The Classic Fifty Poems

My problem with this audio collection is that it contains no list of poems and poets. To find a particular poem, you need to either create your own list or poke around the audio estimating its location. I've never picked up a poetry book without a table of contents.

A technical suggestion is to segment the poems so you have the choice of going directly to a poem. An even more ambitious division would be to also segment the intro and poem separately. I'd be more likely to go back and listen to specific poems. When I feel the impulse to listen to a song, I put in a CD and go directly to the song.

From a technical standpoint, it feels like they took some of the greatest poems in literature but neglected to separate the text into verses and paragraphs.

Wonderful poetry, very well read. The commentary was a lot better than I expected, with a touch of humour. A nice variety of voices. Good stuff all round.

As a fairly new lover of poetry I found this production not only informative but beautifully read.

The poetry was great, with the exception of a few items (e.g. Frankie and Johnny). The musical interludes are awful and need to be updated.

Also good for those who know nothing about poetry, were not a liberal arts major, or really don't have a clue about the history of poetry in the English language. Less than 45 minutes is devoted to poetry. The balance of the time is devoted to mediocre biography and general comments by a narrator. If you fit in the category of knowing nothing about poetry or are a high school freshman this is just what you need. It's otherwise worthless and I'm not certain I'd recommend it to high school freshmen.

Very little poetry. Lots of inane commentary.