volunteers bring you 13 recordings of The Chambered Nautilus by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. This was the Fortnightly Poetry project for July 3, 2022. ------ The poet discovers an abandoned nautilus shell on the beach, and examining it, muses metaphorically about the beauty and precision of nature, the benefits of struggle, and the motive power of passion which propelled this creature through its life to build this magnificent edifice. It is through the example of the tiny nautilus, growing bigger...

volunteers bring you 16 recordings of "Summer Dawn" by William Morris. This was the Weekly Poetry project for July 10, 2022. ------ When this poem was first published in 1856 it had no title. Subsequently, the 1858 edition gave the sonnet its title of "Summer Dawn." And it is a sonnet, though it does not follow traditional English or Italian models. Perhaps Morris was giving hint of the Provençal 'alba.' These poems in their early form were conversations between two lovers. The requirement is that each stanza end with the word 'alba' [dawn]. Morris ends lines five and eleven this way. - Summary by KevinS

This is a very impressive collection of some of the best sonnets from the pen of the incomparable William Wordsworth. The appreciation that Wordsworth had for the beauty of his surroundings is vibrantly exhibited in these selections, as are his feelings on love, friendship, society, conflict, history, the supernatural and indeed the art of poetry itself. And what better vehicle for the elegant articulation of a master poet's thoughts and inspirations than the sonnet, an art form ideally suited to assertion, verbalization and contemplation...

volunteers bring you 11 recordings of "Song" by Trumbull Stickney. This was the Weekly Poetry project for July 31, 2022. ----- Mr. Stickney may have reached his highest fame in this century when the first verse of his poem 'Song' was plagiarized by a character in the 2006 film "The Good Shepherd." - Summary by KevinS

This is a collection of 38 poems read in English by volunteers for August 2022.

volunteers bring you 19 recordings of Ode 7 by Anacreon, translated by Sir Thomas Moore. This was the Weekly Poetry project for August 14, 2022. ----- The more things change, the more they stay the same. Written sometime around 500 BC, this little poem expresses the desire to live life to the fullest with the time one has left. Here's to gray hair and the autumn of one's life! - Summary by TriciaG

volunteers bring you 15 recordings of Sight by Archibald Lampman. This was the Weekly Poetry project for August 28, 2022. ------ Lampman is classed as one of Canada's Confederation Poets, a group that also includes Charles G.D. Roberts, Bliss Carman, and Duncan Campbell Scott. - Summary by Wikipedia

volunteers bring you 16 recordings of Lockerbie Street by James Whitcomb Riley. This was the Fortnightly Poetry project for August 28, 2022. ------ James Whitcomb Riley was an American writer and poet, who lived in Indianapolis. Here among his books and his souvenirs, the poet spent his happy and contented days. To reach this restful spot, the pilgrim must journey to Lockerbie Street, a miniature thoroughfare half hidden between two more commanding avenues. It is little more than a lane, shaded, unpaved, and from end to end no longer than a five minutes' walk, but its fame is for all time.

This is a collection of 42 poems read in English by volunteers for September 2022.

Jun Fujita's tanka are timeless, still, sad. Written in English, one wonders whether the recurring deserts are in Japan, in America, or in the poet's state of mind: that of a scarecrow flapping in wind. The form is as loose and haunting as modern English-language tanka. - Summary by czandra

This is a collection of 45 poems read in English by volunteers for October 2022.

This is a 50-poem sequence of 16-line sonnets, divided into 10 sections. It has been called "a novelette in sonnet form". The author, George Meredith, pours his heart out in raw anguish, pain, and heartbreak, as he recalls the moments, and sometimes intimate memories of his wife who deserted him for another lover.

volunteers bring you 17 recordings of Music by Stephen Vincent Benét. This was the Weekly Poetry project for October 30, 2022. ------ Stephen Vincent Benét was from a family with roots in Florida, which explains the Spanish name. He attended Yale starting in 1915 and that same year published his first book of poems, `Five Men and Pompey'. `Young Adventure' is considered his first mature book of poetry, and he went on to win two Pulitzer Prizes, in 1929 for `John Brown's Body' and in 1944 for `Western Star'. )

"Lucasta" is of Latin origin meaning "Pure Light". Besides the dedication of the first poem to his wife, Anne Lovelace, this selection of poems are written from the viewpoint of a soldier who is going off to war - to his lover, who is the love of his life, his Lucasta. While pouring his heart out with memories of her beauty and the joy's that they have shared, he fears she will think badly of him for leaving, and will not wait for him. Therefore, he makes pleas for her loyalty, her love, for her understanding, and for the sacrifice he feels he must make.

This is a collection of 37 poems read in English by volunteers for November 2022.

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

In Edwy, Ann Radcliffe gives us a delightful piece of poetic moonshine, whose eponymous hero seeks assistance from the world of faerie in order to spy on his girlfriend, Aura, and see if she really loves him. He does this by venturing unseen into Windsor Forest at night to trap the love-fay, Eda, who, once spellbound, must reveal all and let him remotely view Aura's activities by means of a magic mirror cut from crystal. In addition to this early form of cyberstalking, Edwy, on his night-journey into the forest gets to witness a royal procession of the Fairie Queen, followed by midnight revels of elves and spirits...

This is a collection of 21 poems read by LibriVox volunteers for February 2013.

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.

LibriVox volunteers bring you 16 recordings of Love is enough by William Morris. This was the Weekly Poetry project for February 17, 2013.William Morris was an English textile designer, artist, writer, and libertarian socialist associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and English Arts and Crafts Movement. He was instumental in establishing the modern fanasty genre, and thus influenced writers such as J. R. R. Tolkien. Morris also wrote and published poetry, fiction, and translations of ancient and medieval texts.

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.

This is a collection of poems read by LibriVox volunteers for March 2013.

LibriVox volunteers bring you 13 recordings of The Wish by Abraham Cowley. This was the Fortnightly Poetry project for February 24, 2013. Abraham Cowley (/ˈkuːli/) was a leading English poet in the 16th century.

LibriVox volunteers bring you 8 recordings of The Voyage to Vinland by James Russell Lowell. This was the Fortnightly Poetry project for March 10, 2013.Although this version of the poem is sometimes printed separately, it is really only part of a longer poem (approximately one fifth of the whole). The complete work has 3 parts and this is only part of the last section. Only about one fourth of Gudrida's song of prophecy is included here.

This is a collection of poems read by LibriVox volunteers for April 2013.

LibriVox volunteers bring you 15 recordings of Mis' Smith,/em>, by Albert Paine. This was the Weekly Poetry project for April 7th, 2013.

LibriVox volunteers bring you 18 recordings of At Ease on Lethe Wharf, by Helen Coale Crew. This was the Weekly Poetry project for April 14th, 2013.Helen Coale Crew was an American poet and novelist. Her touching evocation of forgetfulness comes from the Chicago Anthology, published in 1916. Lethe refers to the first river that souls bound for the Elysian Fields, the Heaven of the ancient Greeks, had to cross. Drinking from the river was said to have the effect of expunging all memories.

This is a collection of poems read by LibriVox volunteers for May 2013.

LibriVox volunteers bring you 10 recordings of The Hillside Thaw by Robert Frost. This was the Fortnightly Poetry project for May 5th, 2013.

LibriVox volunteers bring you 21 recordings of Mastery by Sara Teasdale. This was the Weekly Poetry project for April 28th, 2013.

LibriVox volunteers bring you 14 recordings of The Conscientious Deacon by Vachel Lindsay. This was the Weekly Poetry project for May 5th, 2013.Vachel Lindsay described this poem as "a song to be syncopated as you please". According to Wikipedia he is considered the father of modern singing poetry (as he referred to it) in which verses are meant to be sung or chanted. His extensive correspondence with the poet Yeats details his intentions to revive the musical qualities in poetry as had been practised by the ancient Greeks. (Introduction by Ruth Golding)

A few years ago, while recovering from an illness, I conceived the idea of writing some reminiscent lines on country life in the Wayne Highlands. And during the interval of a few days I produced some five hundred couplets,—a few good, some bad and many indifferent—and such speed would of necessity invite the indifferent. A portion of these lines were published in 1907. However, I had hoped to revise and republish them, with additions of the same type, at a later date as a souvenir volume of verses for those who spend the summer months among these hills—as well as for the home-fast inhabitants...