Poézia

Audiobook Winter Words, written by Thomas Hardy. This selection of Hardy’s poetry does full justice to its humanity, integrity, humour and evocative power, ranging from charming anthology pieces such as ‘Weathers’ to the great love poems he wrote after the death of his first wife and the meditations on war and philosophy. The poems – nearly eighty in total – are set in the context of his life and thought, including personal writings by him and those closest to him.

Audiobook The Song of Roland. It is the year 778. The mighty French army, led by Emperor Charlemagne, confronts Saracen forces in the bloody Battle of Roncevaux Pass. In the course of this thrilling epic poem we follow the emperor’s hot-headed nephew Roland into battle. We are privy to the deal struck between the Saracen king Marsilie and Roland’s conniving stepfather Guene.

Audiobook The Pardoners Tale written by Geoffrey Chaucer. These three tales from The Canterbury Tales are read in the original Middle English by Richard Bebb under the direction of Britain’s foremost Chaucer scholar, Derek Brewer. This was Bebb’s last recording – he died shortly after finishing it – but though ill at the time, his strong professional ethic ensured that it lacks none of the brightness and accuracy that he brought to his two other Chaucer recordings on Naxos AudioBooks: The General Prologue and The Knyghtes Tale.

An ageing singer asks for shelter at Newark Castle, and in exchange performs for his hostess the Duchess of Buccleuch the story of a 16th century border feud. The story he tells is about the so-called "Flower of Teviot," the Lady Margaret Scott of Buccleuch, who the Baron Henry of Cranstown is in love with.

"The Lady of the Lake" (1810) is a narrative poem set in the vicinity of Loch Katrine, in the Trossach region of Scotland. It is made up of six cantos, each focusing on one day. There’s three main plots to this poem: a competition between three men for the love of one Ellen Douglas, a feud between James Douglas and King James V, and a war between lowland and highland Scots.

Audiobook The Inferno, written by Dante. ‘Abandon all hope you who enter here’ (Lasciate ogne speranza voi ch’intrate) Dante’s Hell is one of the most remarkable visions in Western literature. An allegory for his and future ages, it is, at the same time, an account of terrifying realism. Passing under a lintel emblazoned with these frightening words, the poet is led down into the depths by Virgil and shown those doomed to suffer eternal torment for vices exhibited and sins committed on earth.

"The last of the crew needs especial remark, Though he looked an incredible dunce: He had just one idea-but, that one being `Snark‘, The good Bellman engaged him at once. " `The Hunting of the Snark‘ (1876) is a nonsense poem by `Alice Adventures in Wonderland‘ author Lewis Carroll. It describes the disastrous hunting mission by a bizarre group of characters, among these a butcher who can only kill beavers and a guy who forgot his own name.

Audiobook The Great Poets – William Blake. Naxos AudioBooks begins its new series of Great Poets – represented by their most popular poems – with William Blake. This collection contains all of his most popular works – Tyger, the Auguries of Innocence, Jerusalem, as well as some lesser-known poetry that demonstrates the range and power of his verse.

Naxos AudioBooks continues its new series of Great Poets – represented by a collection of their most popular poems on one CD – with W. B. Yeats, one of the most loved poets of the twentieth century. He left a large legacy of outstanding poems, and the finest are collected here: Down by the Salley Gardens, The Lake Isle of Inisfree, The Secret Rose and He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven.

Audiobook The Great Poets – Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, in collaboration with his friend William Wordsworth, revolutionised English poetry; in 1798 they produced their Lyrical Ballads, poems of imagination and reflection using ‘the language of men’. They pointed the way forward for a generation of Romantic poets. Coleridge’s addiction to opium affected his poetic output, and yet the handful of poems he did produce were innovative.