Original Material ©1990, 1997 Columbia University Press; (P) and ©1998 HighBridge Company
"A great selection of poetry"
There's not enough space to list all the good poems in this collection, but here are some of the best: "Ulysses" by Tennyson, "My Last Duchess" by Robert Browning, "Lycidas" by John Milton, "The Tyger" by William Blake, "Musee des Beaux Arts" by W.H. Auden, and "The Good Morrow" by John Donne.
In general the poems are very well-performed, except for a few that are read by the poet Jorie Graham. She decided to read in a stilted, affectless monotone which I found distracting. That shouldn't stop you from buying this, though, because the rest of the poems are great.
"Wonderful!!"
Some of the greatest poems ever written, read beautifully by poets, and introduced with information about both the poet and the poem. If you like poetry at all you cannot go wrong with this book!
"Mixed bag"
I believe a poem is best experienced by hearing it. This selection of poems is a good place to start. I enjoyed the introduction to each poem, placing it in historical context and the touch of biography. What I did not enjoy was the one female reader who chose to remove all life, all emotion, all enjoyment from the poems she read. Even with this flaw, I would recommend this audio book for an overview of English Language poetry.
"Relaxing, lovely, but could be improved."
I love poettry, this book is very relaxing, and also has a short introductory note on each poet. However, because there are quite a few narrators, the quality of each narrator differs widely, some better than others.
"Poems are great, but..."
The poems are great, and if you enjoy them, by all means get this production. However, the poems are read by poets, and in some cases, these are not very well read.
"Good selection"
Good selection of poetry, but if ever an audible book should be "whisper sync ready" this is it. There is no way to go to a specific poem, I don't read poetry anthologies from beginning to end, I like to pick a poem and go directly to it as the mood strikes.
"great way to get to know poetry"
The introductions that set the context of the poem are helpful.
Most of the readings are good. It would be nice if there table of contents listed the poems so that you could find them easily.