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Poetry

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volunteers bring you 20 different recordings of A Word Is Dead, by Emily Dickinson. This was the weekly poetry for the week of July 06, 2008.

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Poetry

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I sing the Song of Hiawatha, Brave of heart and strong of arm. Daughter's son of old Nokomis, Fathered by the harsh West Wind. With its regular, beating rhythm, the Song of Hiawatha has often been parodied, but in truth, it is a powerful, emotional epic; a hero's life, his loves and suffering. The legends and traditions of the North American Indian swirl together through the tale like a mountain stream, tumbling white over the rocks, and caressing the mossy tree roots. (Summary by Peter Yearsley) [introduction by Woodrow Morris]...

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Poetry

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Emily Dickinson has come to be regarded as one of the quintessential poets of 19th century America. A very private poet with a very quiet and reclusive life, her poetry was published posthumously and immediately found a wide audience. While she echoed the romantic natural themes of her times, her style was much more free and irregular, causing many to criticize her and editors to correct her. In the early 20th century, when poetic style had become much looser, new audiences learned to appreciate her work. Here collected are many of her most contemplative, most rebellious, and dark works, expressing her frustrations with the behavioral confines of her times, and the confines of being human and unknowing of eternity. (Summary by Becky Miller)...

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Poetry

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volunteers bring you nine different readings of Clement C. Moore's 'Twas the Night Before Christmas , a weekly poetry project. (Summary by Annie Coleman)...

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Poetry, Holiday

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Perhaps Edgar Allen Poe's most famous poem, the Raven is a macabre exploration of a man, his memories of Lenore, and the black bird that interrupts his studies on a dark December night, with tap-tap-tapping at his chamber door. (Summary by Hugh)...

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Animals, Poetry

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The Iliad, together with the Odyssey, is one of two ancient Greek epic poems traditionally attributed to Homer. The poem is commonly dated to the 8th or 7th century BC, and many scholars believe it is the oldest extant work of literature in the Greek language, making it the first work of European literature. The existence of a single author for the poems is disputed as the poems themselves show evidence of a long oral tradition and hence, multiple authors. The poem concerns events during the tenth and final year in the siege of the city of Iliun, or Troy, by the Greeks. (Summary adapted from Wikipedia by Karen Merline.)...

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War stories, Poetry, Tragedy

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Baby's Own Aesop presents the fables as one-stanza limericks, each pictorially pointed by Walter Crane, the noted painter and illustrator. He apprenticed to master wood-engraver, William James Linton, who furnished the draft of the book's poems for Crane to edit. Baby's Own Aesop is available in a beautiful http://www.childrenslibrary.org/icdl/SaveBook?bookid=crababy_00150086&lang=English facsimile edition of colored engravings from the International Children's Digital Library, with which your child can read along while listening to the recording. (Summary by Denny Sayers)...

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Children, Animals, Poetry

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volunteers bring you 15 recordings of Adam and Eve (From “Paradise Lost,” Fourth Book) by John Milton. This was the Weekly Poetry project for Paradise Lost is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton. It was originally published in 1667 (though written nearly ten years earlier) in ten books, with a total of over ten thousand individual lines of verse. A second edition followed in 1674, redivided into twelve books (in the manner of the division of Virgil's Aeneid) with minor revisions throughout and a note on the versification; most of the poem was written while Milton was blind, and was transcribed for him. Milton first presents Adam and Eve in Book IV with impartiality. The relationship between Adam and Eve is one of mutual dependence, not a relation of domination or hierarchy. While the author does place Adam above Eve in regard to his intellectual knowledge, and in turn his relation to God, he also grants Eve the benefit of knowledge through experience. ( Summary from Wikipedia)...

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Nature, Philosophy, Religion, Poetry

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volunteers bring you 4 recordings of Fatherland by Sir Henry Parkes. This was the Weekly Poetry project for January 23rd, 2011. Sir Henry Parkes, GCMG (27 May 1815 – 27 April 1896) was an Australian statesman, the Father of Federation. As the earliest advocate of a Federal Council of the colonies of Australia, a precursor to the Federation of Australia, he is generally considered the most prominent of the Australian Founding Fathers. Parkes was described during his lifetime by The Times as the most commanding figure in Australian politics. Alfred Deakin described him as though not rich or versatile, his personality was massive, durable and imposing, resting upon elementary qualities of human nature elevated by a strong mind. He was cast in the mould of a great man and though he suffered from numerous pettinesses, spites and failings, he was in himself a large-brained self-educated Titan whose natural field was found in Parliament and whose resources of character and intellect enabled him in his later years to overshadow all his contemporaries. Parkes's literary work includes six volumes of verse, Stolen Moments (1842), Murmurs of th...

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History, Instruction, Literature, Poetry