The World's Best Poetry, Volume 7: Descriptive and Narrative (Part 2)


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The seventh of ten volumes of poetry edited by Canadian poet laureate Bliss Carman (1861-1929). This collection, the second of two parts, contains a series of odes and addresses to the natural and artistic realms, as well as various geographic places in the world, from Egypt and India, all the way to England and America. It concludes with popular narrative poetry originating from the Greek, Roman, Norse, German, East Asian, Spanish, French, English, Scottish and American literary traditions. - Summary by Tomas Peter

Chapters

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Adam and Eve: From 'Paradise Lost,' Book IV by John Milton 4:22 Read by Craig Franklin
Seven Ages of Man: From 'As You Like It,' Act II. Sc. 7 by William Shakespeare 2:30 Read by Jason in Panama
Cleopatra: From 'Antony and Cleopatra,' Act II. Sc. 2 by William Shakespeare 3:08 Read by LibriVox Volunteers
To Ianthe, Sleeping: From 'Queen Mab,' Part I by Percy Bysshe Shelley 3:00 Read by Adrian Stephens
Freedom in Dress: From 'Epicœne; or, the Silent Woman,' Act I. Sc. 1 by Ben Jonson 1:17 Read by Katharina Glowalla
Cousin Lucrece by Edmund Clarence Stedman 3:36 Read by Tomas Peter
Delight in Disorder by Robert Herrick 1:18 Read by Adam Bielka
The Toilet: From 'The Rape of the Lock,' Canto I by Alexander Pope 2:06 Read by Adam Bielka
Ode on a Grecian Urn by John Keats 3:42 Read by Jason in Panama
Laus Veneris (A Picture by Burne-Jones) by Louise Chandler Moulton 1:32 Read by Sonia
On Hearing a little Music-Box by Leigh Hunt 2:21 Read by Adrian Stephens
Those Evening Bells by Thomas Moore 1:10 Read by Katharina Glowalla
The Bells by Edgar Allan Poe 5:25 Read by Craig Franklin
The Bells of Shandon by Francis Sylvester Mahony (Father Prout) 2:32 Read by Sonia
City Bells: From 'The Lay of St. Aloy's' by Richard Harris Barham 1:27 Read by Tomas Peter
The Cuckoo Clock: From 'The Birthday' by Caroline Bowles Southey 1:25 Read by Katharina Glowalla
An Etruscan Ring by John William Mackail 2:18 Read by Adam Bielka
Leonardo's 'Monna Lisa' by Edward Dowden 1:25 Read by Tomas Peter
The Hurricane by William Cullen Bryant 3:10 Read by Sonia
Mist by Henry David Thoreau 1:03 Read by Jason in Panama
The Coasters by Thomas Fleming Day 3:44 Read by Adrian Stephens
Smoke by Henry David Thoreau 1:10 Read by Adam Bielka
The Evening Cloud by John Wilson (Christopher North) 1:17 Read by Sonia
A Still Day in Autumn by Sarah Helen Whitman 2:39 Read by Jason in Panama
The Sunset City by Henry Sylvester Cornwell 1:51 Read by Adam Bielka
The Nile by Leigh Hunt 1:18 Read by Katharina Glowalla
Ozymandias of Egypt by Percy Bysshe Shelley 1:34 Read by Jason in Panama
Christmas in India by Rudyard Kipling 3:53 Read by Jason in Panama
The Orient: From 'The Bride of Abydos' by Lord Byron 1:44 Read by Adrian Stephens
The Vale of Cashmere: From 'The Light of the Harem' by Thomas Moore 2:28 Read by Katharina Glowalla
Carillon by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 3:28 Read by Sonia
The Rhine (To His Sister): From 'Childe Harold,' Canto III by Lord Byron 2:22 Read by Katharina Glowalla
The Cataract of Lodore: Described in 'Rhymes for the Nursery' by Robert Southey 5:00 Read by Sonia
The Old Bridge at Florence by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 1:18 Read by Adrian Stephens
The White Peacock: From 'Sospiri di Roma' by William Sharp 3:16 Read by Adam Bielka
To Rome (Buried in its Ruins) by Francisco de Quevedo y Villegas 1:28 Read by Sonia
The Coliseum: From 'Childe Harold,' Canto IV by Lord Byron 5:26 Read by Adrian Stephens
The Pantheon: From 'Childe Harold,' Canto IV by Lord Byron 1:40 Read by Adrian Stephens
A Day in the Pamfili Doria, Near Rome by Harriet Beecher Stowe 4:56 Read by Craig Franklin
February in Rome by Edmund Gosse 1:19 Read by Tomas Peter
Saint Peter's at Rome: From 'Childe Harold,' Canto IV by Lord Byron 1:25 Read by Jason in Panama
A View across the Roman Campagna (1861) by Elizabeth Barrett Browning 2:40 Read by Adrian Stephens
Venice by John Addington Symonds 1:25 Read by Tomas Peter
Venice: From 'Italy' by Samuel Rogers 3:10 Read by Katharina Glowalla
The Gondola by Arthur Hugh Clough 2:11 Read by Tomas Peter
Venice: From 'View from the Euganean Hills' by Percy Bysshe Shelley 3:00 Read by Jason in Panama
Naples: From 'Italy' by Samuel Rogers 2:59 Read by Adam Bielka
Drifting by Thomas Buchanan Read 3:32 Read by Sonia
England: From 'The Traveller' by Oliver Goldsmith 1:43 Read by Adrian Stephens
That England: From 'Aurora Leigh' by Elizabeth Barrett Browning 3:08 Read by Adrian Stephens
The Knight: From 'Marmion,' Canto I by Sir Walter Scott 5:57 Read by Sonia
O, the Pleasant Days of Old! by Frances Browne 2:41 Read by Katharina Glowalla
Melrose Abbey: From 'The Lay of the Last Minstrel,' Canto II by Sir Walter Scott 4:21 Read by Tomas Peter
An Old Time Christmas: From 'Marmion,' Introduction to Canto VI by Sir Walter Scott 4:10 Read by Katharina Glowalla
The Castle Ruins by William Barnes 2:23 Read by Tomas Peter
The Deserted Village by Oliver Goldsmith 26:27 Read by LibriVox Volunteers
Sonnet Composed upon Westminster Bridge, London, 1802 by William Wordsworth 1:26 Read by Adrian Stephens
London by John Davidson 1:17 Read by Sonia
The Village Schoolmistress: From 'The Schoolmistress' by William Shenstone 5:37 Read by Sonia
The Forging of the Anchor by Samuel Ferguson 7:32 Read by Craig Franklin
Newport-Beach by Henry Theodore Tuckerman 1:12 Read by Jason in Panama
The Settler by Alfred B. Street 3:44 Read by Tomas Peter
Song of the Chattahoochee by Sidney Lanier 3:12 Read by LibriVox Volunteers
Weehawken and the New York Bay: From 'Fanny' by Fitz-Greene Halleck 2:36 Read by Tomas Peter
Mannahatta by Walt Whitman 2:48 Read by Adam Bielka
The Brooklyn Bridge by Edna Dean Proctor 2:39 Read by Adam Bielka
Scythe Song by Andrew Lang 1:15 Read by Sonia
The Mowers by Myron B. Benton 5:38 Read by LibriVox Volunteers
Château Papineau by S. Frances Harrison ('Seranus') 5:39 Read by Tomas Peter
In Mexico by Evaleen Stein 2:16 Read by Katharina Glowalla
The Fall of Troy: From the 'Æneid' by Virgil 5:22 Read by Katharina Glowalla
Horatius at the Bridge by Thomas Babington, Lord Macaulay 22:06 Read by LibriVox Volunteers
Thor recovers his Hammer from Thrym, from Sæmund's Edda 7:42 Read by LibriVox Volunteers
Frithiof at the Court of Angantyr: From the 'Frithiof Saga,' Canto XI by Esaias Tegnér 9:22 Read by LibriVox Volunteers
The Skeleton in Armor by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 8:05 Read by Sonia
The Baron's Last Banquet by Albert G. Greene 3:54 Read by Jason in Panama
The Nobleman and the Pensioner by Gottlieb Konrad Pfeffel 3:52 Read by Jason in Panama
Mahmoud by Leigh Hunt 4:44 Read by LibriVox Volunteers
Prince Adeb by George Henry Boker 13:06 Read by Sonia
The Leper by Nathaniel Parker Willis 6:28 Read by LibriVox Volunteers
Erminia and the Wounded Tancred by Torquato Tasso 5:03 Read by LibriVox Volunteers
Alonzo the Brave and the Fair Imogine by Matthew Gregory Lewis 5:37 Read by LibriVox Volunteers
The Broken Pitcher by William Edmondstoune Aytoun 3:12 Read by LibriVox Volunteers
The Ballad of Guibour: From 'Calendau' by Frédéric Mistral 4:43 Read by LibriVox Volunteers
The Glove and the Lions by Leigh Hunt 2:44 Read by LibriVox Volunteers
The Glove by Robert Browning 9:31 Read by LibriVox Volunteers
Louis XV by John Sterling 2:47 Read by LibriVox Volunteers
Hervé Riel by Robert Browning 8:06 Read by LibriVox Volunteers
Napoleon and the British Sailor by Thomas Campbell 3:15 Read by LibriVox Volunteers
How they brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix by Robert Browning 4:23 Read by LibriVox Volunteers
Mort D'Arthur by Alfred, Lord Tennyson 17:33 Read by LibriVox Volunteers
Godiva by Alfred, Lord Tennyson 5:26 Read by LibriVox Volunteers
The Canterbury Pilgrims: From 'The Canterbury Tales: Prologue' by Geoffrey Chaucer 15:52 Read by Sonia
Lord Lovel by Anonymous 3:13 Read by LibriVox Volunteers
Robin Hood and Allan-a-Dale by Anonymous 5:35 Read by LibriVox Volunteers
The Greenwood Shrift: George III and a Dying Woman in Windsor Forest by Robert and Caroline Southey 5:43 Read by LibriVox Volunteers
The Revenge: A Ballad of the Fleet by Alfred, Lord Tennyson 9:01 Read by LibriVox Volunteers
England: From 'King John,' Act V. Sc. 7 by William Shakespeare 0:48 Read by Adrian Stephens
Jock Johnstone, the Tinkler by James Hogg 11:51 Read by LibriVox Volunteers
Lord Ullin's Daughter by Thomas Campbell 3:06 Read by LibriVox Volunteers
Marmion and Douglas: From 'Marmion,' Canto VI by Sir Walter Scott 4:41 Read by LibriVox Volunteers
Fitz-James and Roderick Dhu: From 'The Lady of the Lake,' Canto V by Sir Walter Scott 14:40 Read by LibriVox Volunteers
Fitz-James and Ellen: From 'The Lady of the Lake,' Canto VI by Sir Walter Scott 7:53 Read by LibriVox Volunteers
Muckle-Mou'd Meg by James Ballantine 3:22 Read by LibriVox Volunteers
The Heart of the Bruce by William Edmondstoune Aytoun 10:20 Read by LibriVox Volunteers
Barclay of Ury by John Greenleaf Whittier 5:47 Read by LibriVox Volunteers
The Fight of the 'Armstrong' Privateer by James Jeffrey Roche 7:04 Read by LibriVox Volunteers
Drifted out to Sea by Rose Hartwick Thorpe 3:21 Read by LibriVox Volunteers