A celebration of English poems

Read by Richard Mitchley, Robert Maskell, Ghizela Rowe (Unabridged: 1hr 17mins)

Featuring poems by Wilfred Owen, Michael Drayton, A E Housman & 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 West Midlands - An Introduction

2 - Arms and the Boy by Wilfred Owen

3 - Has Your Soul Sipped by Wilfred Owen

4 - Apologia Pro Poemate Meo by Wilfred Owen

5 - The Ballad of Agincourt by Michael Drayton

6 - Glastonbury by Michael Drayton from Poly-Olbion

7 - To His Coy Love by Michael Drayton

8 - Because I Liked You  by A E Housman

9 - They Say My Verse is Sad.  No Wonder by A E Housman

10 - Tell Me Not Here, It Needs Not Saying by A E Housman

11 - Desertion by Rupert Brooke

12 - The Funeral of Youth. Threnody by Rupert Brooke

13 - Sonnet - Oh! Death Will Find Me, Long Before I Tire by Rupert Brooke

14 - Shakespeare's Kingdom by Alfred Noyes

15 - The Highwayman by Alfred Noyes

16 - Sunlight and the Sea by Alfred Noyes

17 - The Embankment by T E Hulme

18 - Conversion by T E Hulme

19 - Trenches - St Eloi by T E Hulme

20 - The War Films by Henry Newbolt

21 - Vitai Lampada by Henry Newbolt

22 - The Vigil by Henry Newbolt

23 - Count That Day Lost by George Eliot

24 - Two Lovers by George Eliot

25 - Sweet Evenings Come and Go Love by George Eliot

26 - Love's End by Lord Edward Herbert of Cherbury

27 - Tears Flow No More by Lord Edward Herbert of Cherbury

28 - In Making Bodies Love Could Not Express by Thomas Traherne

29 - Shadows in the Water by Thomas Traherne

30 - The Angler's Ballad by Charles Cotton

31 - On the Great Eater of Grays Inn by Charles Cotton

32 - O by Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke

33 - O Lord in Me There Lieth Naught by Mary Sidney Herbert

34 - Pro Patria by Owen Seamen

35 - The Avengers by Owen Seamen

36 - My Serious Son by Walter Savage Landor

37 - Shakespeare and Milton by Walter Savage Landor

38 - To Shakespeare by Lord Alfred Douglas

39 - Impression de Nuit (London) by Lord Alfred Douglas

40 - My Darling by Michael Field aka Katherine Bradley & Edith Cooper

41 - Unbosoming Michael Field aka Katherine Bradley & Edith Cooper

42 - The Goldfish by Allen Upward

43 - Finis by Allen Upward

44 - The World That All Contains by Fulke Greville

45 - Mustapha by Fulke Greville

46 - To Roses in the Bosom of Castara by William Habington

47 - Picnic July 1917 by Rose Macaulay

48 - Home Service by Geoffrey Faber

49 - Hearts of Oak by David Garrick

50 - Perhaps by Vera Brittain

51 - All is Well by Henry Scott Holland