Ancient Poetry

Percy Bysshe Shelley was born at Field Place near Horsham, Sussex, England, on August 4th, 1792, and was drowned in the sea off Leghorn on July 8th, 1822, within a month of completing his 30th year. Here, Margaretta Scott reads a selection of his finest work.

The idiosyncratic Scottish poet William Topaz McGonagall has the unusual reputation as one of the worst poets in the English language with rhymes and rhythms that produce mirth rather than wonder. His masterpiece is The Tay Bridge Disaster. Scottish-born Gregor Fisher, who starred in Love Actually and other film and TV programs, reads the key poems and passages from the autobiography - and gets deep into character!

The poem written by Wilde while in exile about his time in Reading Prison and the hanging of Charles Thomas Wooldridge.

"L'Amour de vivre" rassemble les derniers textes de Cécile Le Ray, qu'elle habille de son timbre chaud et enveloppant. Après une carrière lyrique, où elle s'est produite sur de nombreuses scènes (Théâtre des Champs Élysées, Unesco...), elle est remarquée par France 2 et est invitée à plusieurs Teléthons. France 3 lui consacre même un documentaire.

The office of Poet Laureate goes back many centuries - informally to the time of Geoffrey Chaucer in 1389 and followed thereafter by a number of ‘volunteer laureates’. It was formally assigned to Ben Jonson in 1617 and, as a Royal office by letters patent in 1670, to John Dryden. It is a rich, rewarding history that bursts with the words, themes and visions of many great poets that has bound poetry and poets to a nation's soul.

One of the best-known poems in American literature, "Casey at the Bat", written in 1888 by Ernest Thayer and first published in The San Francisco Examiner on June 3, 1888, later popularized by DeWolf Hopper in many vaudeville performances.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge's classic poem about a sailor who shot an albatross and the woe that followed him afterwards. Narrated by professional voice actor Jake Phillips, host of The Cultured Bumpkin literature podcast.

Perhaps the most famous epic poem ever written, the Iliad has been read for nearly 3000 years, making it also one of the oldest written works in the Western world. Although the story covers only a few weeks in the final year of the Trojan War, the poem has made characters like Paris, Helen, Achilles, Hector, and Ajax instantly recognizable. The Iliad and the Odyssey influenced Virgil, whose Aeneid is clearly modeled after them, and every other great poet since.

"André Gide reste un isolé, inclassable, que son intransigeance morale a éloigné de toutes les chapelles. Cette impitoyable lucidité sans complaisance ne l'épargnait pas. Il dit de lui-même "A cet âge innocent où l'on voudrait que toute âme ne soit que transparence, tendresse et pureté, je ne vois en moi qu'ombre, laideur, sournoiserie." Son influence sur la jeunesse et les écrivains contemporains fut considérable. André Malraux l'a qualifié de "Contemporain capital"."

Vivez le Paris de la Belle Époque à travers ces 24 textes pleins de gouaille parisienne.

Ce cloaque, geôle suprême du fric-frac ; De l'ampoule qu'enjôle à l'extrême de l'enroule Et je rêvasse à l'Éole qu'essaime ma tignasse... À l'adresse de la tôle indemne, se dresse. Déjà l'envie du ressac indique la saga suivie : L'aiguille qu'encaque qui pique et qui brille En traître traque applique et pénètre La veine en vrac d'une unique mais pleine Seringue ; à sac elle nique, c'est dingue ! J'arrache du tac au tac un fantastique flash !

Le comte Roger d'Athol, après la mort de Véra, avec laquelle il a connu "une fusion idéale", demeure si fortement attaché à elle qu'il refuse sa disparition. Par la seule force de son amour, il nie la mort de sa "dame de volupté" et fait comme s'il vivait toujours avec elle. Mais la revenante disparaît à l'instant où il cesse de croire à sa présence et toute l'atmosphère fantastique s'évanouit sur le champ.

Ce monologue, ponctué de musiques, met en scène une bouteille qui raconte sa vie et son grand amour pour son vin, un rouge, et sa secrète attirance pour les blancs... L'action se déroule dans une cave bien entretenue, la cave d'un homme de qualité.

"C'est pendant l'été d'un pays du nord. C'est la fin d'un jour, juste avant la nuit. Vous voyez ? Mais déjà quand elle s'annonce, que la lumière s'allonge, illuminante, avant de s'éteindre." M. D. "Savannah Bay, variations" recueille des documents sonores inédits captés par Philippe Proust, retrouvés et présentés par Marie-Pierre Fernandes, spécialiste de Marguerite Duras qui a participé à sa création de "Savannah Bay", accueillie triomphalement en 1983 au théâtre du Rond-Point, et assisté l'autrice pour les "Lectures" (1984) et "La Musica deuxième" (1985).

This is the poet's final version of this poem. Coleridge is a master of mellifluous poetic phrasing - hypnotic and incantatory - and uses it deftly to weave a spellbinding tale of sin and redemption. How a ship was driven by storms towards the South Pole; and how then she made her course to the tropical Latitude of the Great Pacific Ocean; and of the strange things that happened; and in what manner the Ancient Mariner came back to his own country.

Ancient Mesopotamia is often referred to as the “cradle of civilization”, and there’s good reason for it. If you take a look at history, a lot of firsts happened in Mesopotamia. These origins were soon adapted by different civilizations around the world. They were refined until almost perfected.

Award-winning narrator and audiobook producer, Mike Vendetti reads The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, the experiences of a sailor who has returned from a long sea voyage. The mariner stops a man who is on his way to a wedding ceremony and begins to narrate a story. The wedding guest's reaction turns from bemusement to impatience to fear to fascination as the mariner's story progresses.

In this haunting poem, a guest on his way to a wedding reception is stopped by the Ancient Mariner. With his "glittering eye" he transfixes the guest and then relates a compelling tale of a sea voyage fraught with strange happenings. The Mariner tells of journeying through tyrannous storms to ice mast-high, through mist and snow to the deadly inertia of the doldrums. There are unearthly visitations, ill omens, and supernatural happenings - all leading to the revelation of the Mariner's strange fate.

Discover the secret agenda of The Walrus and the Carpenter as they stroll along the beach enticing and exciting the young oysters to follow them. This is a classic morality tale written by Lewis Carroll told as a children’s poem. And, it explores movements and causes, great and small, leaders and followers, and the risks of following leaders blindly.