One of Dante's earliest works, La vita nuova or La vita nova (The New Life) is in a prosimetrum style, a combination of prose and verse, and tells the story of his youthful love for Beatrice. The prose creates the illusion of narrative continuity between the poems; it is Dante's way of reconstructing himself and his art in terms of his evolving sense of the limitations of courtly love (the system of ritualized love and art that Dante and his poet-friends inherited from the Provençal poets, the Sicilian poets of the court of Frederick II, and the Tuscan poets before them)...

LibriVox volunteers bring you 11 recordings of To Sleep by Sir Philip Sidney. This was the Weekly Poetry project for January 23, 2014. Sir Philip Sidney (30 November 1554 – 17 October 1586) was an English poet, courtier and soldier, who is remembered as one of the most prominent figures of the Elizabethan age.

This poem is taken from Phantasmagoria and Other Poems by Lewis Carroll.

Henry Lawson was an Australian writer and poet. Along with his contemporary Banjo Paterson, Lawson is among the best-known Australian poets and fiction writers of the colonial period and is often called Australia's "greatest short story writer".

This is a collection of 30 poems read by LibriVox volunteers for June 2015.

This is a collection of 27 poems read by LibriVox volunteers for August 2015.

LibriVox volunteers bring you 13 recordings of Spring, 1918 by Sara Teasdale. This was the Weekly Poetry project for May 11th, 2014.

LibriVox volunteers bring you 16 readings of Romance by Andrew Lang, probably best known as Edward Elgar's song My Love Dwelt in a Northern Land. Interestingly, Lang initially refused permission for his words to be used as lyrics, and Elgar's wife Alice wrote alternative words Afar, amidst the Sunny Isles for the song. However, Lang later relented and gave permission for his poem to be used. The poem was initially published in The Century Magazine, May 1882, and this is the version recorded here. Later collections of Lang's poetry omit the third verse.

This is a collection of 18 poems read by LibriVox volunteers for July 2014.

This is a volume of poems by Arthur Conan Doyle, published in 1919. Many of them concern wartime experiences.

Montgomery's poem on winter is an analogy for life, symbolizing the three life stages of youth, adulthood and old age.

LibriVox volunteers bring you eight recordings of "To A Skylark." This is the Fortnightly Poetry for August 8, 2014.To A Skylark was completed by Shelley in late June 1820. It was inspired by an evening walk in the country near Livorno, Italy, with his wife Mary Shelley, and describes the appearance and song of a skylark they come upon.

This is a collection of 22 poems read by LibriVox volunteers for September 2014.

Librivox volunteers bring you 14 readings of My Shadow, by Robert Louis Stevenson. Stevenson's famous poem concerns a child's shadow, and it's antics. This was the weekly poetry project for the week of September 7th, 2014.

Popular for his simple, delicate poetry for children, this Irishman wrote these verses for his three children, Gerald, Eva and Henry, and others like them. Typically, they touch on fairies and nature.

Librivox volunteers bring you seven readings of Farewell! – But Whenever – by Thomas Moore. This is the fortnightly poetry project for October 12, 2014.

Librivox volunteers bring you eight readings of An Autumn Walk with Deborah by Aline Kilmer. This was the weekly poetry project for the week of October 12, 2014.

This is a collection of 27 poems read by LibriVox volunteers for December 2015.

Librivox volunteers bring you fifteen readings of In Flanders Fields, one of the more famous poems written during the First World War. John McCrae was a poet and physician from Guelph, Ontario. His close friend, Alexis Helmer, was killed during the battle on May 2. McCrae performed the burial service himself, at which time he noted how poppies quickly grew around the graves of those who died at Ypres. The next day, he composed the poem while sitting in the back of an ambulance.

Librivox volunteers bring you 11 readings of Harbour Dawn by L. M. Montgomery. This was the fortnightly poem for November 23 - December 7, 2014.

A History through Poetry of the exploration and settling of North American by Europeans. Beginning with Leif Erikson, and continuing through the Age of Exploration to the colonies of Virginia and New Amsterdam, including the arrival of the Puritans, the life of Pocahontas, the persecution of the Quakers, and the horror of the Salem Witch Trials, with works by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, John Greenleaf Whittier, Edward Everett Hale, Benjamin Franklin, William Wordsworth, Julia Ward Howe, and many, many more. This is the first of 5 volumes that cover American History through poetry from the Vikings to WWI.

Librivox volunteers bring you eleven readings of My Doves, by Louisa May Alcott. This was the fortnightly poem for December 21, 2014 - January 4, 2015

"Birds and All Nature" was a monthly publication of the Nature Study Publishing Company of Chicago. It includes short poems and brief descriptions of birds, animals and other natural subjects with accompanying color plates. The magazine was published from 1897-1907 under the various titles, "Birds," "Birds and all Nature," "Nature and Art" and "Birds and Nature." Good listening for anyone with a love of nature!

A LibriVox' Weekly Poetry tribute to Robbie Burns on the upcoming Robbie Burns Day. (January 25) Robert Burns (also known as Robbie Burns, Rabbie Burns, Scotland's favourite son, the Ploughman Poet, Robden of Solway Firth, the Bard of Ayrshire and in Scotland as The Bard) was a Scottish poet and lyricist. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland and is celebrated worldwide. He is the best known of the poets who have written in the Scots language, although much of his writing is also in English and a light Scots dialect, accessible to an audience beyond Scotland...

Elizabeth Chase Akers Allen was an American author, journalist and poet.

"Birds and All Nature" was a monthly publication of the Nature Study Publishing Company of Chicago. It includes short poems and brief descriptions of birds, animals and other natural subjects with accompanying color plates. The magazine was published from 1897-1907 under the various titles, "Birds," "Birds and all Nature," "Nature and Art" and "Birds and Nature."

Emma Lazarus was an American poet born in New York City. She is best known for "The New Colossus", a sonnet written in 1883; its lines appear on a bronze plaque in the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty placed in 1903.

This poem was published just six weeks after the event, its lines emphasize the valour of the cavalry in bravely carrying out their orders, regardless of the obvious outcome. The Charge of the Light Brigade was a charge of British light cavalry led by Lord Cardigan against Russian forces during the Battle of Balaclava on 25 October 1854 in the Crimean War. Lord Raglan, overall commander of the British forces, had intended to send the Light Brigade to pursue and harry a retreating Russian artillery battery, a task well-suited to light cavalry...

From John Bunyan's classic, The Pilgrim's Progress, we find the poem To Be a Pilgrim, an inspiring reminder of who we are in Christ. This was the weekly poem for March 8-15, 2015.

Arthur Macy was a Nantucket boy of Quaker extraction. His name alone is evidence of this, for it is safe to say that a Macy, wherever found in the United States, is descended from that sturdy old Quaker who was one of those who bought Nantucket from the Indians, paid them fairly for it, treated them with justice, and lived on friendly terms with them. In many ways Arthur Macy showed that he was a Nantucketer and, at least by descent, a Quaker. He often used phrases peculiar to our island in the sea, and was given, in conversation at least, to similes which smacked of salt water. Almost the last time I saw him he said, "I'm coming round soon for a good long gam."

This poem is taken from A Book of Women’s Verse published in 1921. (

This is a collection of 31 poems read by LibriVox volunteers for May 2015.