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The Classic Fifty Poems

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The Classic Fifty Poems

By: John Keats, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Christopher Marlowe
Narrated by: Philip Levine, Paul Muldoon
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About this listen

 Adopting the methodology of the music charts, The Classic Fifty Poems presents the "top 50" poems of all time. Determined by a consensus of over 1,000 compliers, and arranged in order of popularity, each author's work is illuminated by the informative notes of editor William Harmon, who offers insights into the historical period in which each author lived and the author's choice of verse form, tone, and style.

Newly revised, and read by an ensemble of contemporary poets, The Classic Fifty Poems is a feast for poetry lovers.

©1990, 1997 Columbia University Press (P)16 9; 1998 HighBridge Company Higher & Continuing Education Poetry Classic Poetry
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What listeners say about The Classic Fifty Poems

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Profile Image for Vichy

Interesting introductions and nice performances

Since this is included in membership, it seems churlish to make criticisms.
This offers an enjoyable collection of classic English and American poetry with interesting introductory notes to introduce each poet and poem. These really add to the enjoyment by putting the poetry into context of its creator and time.
Whether one loves the performances or not will be down to personal taste; in my opinion the good far outweigh any that I disliked.
One thing that would improve my experience would be indexing the poems to make it easy to return to favourites.

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Very nice introduction to each poet and verse.

I loved this production it was beautifully narrated and introduced each poet and their verse.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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Profile Image for M

Content good, performance varied.

I liked the introductory comments, but the performances were some times disappointing, with concentration on effect rather than the meaning.

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Profile Image for Paul Marsden

Great selection of poems and brief background

This is a good introduction to a wide selection of poems across the centuries, although they seem to be mainly from English speaking countries.

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    2 out of 5 stars
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Profile Image for Roy Harding

Most Annoying.

The Poem reading was O.K. but all the talking and explaining in between was very annoying..

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Profile Image for Denise

not as good

While there is nothing wrong with the narration of this audiobook, there is a background noise to it. As if there is a conversation going on behind the main narration but you cannot make out any words. I am not very happy about it as it is very distracting at times.

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8 people found this helpful