Because I Could Not Stop for Death by Emily Dickinson

LibriVox volunteers bring you 15 recordings of:
“Because I Could Not Stop for Death” by Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)

This was the weekly poetry project for May 12th to May 19th, 2013.

Despite Dickinson’s prolific writing, fewer than a dozen of her poems were published during her lifetime. After her younger sister Lavinia discovered the collection of nearly eighteen hundred poems, Dickinson’s first volume was published four years after her death. Until the 1955 publication of Dickinson’s Complete Poems by Thomas H. Johnson, her poems were considerably edited and altered from their manuscript versions. Since 1890 Dickinson has remained continuously in print. (Summary by Wikipedia)

The Conscientious Deacon by Vachel Lindsay

LibriVox volunteers bring you 14 recordings of:
“The Conscientious Deacon” by Vachel Lindsay (1879-1931).

This was the weekly poetry project for May 5th to May 12th, 2013.

Vachel Lindsay described this poem as “a song to be syncopated as you please”. According to Wikipedia he is considered the father of modern singing poetry (as he referred to it) in which verses are meant to be sung or chanted. His extensive correspondence with the poet Yeats details his intentions to revive the musical qualities in poetry as had been practised by the ancient Greeks. (Introduction by Ruth Golding)

Mastery by Sara Teasdale

LibriVox volunteers bring you 21 recordings of:
“Mastery” by Sara Teasdale (1884-1933)

This was the weekly poetry project for April 28th to May 5th, 2013.

For Dolly, who does not Learn her Lessons by E. Nesbit

LibriVox volunteers bring you 16 recordings of:
“For Dolly, who does not Learn her Lessons” by E. Nesbit (1858-1924)

This was the weekly poetry project for April 21st to April 28th, 2013.

Edith Nesbit reminds us of the magic – and brevity – of childhood.

At Ease on Lethe Wharf by Helen Coale Crew

LibriVox volunteers bring you 18 recordings of:
“At Ease on Lethe Wharf” by Helen Coale Crew (1866-1941).

This was the weekly poetry project for April 14th to April 21st, 2013.

Helen Coale Crew was an American poet and novelist.

Her touching evocation of forgetfulness comes from the Chicago Anthology, published in 1916. Lethe refers to the first river that souls bound for the Elysian Fields, the Heaven of the ancient Greeks, had to cross. Drinking from the river was said to have the effect of expunging all memories.