81 Famous Poems

An Audio Companion to The Norton Anthology of Poetry

By: William Shakespeare, John Donne, Robert Herricks

Narrated by: Alexander Scourby, Nancy Wickwire, Bramwell Fletcher

Length: 2 hrs and 16 mins

Publisher's summary

Listen to the sound of English as it was meant to be heard.

This collection of timeless British and American poems is an experience to be treasured. The readings, by brilliant classic actors Alexander Scourby, Nancy Wickwire, and Bramwell Fletcher, are presented in the order they appear in The Norton Anthology of Poetry, Third Edition, and are selected for their ability to delight. The poetry is also among the most anthologized verse in the English language.

Included are such best-loved works as Shakespeare's "Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day?", John Donne's "Go and Catch a Falling Star", Robert Herrick's "To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time", Robert Burns' "A Red, Red Rose", John Keats' "Ode on a Grecian Urn", Walt Whitman's "O Captain, My Captain", and William Butler Yeats' "The Wild Swans at Coole", a total of 81 major poems from 39 poets. It is simply a collection of the best.

Public Domain (P)1992 The Audio Partners

Critic reviews

"The readings are seamlessly and expertly delivered with sensitive interpretations." ( Booklist)

Great Narration

Great to listen to in lowlight or by a fire. The narrator Alexander Scourby has a superb voice.

Followed easily with the Norton Anthology of Poetry

After decades I got out my Norton anthology I studied at U of Michigan and took this as a review. It stops at Yeats and wished it could continue.

listen over & over, sumptuous voices, lyrical

superb choice of poems, had it in other formats, like piece of music, can listen over and over and still hear something new, enchanting

Good Poems

Classic poems that are good to read/listen to. Haven’t heard of some of these, but it was nice to jump back in time and feel the era. William Shakespeare and Edgar Allen Poe are among these famous poets in this book.

No wonder

This collection of “famous poems” explains why classic poetry is one of the least appreciated art forms. There are so many great poems, yet few managed to sneak their way into this collection.

The classics of the classics.

Shakespeare, Campion, Herrick, Blake, Wordsworth, Tennyson, Shelley, and more.
A small but essential selection from the Norton Anthology of poetry.

Excellent collection, well done.

With 81 poems, I thought sure that I might cull, but I didn't find a single one that I'd consider dull,
There were some that spoke more to me than others might have done , but when I listen to them again (in a minute) I want to hear each one.
Thank you for presenting this, the readers were quite fine, and quite unlike most things these days, I hung on every line.

No chapter titles

With a total of 81 poems they should have the chapters titled with the name of the poem and author.

The best narrated classic English language poems

The three narrators are all excellent, and know how to read poetry, long way from your random YouTube attempt. Great selection as well, a good place to start if you’re dipping your toes, and supplement it with information found online, such as Wikipedia.

Untitled Chapters Make An Audiobook Hard To Use

The audio quality is quite good, but because this is a book of many short poems, the untitled chapters make the book hard to use. This is important because listening to a poem just once or twice is never enough.