Bird Raptures by Christina Georgina Rossetti

LibriVox volunteers bring you 15 recordings of Bird Raptures by Christina Georgina Rossetti (1830-1894). This was the Weekly Poetry project for September 11th to September 18th, 2011.

Christina Georgina Rossetti was an English poet who wrote a variety of romantic, devotional, and children’s poems. She is best known for her long poem Goblin Market, her love poem Remember, and for the words of the Christmas carol In the Bleak Midwinter.(Summary from Wikipedia)

Apologies for the delay in updating this page.

Running time=1m 15s (mp3@64kb)

Ballad of the Canal by Phoebe Cary

LibriVox volunteers bring you 11 recordings of Ballad of the Canal by Phoebe Cary (1824-1871). This was the Fortnightly Poetry project for September 4th to September 18th, 2011.

Phoebe Cary was an American poet, and the younger sister of poet Alice Cary (1820–1871). The sisters co-published poems in 1849, and then each went on to publish volumes of her own. After their deaths in 1871, joint anthologies of the sisters’ unpublished poems were also compiled.(Summary by Wikipedia)
This poem is a parody of “Ballad of the Tempest” by James T. Field

Running time=1m 23s (mp3@64kb)

Grandma’s Prayer by Eugene Field

LibriVox volunteers bring you 14 recordings of Grandma’s Prayer by Eugene Field (1850-1895). This was the Weekly Poetry project for September 4th to September 11th, 2011.

Eugene Field, Sr. was an American writer, best known for his children’s poetry and humorous essays. He first started publishing poetry in 1879, when his poem “Christmas Treasures” appeared in A Little Book of Western Verse. Over a dozen volumes of poetry followed and he became well known for his light-hearted poems for children, perhaps the most famous of which is “Wynken, Blynken, and Nod.” (Summary from Wikipedia)
*This poem taken from the Yale Book of American Verse. (1912). Thomas R. Lounsbury, ed. (1838–1915)

Running time=1m 1s (mp3@64kb)

Fifty Cents by Billy Mortimer

LibriVox volunteers bring you 10 recordings of Fifty Cents by Billy Mortimer. This was the Fortnightly Poetry project for August 21, 2011.
Originally published in 1881 as a song, with music by Dan Lewis. (Summary by TriciaG)
(birth & death dates of both persons are unknown at present)

Running time=2m 28s (mp3@64kb)

A Prairie Sunset by Walt Whitman

LibriVox volunteers bring you 16 recordings of A Prairie Sunset by Walt Whitman (1819-1892). This was the Weekly Poetry project for August 28 to September 4th, 2011.

Walt Whitman has been claimed as America’s first “poet of democracy”, a title meant to reflect his ability to write in a singularly American character. A British friend of Walt Whitman, Mary Smith Whitall Costelloe, wrote: “You cannot really understand America without Walt Whitman, without Leaves of Grass… He has expressed that civilization, ‘up to date,’ as he would say, and no student of the philosophy of history can do without him.” (summary from Wikipedia)

Running time=59s (mp3@64kb)