A celebration of English poems

Read by Richard Mitchley, Ghizela Rowe, Nigel Davenport (Unabridged 1hr 52mins)

Featuring poems by John Dryden, D H Lawrence, Alfred Lord Tennyson, William Lisle Bowles & 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 East Midlands - An Introduction

2 - Can Life Be a Blessing by John Dryden

3 - Happy the Man by John Dryden

4 - Farewell Ungrateful Traitor by John Dryden

5 - Ulysses by Alfred Lord Tennyson

6 - The Lady of Shalott by Alfred Lord Tennyson

7 - Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal from The Princess by Alfred Lord Tennyson

8 - New Heaven and Earth by D H Lawrence

9 - Figs by D H Lawrence

10 - Cruelty and Love by D H Lawrence

11 - To The Memory of My Dear and Honoured Father by Anne Bradstreet

12 - To My Dear and Loving Husband by Anne Bradstreet

13 - The Author to Her Book by Anne Bradstreet

14 - The Vanities of Life by John Clare

15 - In Summer Showers A Skreeking Noise is Heard by John Clare

16 - The Lament of Swordy Well by John Clare

17 - Written At Lovere, October 1736 by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu

18 - Constantinople by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu

19 - Sonnet XIX by Anna Seward

20 - Elegy by Anna Seward

21 - Of Tears by John Beaumont

22 - Of His Dear Son Gervase by Sir John Beaumont

23 - Life by Anna Laetitia Barbauld

24 - The Rights of Women by Anna Laetitia Barbauld

25 - The Glance by Francis Beaumont

26 - On the Tombs At Westminster Abbey by Francis Beaumont

27 - A Prayer To The Father of Heaven by John Skelton

28 - Mannerly Margery Milk And Ale  by John Skelton

29 - I Am a Woman Poor and Blind by Anne Askew

30 - The Ballad Which Anne Askew Made and Sang When She Was in Newgate by Anne Askew

31 - A Soldier's Cemetery by John William Streets (Killed and Missing in Action on 1st July 1916 Aged 31)

32 - April Evening, France, April 1916 by John William Streets

33 - Sailing Beyond Seas by Jean Ingelow

34 - An Ancient Chess Set by Jean Ingelow

35 - Upon His Picture by Thomas Randolph

36 - A Devout Lover by Thomas Randolph

37 - To My Young Lover by Jane Barker

38 - A Virgin Life by Jane Barker

39 - The Dying Slave by William Lisle Bowles

40 - Sun-dial in the Churchyard of Bremhill by William Lisle Bowles

41 - Lights Out by Jessie Pope

42 - War Girls by Jessie Pope

43 - Fragment by Henry Kirke White

44 - Sonnet To April by Henry Kirk White

45 - An Epistle to a Lady by Mary Leapor

46 - Mira's Will by Mary Leapor

47 - Lines Written In August by Thomas Babbington Macaulay

48 - On a Sunbeam by Thomas Heyrick