.

horrible

I am sure the poetry is fine, but this did not translate well into electronic form. The quality is poor and the readings are not that entertaining or engaging. One of the few electronic books I gave up on.

Why are the poets not mentioned?

I would like to know whose poem I am listening to.
It is frustrating to hear a poem and not know which poet wrote it.

Painful

It is like someone found a beautiful and ancient persian rug, and, feeling that it wasn't quite enough on its own, decided to paint racing stripes on it. Narration - great. Quality - terrific Poems - wonderful (of coarse). All spoiled by that obnoxious music playing in the background. Seriously, who in their right minds, takes a lyrical art, an art that is demanding enough on the listener, and says lets put some loud complex violin music in the background!

Like Listening to a Ransom Note

Excruicating. Haphazard. It was the audible equivalent of a ransom note. Bits and pieces in different styles and sizes stuck together, sharp and torn corners, with glue squeezing out the corners.

A good gift, but poorly wrapped

I enjoyed the material and readers on this audiobook, but continually wished that the titles of individual poems were given more consistently and that a listing of the poems was available somewhere through audible or elsewhere. I wanted to study the material further in print, but was frustrated in identifying poem titles for that purpose.

Disappointing

I join the chorus of others who grieve that there were no introductions. Halfway through I had no idea the titles or authors, other than four were listed on the title page. I came to assume those read by Meryl Streep were Emily Dickinson’s. The poems themselves were excellent and I knew enough about the American Transcendental movement of the 19th Century. However, it was a tragic miscalculation on the producer’ s part not to identify the author of the poem before its start. Many of the first poems I didn’t even realize that the first phrase was actually the title. I caught on to that halfway through. Still it would have been better to know the author of each poem. This organizational flaw forced me to score it 1 and 2 stars. That is in sharp contrast to 95% of audible titles I gladly rank 4 and 5 stars.

Wow, wonderful poetry reading!!!

So many different all star voices reading there favorite poems from their favorite author's. I liked best The Road less Traveled by Frost, But I can not say who read it just that I loved it. There are many many that I loved as well, but MS brain won't let me remember the titles or names here. Just that I loved them and I will listen to this again and again.