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Shelley: Selected Poems and Prose

Gelesen von Leonard Wilson

(4,316 Sterne; 19 Bewertungen)

The English Romantic Period in literature featured a towering group of excellent poets: Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley and Keats. If we add in forerunners Burns and Blake, we have perhaps an unmatchable collection of writers for any era. Of these, Percy Bysshe Shelley was one of the brightest and best, coupling a giant intellect with a highly emotional and impetuous nature. He was always a champion of liberty, but was largely ignored when he tried to promote political and social reform. He was wise enough, however, to realize that his efforts were ineffective, and he chose instead, not to attempt to reshape society, but to transform the individual, to inspire his readers to a greater love of beauty, of nature, and especially of each other. To this end, he poured forth a profusion of gorgeous verse overflowing with brilliant imagery, all aimed at uplifting the good and the beautiful, the free and the loving, while denouncing the social forces that tended to suppress them.

Unfortunately, it was Shelley’s fate to be misunderstood by the people of his own time. He was vilified as an evil influence, a free thinker and free lover whose ideas should be abhorred. He pictured himself in his poetic tribute to Keats, “Adonais,” as an outcast or a martyr, a “phantom among men, companionless,” bearing a brand upon his brow like that of Cain or of Christ. His life was unorthodox, but his nature was highly sympathetic and filled with devotion to those who were ground down by life and the pressures of a callous society. Perhaps the greatest testimonial was paid to him in letters written by Lord Byron (who, incidentally, disagreed with his political ideas): “...he is, to my knowledge, the least selfish and the mildest of men--a man who has made more sacrifices of his fortune and feelings for others than any I ever heard of.” “Shelley...was, without exception, the best and least selfish man I ever knew. I never knew one who was not a beast in comparison.” (Introduction by Leonard Wilson) (6 hr 59 min)

Chapters

Hymn to Intellectual Beauty

6:07

Read by Leonard Wilson

Sonnet: Lift not the painted veil

1:35

Read by Leonard Wilson

Ode to the West Wind

5:00

Read by Leonard Wilson

Excerpt from Preface to Prometheus Unbound

5:09

Read by Leonard Wilson

Conclusion of Prometheus Unbound, Act IV, ll. 554-578

2:29

Read by Leonard Wilson

The Cloud

4:57

Read by Leonard Wilson

Sonnet: England in 1819

1:31

Read by Leonard Wilson

Song to the Men of England

2:18

Read by Leonard Wilson

A Summer Evening Churchyard, Lechlade, Gloucestershire

2:43

Read by Leonard Wilson

Mutability, 2 poems

2:54

Read by Leonard Wilson

Lines Written in the Bay of Lerici

3:09

Read by Leonard Wilson

Love's Philosophy

1:20

Read by Leonard Wilson

Mont Blanc

10:13

Read by Leonard Wilson

To Night

2:12

Read by Leonard Wilson

Letter to Maria Gisborne

19:22

Read by Leonard Wilson

Time Long Past

1:29

Read by Leonard Wilson

When the Lamp Is Shattered

2:09

Read by Leonard Wilson

Dedication of The Revolt of Islam

9:21

Read by Leonard Wilson

With a Guitar, to Jane

4:56

Read by Leonard Wilson

To-- One word is too often profaned

1:25

Read by Leonard Wilson

Lines Written Among the Euganean Hills

16:53

Read by Leonard Wilson

Ozymandias

1:34

Read by Leonard Wilson

Stanzas--April, 1814

2:51

Read by Leonard Wilson

Feelings of a Republican on the Fall of Bonaparte

1:38

Read by Leonard Wilson

On the Medusa of Leonardo da Vinci in the Florentine Gallery

3:04

Read by Leonard Wilson

The Indian Serenade

1:37

Read by Leonard Wilson

A Dirge

0:56

Read by Leonard Wilson

The Sensitive Plant

18:32

Read by Leonard Wilson

To Constantia, Singing

3:11

Read by Leonard Wilson

A Lament

1:09

Read by Leonard Wilson

To a Skylark

5:00

Read by Leonard Wilson

The Mask of Anarchy

17:28

Read by Leonard Wilson

To Wordsworth

1:33

Read by Leonard Wilson

Stanzas Written in Dejection Near Naples

3:15

Read by Leonard Wilson

An Exhortation

1:50

Read by Leonard Wilson

Excerpts from A Defence of Poetry

16:34

Read by Leonard Wilson

To-- When passion's trance is overpast

1:29

Read by Leonard Wilson

Ode to Liberty

18:47

Read by Leonard Wilson

To-- Music when soft voices die

1:04

Read by Leonard Wilson

Dirge for the Year

1:46

Read by Leonard Wilson

The Triumph of Life

34:13

Read by Leonard Wilson

The World's Wanderers

1:10

Read by Leonard Wilson

Hymn of Pan

2:21

Read by Leonard Wilson

To-- Oh! there are spirits of the air

2:47

Read by Leonard Wilson

Epipsychidion

39:55

Read by Leonard Wilson

Rarely, rarely, comest thou

2:49

Read by Leonard Wilson

Alastor

48:50

Read by Leonard Wilson

The Witch of Atlas

38:47

Read by Leonard Wilson

Preface to Adonais

6:11

Read by Leonard Wilson

Adonais

32:17

Read by Leonard Wilson

Bewertungen

Leonard Wilson Did A Good Job!

(4 Sterne)

A prejudiced reviewer is as unsightly as a large boil on a fair face. I heard 3-4 poems of Shelley and I can say that Leonard Wilson did a good job! Librivox should reprimand such untruthful and unfair reviewers like Valentina. Just as I would like Librivox to take immediate action to suspend that bungling maniac who ruined 5 chapters of Nicholas Nickleby with his distorted pronunciation.

his voice was a little too raspy to hear the words strongly

(1,5 Sterne)

Not the righe voce forse me

(2 Sterne)

I'm sorry I don't mean to be rude, but I would've preferred a younger voice, less theatrical reading and more passionate. Moreover Shelly is my favourite poet and I know some of his poems by heart, so I can tell for sure that a couple of lines were incorrect in Love's Philosophy. I can't say about the other poems cause I was disappointed and I gave up listening pretty soon.