Classic Poetry

January - the first month of the year in the Gregorian calendar ushers in the New Year. the cold and bleak landscape of winter nevertheless provides a rich background for our esteemed poets, such as Byron, Longfellow, Cowper, and Dickinson, to offer us their reflections and counterpoints.

With classics such as ‘My Last Duchess’ and ‘The Pied Piper of Hamelin’ Robert Browning’s status as one of the great Victorian poets will always be secure in popular culture, while for the more literary he is considered a master of dramatic verse and dramatic monologues. It is interesting to note that his career bloomed late. Indeed, it was only after the death of his wife Elizabeth in 1861 and his return to England from their life in Italy that his work came into wider acceptance and critical acclaim.

William Wordsworth was born on the 7th of April, 1770 and is rightly regarded as a major English poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature. His words have been proffered by many a tongue around the world. They stir, they inspire they create lyrical pictures and feelings as few others can. Wordsworth's was also Britain's Poet Laureate from his appointment by Queen Victoria in 1843 until his death in on the 23rd of April 1850.

Homer's epic poem in plain English, from the origin of the Siege of Troy, the deaths of Hector, Achilles, and Paris through to the Trojan Horse and the rescue of Helen, "the face that launched a thousand ships." Children and adults alike will enjoy this re-telling of this classic Greek legend of the Trojan War.

The Madman: His Parables and Poems, Gibran's first book published in English, is a collection of approximately 35 inspirational parables and poems on God, animals, human nature, and the meaning of life. These brief but memorable pieces serve as sources of contemplation and include "How I Became a Madman", "The Two Hermits", "The Wise Dog", "The Good God and the Evil God", "Night and the Madman", "When My Sorrow Was Born", and “When My Joy Was Born".

Digger Smith is an Australian soldier who has fought at Gallipoli. An old mate of Ginger Mick's (The Moods of Ginger Mick), he returns from the war to visit the family of a fellow solder, Jim Flood. Narrated by Bill (the protagonist of The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke and a neighbour of the Floods), the story is woven together with sobering reflections and emotive dynamics expressed within a community of neighbours - friends and families of Australia's soldiers.

The Prophet is a book of 26 simple prose fables written in by the fabled Lebanese-American poet and writer Kahlil Gibran. It was originally published in 1923 by Alfred A. Knopf and is Gibran's best known work.

La parole de Gaston Couté est à la fois ciselée, mordante, drôle ou lyrique... Elle sait encore nous toucher à un siècle de distance. Le poète tisse de si belle manière un lien entre un patrimoine qui nous est encore proche et les rêves d'aujourd'hui vers un monde plus humain. Cette langue, patois ou français est simple, vivante, colorée faites pour le plaisir de la dire ou de la chanter. Ce livre audio comprend un choix de textes proposé par Bernard Meulien.

やは肌のあつき血汐にふれも見でさびしからずや道を説く君　　　おもいのままに鮮やかに、愛しい気持ちをうたいあげた本書は、発表当時「猥行醜態を記したる所多し人心に害あり世教に毒あるもの」（「歌の華」明治34年9月号）として糾弾されるほどのものであった。　　　むねの清水あふれてつひに濁りけり君の罪の子我も罪の子

「この裏まちのぬかるみに青いお空がありました」の『ぬかるみ』をはじめ、『芝草』、『ゆびきり』、『月と泥棒』、『学校へゆくみち』など、みすゞ中期の作品を、（１）（２）あわせて94作品収録。

「・・・みんなちがって、みんないい」の『私と小鳥と鈴と』をはじめ、『芒とお日さま』、『りんご畑』、『こころ』、『世界中の王様』など。みずゞ後期の作品を（１）（２）あわせて8３作品収録。

「おてんとさまのお使いが、揃って空をたちました」の『日の光』をはじめ、『転校生』、『まつりの太鼓』、『大人のおもちゃ』、『きのうの山車』など。みすゞ初期の作品を（１）（２）あわせて85作品収録。

「おてんとさまのお使いが、揃って空をたちました」の『日の光』をはじめ、『転校生』、『まつりの太鼓』、『大人のおもちゃ』、『きのうの山車』など。みすゞ初期の作品を（１）（２）あわせて85作品収録。

First published in 1857, The Flowers of Evil (Les Fleurs du Mal) is a poetry collection by Charles Baudelaire. In 1909, Cyril Scott published a translation of 54 of the poems, which is the subject of this recording.

First published in 1874, "The City of Dreadful Night" is an extended poetic meditation on melancholy, or what is generally termed today as depression. Thomson's "city" is the "città dolente" of Dante, the domain of souls trapped in a round of ceaseless misery. However, the inhabitants of Thomson's world endure a torment more subtle and more devastating than the acute and picturesque tortures of Dante's Inferno - a complete loss of purpose and a relentless draining of energy, a desperate and ever wakeful ennui.

Though it may never be known if Mother Goose was based on an old French queen, a Boston housewife, or someone else entirely, these nursery rhymes will continue to entertain as they have in varying forms for hundreds of years. Though commonly thought of as children's literature, the alternatingly dry, sarcastic, and histrionically tinged humor with which this production is delivered appeals to a wide audience. Arguably.

Down through the millennia the emotion of love has inspired countless poets to great heights of lyrical expression. In this volume listeners can sample great love poems by English and American poets. Spanning over four centuries of literary creation in the service of amour, the works include a selection of Shakespeare's sonnets, John Donne's "The Ecstasy", William Blake's "The Garden of Love", Robert Burns' "The Banks o'Doon" and "John Anderson My Jo", Lord Byron's "She Walks in Beauty", and more.

Continuing a collaboration started years ago, Benjamin Luxon and Frederick Moyer now turn to the little-explored genre of music for piano and narrator. Enoch Arden first came to international attention with a recording by Claude Raines and Glenn Gould but has since drifted back to obscurity. This is a work that both Luxon and Moyer have loved for many years. The poem is immediately accessible to any audience and tells a heart-wrenching story of friendship, love, separation, and sacrifice.

Here is a collection of 41 favorite classic children's poems by some of our best loved writers, including Edward Lear, Lewis Carroll, Robert Browning, Rudyard Kipling, and others.

Some of the most delightful poems ever written for children, brought evocatively to life in this wonderful new audio edition. Ted Hughes wrote an extraordinary body of work for children. This is a selection which includes original recordings made by the author himself as well as new readings by Juliet Stevenson and Michael Morpurgo.