A celebration of English poems

Read by Richard Mitchley, Jo Wyatt, Ghizela Rowe (Unabridged: 2hrs 56mins)

Featuring poems by Christopher Marlowe, Matthew Arnold, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Richard Lovelace & many more

Poetry. A form of words that seems so elegantly simple in one verse and so cleverly complex in another.  Each poet has a particular style, an individual and unique way with words and yet each of us seems to recognise the path and destination of where the verses lead, even if sometimes the full comprehension may be a little beyond us.

Through the centuries every culture has produced verse to symbolize and to describe everything from everyday life, natural wonders, the human condition and even in its more hubristic moments, the crushing triumph of an enemy.

In the volumes of this series, we take a look at poetry through the prism of individual regions of England, or sometimes more quaintly known as ‘Albion’, or ‘Blighty’, through the centuries of its gloried history.

England, despite its perception of reserve and under-statement has, in reality, strode the global stage at various time in many things, both good and bad, from Empire to long distance running. Here our focus in on its literature.  Famed for its fiction and dramas, it is equally admired for its plethora of gifted poets and the dazzling verse which has added so much to its artistic legacy.  These classic poets are wonders of their age and of their art.  Genius is written in their names.

In this volume we have collected verse from poets born in the East of England.  These flat lowlands face out towards Europe yet within their counties are centuries of poetical history that indelibly mark out their talents as among our very best.

 

In this compilation - 

1 - Born in England - Exploring English Poetry - The South-East - An Introduction

2 - Dover Beach by Matthew Arnold

3 - Youth and Calm by Matthew Arnold

4 - A Caution to Poets by Matthew Arnold

5 - Binsey Poplars by Gerard Manley Hopkins

6 - No Worse There Is None. Pitched Past And Pitch of Grief by Gerard Manley Hopkins

7 - Peace by Gerard Manley Hopkins

8 - The Face That Launched a Thousand Ships by Christopher Marlowe

9 - The Passionate Shepherd to His Love by Christopher Marlowe

10 - Who Ever Loved That Loved Not at First Sight by Christopher Marlowe

11 - Leave Me O Love by Sir Phillip Sidney

12 - My True Love Hath My Heart and I Have His by Sir Phillip Sidney

13 - The Smokes of Melancholy by Sir Phillip Sidney

14 - Love Conquer'd by Richard Lovelace

15 - Sonnet by Richard Lovelace

16 - Female Glory by Richard Lovelace

17 - A Nocturnal Reverie by Anne Kingsmill Finch

18 - Hope by Anne Kingsmill Finch

19 - A Tale of the Miser and His Poet by Anne Kingsmill Finch

20 - I Have Loved Flowers That Fade by Robert Seymour Bridges

21 - When Death to Either Shall Come by Robert Seymour Bridges

22 - My Delight and Your Delight by Robert Seymour Bridges

23 - On Desire by Aphra Behn

24 - The Willing Mistress by Aphra Behn

25 - Love in Fantastique Triumph Satt by Aphra Behn

26 - They Flee From Me by Sir Thomas Wyatt

27 - And Wilt Thou Leave Me Thus by Sir Thomas Wyatt

28 - How By a Kiss He Found By Both His Life and Death by Sir Thomas Wyatt

29 - A Fine Old English Gentleman by Charles Dickens

30 - The Ivy Green by Charles Dickens

31 - Little Nell's Funeral by Charles Dickens

32 - To the Memory of Mrs Lefroy Who Died December 16, My Birthday by Jane Austen

33 - Mock Panegyric On A Young Friend by Jane Austen

34 - Ode to Pity by Jane Austen

35 - The Iron Music by Ford Madox Ford

36 - Claire de Lune by Ford Maddox Ford

37 - Four in the Morning Courage by Ford Madox Ford

38 - The Dark Angel by Lionel Johnson

39 - Dead by Lionel Johnson

40 - The Precept of Silence by Lionel Johnson

41 - Meditation Under Stars by George Meredith

42 - Lucifer in Starlight by George Meredith

43 - Modern Love I by George Meredith

44 - Go Lovely Rose by Edmund Waller

45 - On Tea by Edmund Waller

46 - Of English Verse by Edmund Waller

47 - Morning Song by William Davenant

48 - To a Mistress Dying by William Davenant

49 - Praise and Prayer by William Davenant

50 - Glory of Women by Siegfried Sassoon

51 - The Poet As Hero by Siegfried Sassoon

52 - A Song of a Young Lady to Her Ancient Lover by John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester

53 - The Imperfect Enjoyment by John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester

54 - A Dead Boche by Robert Graves

55 - The Two Witches by Robert Graves

56 - I Saw Three Witches by Walter de la Mare

57 - Nicholas Nye by Walter de la Mare

58 - A London Fete by Coventry Patmore

59 - The Married Lover by Coventry Patmore

60 - Solitude At An Inn by Thomas Warton

61 - Ode To Sleep by Thomas Warton

62 - Ode XIV - To Solitude by Joseph Warton

63 - Ode VI - Against Despair by Joseph Warton

64 - If We Must Part by Ernest Christopher Dowson

65 - Non Sum Qualis Eram Bonae Sub Regrno Cynarae by Ernest Christopher Dowson

66 - Goodbye by Richard Aldington

67 - Images by Richard Aldington

68 - To a Dying Infant by Caroline Bowles Southey

69 - To Death by Caroline Bowles Southey

70 - Trench Poets by Edgell Rickword

71 - War and Peace by Edgell Rickword

72 - Lamplight by May Wedderburn Cannan

73 - Women Demobilised by May Wedderburn Cannan

74 - On the Road by Francis Quarles

75 - Bowls by Francis Quarles

76 - The Second Rapture by Thomas Carew

77 - Lips And Eyes by Thomas Carew

78 - Phyllis's Age by Matthew Prior

79 - Since We Your Husband Daily See by Matthew Prior

80 - Importune Me No More (When I Was Fair and Young) by Queen Elizabeth I

81 - Ah Silly Pug, Wert Thou So Sore Afraid by Queen Elizabeth I

82 - Julbilate Agno by Christopher Smart

83 - The Nativity of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ by Christopher Smart

84 - A Carol. I by Mildmay Fane, Earl of Westmorland

85 - Song. The Flowers of the Spring That Enamel the Vale by Henry James Pye

86 - Ode To Beauty by Henry James Pye

87 - February by Arthur Christopher Benson

88 - Around The Level Dale by William Perfect

89 - If Every by E V Lucas

90 - The Church Cricketent by Norman Gale

91 - Badmington by Sir A C Lyall

92 - Sîva by Sir A C Lyall

93 - To Fame by R D Blackmore

94 - Optimism by A Victor Ratcliffe

95 - Renunciation by Henry King

96 - In the Trenches by Maurice Hewlett

97 - For A Survivor of the Mesopotamian Campaign by Elizabeth Daryush

98 - Victory For the Slain - Part I by Hugh Lofting

99 - Elegy on the Earl of Rochester by Anne Wharton

100 - Elegy - Supposed To Be Written in Barnet Churchyard by George Townsend