Arts Podcasts
Librivox: Ozymandias of Egypt by Shelley, Percy ByssheJoin Now to Follow
LibriVox volunteers bring you sixteen different recordings of Ozymandias of Egypt, by Percy Bysshe Shelley. This was the weekly poetry project for the week of August 20th, 2006.
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Librivox: Short Poetry Collection 012 by VariousJoin Now to Follow
Librivox’s Short Poetry Collection 012: a collection of 20 public-domain poems.
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Librivox: History of the Peloponnesian War, The by ThucydidesJoin Now to Follow
The History of the Peloponnesian War is an account of the Peloponnesian War in Ancient Greece, fought between the Peloponnesian League (led by Sparta) and the Delian League (led by Athens) in the 5th Century BC. It was written by Thucydides, an Athenian general who served in the war. It is widely considered a classic and regarded as one of the earliest scholarly works of history. The History is divided into eight books. These book divisions are the work of editors in later antiquity. W. R. Connor [...] describes Thucydides as "an artist who responds to, selects and skillfully arranges his material, and develops its symbolic and emotional potential." (Summary from Wikipedia)
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Librivox: Swiss Family Robinson, The by Wyss, Johann DavidJoin Now to Follow
The Swiss Family Robinson has delighted generations of readers with its exciting tale of a family which, though shipwrecked, displays “the right stuff” and builds a charming colony that later, they do not want to leave. Cut off from the comforts and companionship of other humans, they use a familiarity with natural history and biology to find the resources and build the tools to construct a canoe, weave cloth, irrigate a garden, and turn an immense hollow tree into a lofty house with a spiral staircase. They domesticate buffaloes, wild asses, and monkeys. They establish farms and plantations. And finally, they have a terrifying encounter with natives from a nearby island. Johann David Wyss, the author, did not live to complete his tale. Storytellers over the years have injected so many episodes into the various versions that probably none closely match the original. (Indeed, the Baroness de Montholieu expanded the book from two volumes into five when she translated it into French.) This effort was re-translated into English in 1849 by W.H.G. Kingston, abridging the edition severely. It follows the British sensibilities of the period in terms of sentence structure and emphasis. (Summary by Mark F. Smith)
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Librivox: Ballad of Reading Gaol, The by Wilde, OscarJoin Now to Follow
Wilde’s meditation on capital punishment, the Ballad of Reading Gaol comes after he was convicted and imprisoned under charges of gross indecency. The charges stemmed from his affair with Lord Alfred Douglas, the son of the Marquis of Queensberry. It relates the story of an execution of a man who murdered his wife which Wilde witnessed during his internment. Published in 1898, it was Wilde’s last published poem as he would die in 1900 from cerebral menengitis, caused by syphilis.(Summary by John Gonzalez)
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Librivox: Ogura Hyakunin Isshu by Fujiwara no TeikaJoin Now to Follow
Hyakunin isshu (百人一首) is a traditional style of compiling Japanese waka poetry where each contributor writes one poem for the anthology. (Summary from Wikipedia)
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Librivox: Ballad of Reading Gaol, The (version 2) by Wilde, OscarJoin Now to Follow
In 1895, Oscar Wilde was sentenced to 2 years of hard labor for acts of ‘gross indecency’. During his time at Reading Gaol, he witnessed a rare hanging, and in the three years between his release and his untimely death in 1900, was inspired to write the following poem, a meditation on the death penalty and the importance of forgiveness, even for (and especially for) something as heinous as murdering one’s spouse; for even the murderer, Wilde argues, is human and suffers more so for being the cause of his own pain, for ‘having killed the thing he loved’; for everyone is the cause of someone else’s suffering and suffers at the hands of another. It is this that Jesus Christ could see; he could continue to see the beauty of our humanity, despite all that we may do to each other, and encouraged us to love each other just the same. “The Ballad of Reading Gaol” was published in 1898 and would gain Wilde greater recognition as a poet (in addition to being a great playwright); although his only other volume of poetry, one of his earliest works that he’d published, was also well-received. Sadly, ‘The Ballad’ would be his last. (Summary by Linda Leu).
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Librivox: Long Poems Collection 001 by VariousJoin Now to Follow
Librivox's Long Poems Collection 001: a collection of 5 public-domain poems longer than 5 minutes in length. (Summary by Alan Davis-Drake)
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Librivox: Jazz Fantasia by Sandburg, CarlJoin Now to Follow
As our weekly poem of 30-July-2006, “Jazz Fantasia” was a special challenge because it isn’t just about jazz, it IS jazz. The rhythm is central, but not so clearly defined, so we had to play around and improvise. Every reading is unique! (Summary by LauraFox)
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Librivox: Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare, WilliamJoin Now to Follow
Romeo and Juliet is perhaps the most famous of Shakespeare’s plays and is thought to be the most famous love story in Western history. It concerns the fate of two very young lovers who would do anything to be together. The Montagues and the Capulets of Verona, Italy, are in the midst of a long-standing feud when Romeo Montague drops in on a masquerade party at the Capulets’. While there he meets and woos the daughter of the house, Juliet. She likewise returns his passion, and their secret meeting later that night on her bedroom balcony begins a series of tragic events that no one could have foretold. (Summary by Becky Crackel)
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