volunteers bring you 18 recordings of The Wish by Ella Wheeler Wilcox. This was the Weekly Poetry project for April 3, 2022. What if you could do it all over again, would you? This Weekly is taken from Poems of Power by Ella Wheeler Wilcox

A popular poet rather than a literary poet, in her poems she expresses sentiments of cheer and optimism in plainly written, rhyming verse. Her world view is expressed in the title of her poem "Whatever Is—Is Best", suggesting an echo of Alexander Pope's "Whatever is, is right." None of Wilcox's works were included by F. O. Matthiessen in The Oxford Book of American Verse, but Hazel Felleman chose no fewer than fourteen of her poems for Best Loved Poems of the American People, while Martin Gardner selected "The Way Of The World" and "The Winds of Fate" for Best Remembered Poems.

volunteers bring you 25 recordings of Duty by Ellen Sturgis Hooper. This was the Weekly Poetry project for October 4, 2020. ------ Ellen Sturgis Hooper was an American poet. A member of the Transcendental Club, she was widely regarded as one of the most gifted poets among the New England Transcendentalists. Her work is occasionally reprinted in anthologies. She is a new author in the Catalog. - Summary by Wikipedia

His career spanned more than forty years, and his stories, poems, and articles were published in more than 225 magazines. His work appeared alongside that of his contemporaries, including Mark Twain, Sax Rohmer, James B. Hendryx, Berton Braley, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Don Marquis, Will Rogers, and Edgar Rice Burroughs. Despite the enormous volume of his work, Butler was, for most of his life, only a part-time author. He worked full-time as a banker and was very active in his local community. A founding member of both the Dutch Treat Club and the Authors League of America, Butler was an always-present force in the New York City literary scene.

This is a volume of poetry by Belgian poet Émile Verhaeren, skillfully rendered into English verse by Charles Murphy. Although the English translation was published during World War I, the French original was published in 1905, and the topic of the poems is Verhaeren's love for his wife Marthe. - Summary by Carolin

A selection of poems from Belgian symbolist poet Émile Verhaeren, translated from French by Alma Strettell. Most of the poems selected are from 'Les Villages Illusoires' and are rooted in Verhaeren's observations of the everyday life and landscapes of his native Flanders. The selection also includes extracts from 'Les Heures Claires', a love poem for his wife , and poems from the earlier and later volumes, Les Apparus dans mes Chemins' and 'La Multiple Splendeur' . - Summary by Philip Benson

The Sunlit Hours [Les Heures Claires] is a volume of very personal poetry by Belgian poet Émile Verhaeren. The poetry in this volume is dedicated to his wife, celebrating their relationship with beautiful poetry of love. - Summary by Carolin

This volume contains 21 poems for children by Emilie Poulsson. In her own words, "In the belief that such rhymes as are herein offered gratify and increase in children both the love of animals and the sense of humor, this new volume is sent forth not only to give pleasure, but to contribute what it may to the fostering of these desirable traits."

Renowned poet Emily Dickinson (1830 – 1886) wrote many many poems. This collection, “Poems: Series One”, presents the first installment of the complete poetic works of Miss Emily Dickinson. It is broken into four parts: Life, Love, Nature, and Time and Eternity. The verses of Emily Dickinson belong emphatically to what Emerson long since called “the Poetry of the Portfolio,”–something produced absolutely without the thought of publication, and solely by way of expression of the writer’s own mind. The poetry found here is then entirely honest, and indicative of the authors true feelings.

"The eagerness with which the first volume of Emily Dickinson's poems has been read shows very clearly that all our alleged modern artificiality does not prevent a prompt appreciation of the qualities of directness and simplicity in approaching the greatest themes,—life and love and death. That "irresistible needle-touch," as one of her best critics has called it, piercing at once the very core of a thought, has found a response as wide and sympathetic as it has been unexpected even to those who knew best her compelling power. This second volume, while open to the same criticism as to form with its predecessor, shows also the same shining beauties."

In tribute to the first real snowfall this year.

LibriVox volunteers bring you 15 recordings of Because I Could Not Stop For Death by Emily Dickinson. This was the Weekly Poetry project for May 12, 2013.Despite Dickinson's prolific writing, fewer than a dozen of her poems were published during her lifetime. After her younger sister Lavinia discovered the collection of nearly eighteen hundred poems, Dickinson's first volume was published four years after her death. Until the 1955 publication of Dickinson's Complete Poems by Thomas H. Johnson, her poems were considerably edited and altered from their manuscript versions. Since 1890 Dickinson has remained continuously in print.

LibriVox volunteers bring you 11 recordings of She sweeps with many-colored Brooms by Emily Dickinson. This was the Weekly Poetry project for February 24, 2013.Dickinson was a prolific private poet, but fewer than a dozen of her nearly eighteen hundred poems were published during her lifetime. The work that was published during her lifetime was usually altered significantly by the publishers to fit the conventional poetic rules of the time. Dickinson’s poems are unique for the era in which she wrote; they contain short lines, typically lack titles, and often use slant rhyme as well as unconventional capitalization and punctuation.

Emily Dickinson is one of the most intriguing of American poets. Since she grew increasingly reclusive, very few of her poems were published until after her death. This collection includes two letters Dickinson wrote to her friends on the occasion of the deaths of her friend, Mr. Humphrey, and her brother, Austin. The rest of collection consists of her poetry on the subject of death.

volunteers bring you 15 recordings of A Sea Story, by Emily Henrietta Hickey. This was the Fortnightly Poetry project for June 27th, 2021. ------ This Irish author, narrative poet and translator is new to our catalog. In this poem, she tells a sad tale of a shipwreck and the agonizing choice of who lives and who doesn't.

My Grandma's father arrived in this country through New York City, and often spoke to my dad, when he was a boy, of what it was like to first see the Statue of Liberty. Most of my relatives arrived through Philadelphia or Boston, and didn't get to see the the "mighty woman with the torch" until later life, on vacation trips to New York City, when she was a must-see for them all. My Grandma always loved this Emma Lazarus poem, so I read this one especially for her, but also for all the other family members who came here "yearning to breathe free". And for those just like my family, who are still "♫♪coming to America, today♫♪".

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.

volunteers bring you 14 recordings of A Thunderstorm At Night By Eric Mackay. This was the Weekly Poetry project for June 13, 2022. ------ George Eric Mackay was an English minor poet, now remembered as the sponging half-brother of Marie Corelli, the best-selling novelist. As a poet he is described as "execrable",[5] and reliant on Corelli's promotion of his works. His first works appeared in periodicals in the early 1860s; he achieved some reputation in his time for Letters of a Violinist . It sold 35,000 copies; he repaid Corelli's efforts by implying he wrote her novels.

George Eric Mackay was an English minor poet, now remembered as the sponging half-brother of Marie Corelli, the best-selling novelist. Mackay and Corelli, born Mary Mackay, were the children of Charles Mackay, by different mothers. As a poet he is described as "execrable", and reliant on Corelli's promotion of his works. Mackay achieved some reputation in his time for Letters of a Violinist . It sold 35,000 copies; he repaid Corelli's efforts by implying he wrote her novels. - Summary by Wikipedia

The author arranged for this collection of three short stories and ten poems to be printed in a small run of 300 copies in Dijon The book entered into the public domain in 2019. - Summary by KevinS

Ernest Vincent Wright was an American author known for his book Gadsby, a 50,000-word novel which, except for the introduction and a note at the end, did not use the letter "e". The biographical details of his life are unclear. A 2002 article in the Village Voice by Ed Park said he might have been English by birth but was more probably American. The article said he might have served in the navy and that he has been incorrectly called a graduate of MIT. The article says that he attended a vocational high school attached to MIT in 1888 but there is no record that he graduated. Park said rumors that Wright died within hours of Gadsby being published are untrue. - Summary by Wikipedia

A collection of poems with varying subjects.

If you've heard and loved that delightful nursery rhyme/lullaby, Wynken Blynken and Nod you'd certainly enjoy browsing through its creator Eugene Field's Love Songs of Childhood. The volume contains some forty or more poems for children, which are ideal for read aloud sessions with young folks. Parents will certainly enjoy reading them too. Most of these poems have been set to music and are ideal for family sing-alongs too. Eugene Field was a gifted humorist as well as being a talented children's writer...

The sweetest songs the world has ever heard are the lullabies that have been crooned above its cradles. The music of Beethoven and Mozart, of Mendelssohn and Schumann may perish, but so long as mothers sing their babies to sleep the melody of cradle lullabies will remain. Of all English and American writers the one who sang most often and most exquisitely these cradle songs was Eugene Field, the children’s poet. His verses not only have charm as poetry, but a distinct song quality and a naive fancy that is both childlike and appealing...

Eugene Field, Sr. was an American writer, best known for his children's poetry and humorous essays.

Lullaby-Land: Songs of Childhood is a book of children’s poetry by Eugene Field. Within the poems in this volume you will find some of his well-known works including The Duel, Wynken, Blynken and Nod, and Little Boy Blue. - Summary by SweetHome

LibriVox volunteers bring you 12 recordings of Dibdin’s Ghost by Eugene Field. This was the Fortnightly Poetry project for December 30, 2012.This Fortnightly Poem is taken from An American Anthology, 1787–1900, edited by Edmund Clarence Stedman,(1833–1908).

This poem is taken from Volume X, A Library of American Literature: An Anthology in Eleven Volumes. 1891. Vols. IX–XI: Literature of the Republic, Part IV., 1861–1889

LibriVox volunteers bring you 11 recordings of The Compliment by Eugene Field. This was the Weekly Poetry project for September 1, 2013.

The book is made up of poems compiled from the “Little Book of Western Verse,” the “Second Book of Verse,” and the files of the “Chicago Daily News,” the “Youth’s Companion,” and the “Ladies’ Home Journal” , including such favorites as The Sugar Plum Tree, Wynken, Blynken, and Nod, and Little Boy Blue, by the Poet of Childhood, Eugene Field. - Summary by AnnaLisa Bodtker

Librivox volunteers bring you 11 recordings of Wynken, Blynken, and Nod by Eugene Field. This was the Fortnightly Poetry project for September 14-28, 2014."Wynken, Blynken, and Nod" is a popular poem for children written by American writer and poet Eugene Field and published on March 9, 1889. The original title was Dutch Lullaby.The poem is a fantasy bed-time story of three children sailing and fishing in the stars. Their boat is a wooden shoe. The little fishermen symbolize a sleepy child's blinking eyes and nodding head.

This is the eleventh volume of the 15-volume series of The World’s Story: a history of the World in story, song and art, edited by Eva March Tappan. Each book is a compilation of selections from prose literature, poetry and pictures and offers a comprehensive presentation of the world's history, art and culture, from the early times till the beginning of the 20th century. Part XI contains stories about Canadian history and about the discovery of Central and South America, from the early Inca and Aztec civilizations to the 20th century revolutions and upheavals. - Summary by Sonia Cast list for The Court of Justice of General Gomez: Major: Jim Locke / Gomez: Monika M.C. / Narrator: Sonia

This is the tenth volume of the 15-volume series of The World’s Story: a history of the World in story, song and art, edited by Eva March Tappan. Each book is a compilation of selections from prose literature, poetry and pictures and offers a comprehensive presentation of the world's history, art and culture, from the early times till the beginning of the 20th century. Part X covers the second part of the history of England, from the Stuart Kings till the early 1900s. Also included are excerpts from the history of Ireland, Scotland and Wales, as well as Irish and Welsh legends and Scottish ballads...

This is the twelfth volume of the 15-volume series of The World’s Story: a history of the World in story, song and art, edited by Eva March Tappan. Each book is a compilation of selections from prose literature, poetry and pictures and offers a comprehensive presentation of the world's history, art and culture, from the early times till the beginning of the 20th century. Part XII compiles stories about the early history of the United States, starting with the first explorators, the fights with the native Americans, the early settlers and culminating with the struggle for independence from the European leaders. - Summary by Sonia

This is the thirteenth volume of the 15-volume series of The World’s Story: a history of the World in story, song and art, edited by Eva March Tappan. Each book is a compilation of selections from prose literature, poetry and pictures and offers a comprehensive presentation of the world's history, art and culture, from the early times till the beginning of the 20th century. Part XIII is the second volume of the history of the United States, exploring topics from the Civil War, the settlement on the West Coast, and new scientific discoveries from the 19th and early 20th centuries. - Summary by Sonia

This is the first volume of the 15-volume series of The World’s Story: a history of the World in story, song and art, edited by Eva March Tappan. Each book is a compilation of selections from prose literature, poetry and pictures and offers a comprehensive presentation of the world's history, art and culture, from the early times till the beginning of the 20th century. Topics in Part I include China, Korea, Japan and the Islands of the Pacific. - Summary by Sonia Cast list for The Sorrows of...

This is the second volume of the 15-volume series of The World’s Story: a history of the World in story, song and art, edited by Eva March Tappan. Each book is a compilation of selections from prose literature, poetry and pictures and offers a comprehensive presentation of the world's history, art and culture, from the early times till the beginning of the 20th century. Topics in Part II include India, Siam, Afghanistan, Persia, Mesopotamia and Palestine. - Summary by Sonia Cast list for Sakoontala, or the lost ring: King: Tomas Peter First Attendant: Eva Davis Second Attendant: TJ Burns Child: lorda Sakoontala: Monika M...

This is the third volume of the 15-volume series of The World’s Story: a history of the World in story, song and art, edited by Eva March Tappan. Each book is a compilation of selections from prose literature, poetry and pictures and offers a comprehensive presentation of the world's history, art and culture, from the early times till the beginning of the 20th century. Topics in Part III include Egypt, Northern, Western and Central Africa, South Africa and Arabia. - Summary by Sonia Cast list for The Death of Cleopatra: Dolabella: Tomas Peter Charmian: Monika M...

This is the fourth volume of the 15-volume series of The World’s Story: a history of the World in story, song and art, edited by Eva March Tappan. Each book is a compilation of selections from prose literature, poetry and pictures and offers a comprehensive presentation of the world's history, art and culture, from the early times till the beginning of the 20th century. Topics in Part IV include Greek mythology, the classical Greek period and the Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire. - Summary by Sonia Cast list for The sacrifice of Iphigenia: Iphigenia: Devorah Allen / Chorus: alanmapstone / Messenger: Foon / Clytemnestra: Monika M...

LibriVox volunteers bring you 12 recordings of The Demon of the Gibbet by Fitz-James O'Brien. This was the Fortnightly Poetry project for February 10, 2013.Fitz James O'Brien was an Irish-born American writer, some of whose work is often considered a forerunner of today's science fiction. After emigrating to the United States in 1852 he contibuted numerous articles in prose and verse to Harpers Magazine, Vanity Fair and Atlantic Monthly. He died IN April 1862 from severe wounds suffered in the American Civil War.

This is a volume of poems by Florence Earle Coates. The poems in this volume describe the Zeitgeist perfectly - not only are they in style in many ways representative for American poetry around the turn of the last century, but moreover, many of the poems are discussing the current events of the time. This volume contains poems on the Cuban War of Independence, the coronation of Edward VII of England, and poems to several politically and culturally prominent persons of the time. - Summary by Carolin

volunteers bring you 28 recordings of Faith by Fanny Kemble. This was the Weekly Poetry project for January 16, 2022. ----- Fanny Kemble was a British actress who also found time to be a popular author of poetry, plays, travelogues, eleven volumes of memoirs, and more. She was an abolitionist after having been married for 14 years to a wealthy American plantation owner. This poem expresses the desire for trust over cynicism. - Summary by TriciaG

This is a volume of poetry by American author Frances Cook Steen, published in 1922. These poems reflect with clarity on the preceding decade, including the war and all the other personal and historical events which Ms Steen lived through and witnessed. - Summary by Carolin

Frances Cornford, the granddaughter of Charles Darwin, wrote several volumes of poetry. In this volume is one of her best known poems, the sad and comic "To a Fat Lady Seen From a Train". - Summary by AnnaLisa Bodtker

This is a collection of poems by Connecticut poet Frances Louisa Bushnell. Ms Bushnell was an eminent person in her local social circles, and she herself and her poetry were highly respected. This volume contains a selection of her poetry, privately published after her death. - Summary by Carolin

The memoirs of Frances Ridley Havergal, a great missionary and hymn writer.

A collection of poems by Frances Ridley Havergal and others, all describing different aspects of our walk with God, from 'Coming to the King' to 'Under the Shadow.'

volunteers bring you 14 recordings of The West, by Francis Borton. This was the Fortnightly Poetry project for May 30, 2021. ------ This fortnightly poem is from "The Call of California, and other poems of the West" by Francis Borton. It talks about harsh nature's cruel majesty and mastery over the animals, and then man's heroic attempts to master nature. - Summary by Michele Fry

Palgrave's principal contribution to the development of literary taste was contained in his Golden Treasury of English Songs and Lyrics (1861), an anthology of the best poetry in the language constructed upon a plan sound and spacious, and followed out with a delicacy of feeling which could scarcely be surpassed. This book is a delightful one to listen to with family or friends. You're sure to find something to relate to in these wonderful poems.

Aucassin and Nicolette is a medieval romance written in a combination of prose and verse called a “song-story.” Created probably in the early 13th century by an unknown French author, the work deals with the love between the son of a count and a Saracen slave girl who has been converted to Christianity and adopted by a viscount. Since Aucassin’s father is strongly opposed to their marriage, the two lovers must endure imprisonment, flight, separation in foreign lands, and many other ordeals before their ardent love and fierce determination finally bring them back together...

Francis William Lauderdale Adams was an essayist, poet, dramatist, novelist and journalist who produced a large volume of work in his short life. A self-professed 'Child of his Age', Adams combined in his life and work many distinctive features of both fin de siècle British culture and the Australian radical nationalism of the 1890s, including a strong sympathy with socialist and feminist movements. - Summary by Wikipedia

volunteers bring you 15 recordings of The Wounded Soldier in the Convent by François Coppée. This was the Weekly Poetry project for January 23, 2022, in honour of Coppée's 180th birthday on January 26. The poem was written in Paris during the Siege, November 1870 and celebrates caring nurses who work with difficult patients. ----- François Coppée was a French poet and novelist. He was famed as le poète des humbles . His verse and prose focus on plain expressions of emotion, patriotism, the joy of young love, and the pitifulness of the poor. - Summary by TriciaG & Wikipedia

The Goop Directory of Juvenile Offenders Famous for Their Misdeeds and Serving as a Salutary Example for All Virtuous Children In this DIRECTORY you'll see Just what you never ought to be; And so, it should Direct you way To Good Behavior, every day. The children of whose faults I tell Are known by other names, as well, So see that you aren’t in this group Of Naughty Ones. Don’t be a Goop!

This is a biography of the Wright Brothers as told by the American humorist and newspaperman Fred Kelly, a personal friend of the Wrights. It is described in reviews as "fascinating and highly readable." - Summary by Ciufi Galeazzi

The Joyful Wisdom (later translated as The Gay Science), written in 1882, just before Zarathustra, is rightly judged to be one of Nietzsche’s best books. Here the essentially grave and masculine face of the poet-philosopher is seen to light up and suddenly break into a delightful smile. The warmth and kindness that beam from his features will astonish those hasty psychologists who have never divined that behind the destroyer is the creator, and behind the blasphemer the lover of life. In the retrospective...

In 12th-13th century Japan there lived a man named Fujiwara no Teika (sometimes called Sadaie), a well-regarded poet in a society that prized poetry. At one point in his life he compiled the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu (often known simply as the Hyakunin Isshu), which means “A Hundred Poems by A Hundred Poets” (literally “A hundred people, one poem [each]“). This collection of a hundred poems is known to almost all Japanese, and over the years it has been translated by many different people. One of the early translators of the collection was William Porter. His translation, first published in 1909, was titled “A Hundred Verses from Old Japan”.

Part diatribe, part discourse, part sermon and part stand-up comedy, this is Fulke Greville's 114 stanza, verse-poem about religious hypocrisy.

An English epic poem that follows the exploits of Alfred the Great in his defense of Christian civilization in England from the heathen nihilism of the North. Following a string of defeats at the hands of the invading Danes, a vision from heaven in the river island of Athelney fills Alfred with joy and hope. Though it gives no promise of victory in the coming struggle, it inspires him to rally his chieftains for a last stand against the invading hordes. His adventures lead throughout the country...

This book of poetry by G.K. Chesterton, originally published in 1922, contain 35 poems on a variety of subjects.

Originally published in 1916, this book of poetry by G.K. Chesterton includes 59 poems on a variety of subjects. Included in this are war poems, love poems, religious poems, ballades and more.