Sonnets
Christina Rossetti
Read by Bruce Kachuk
This is an excellent selection of introspective, inspirational and remarkably compelling sonnets from one of the greatest poets of the nineteenth century. Christina Rossetti, in writing of the frailties of mankind and the mysteries of existence, sheds a new light on the nature of love, life and the inevitable "silent land".
The lattice of sentient awareness which like a web unites and unifies this collection is one of an indulgent perception of life and its diversity, of human emotion and its capriciousness and of a deep conception of death and its intangible illusion of finality. This illusion, indefinable as it is, becomes an enigma in the hands of Rossetti, often becoming an ambiguity, at times a fantasy and on occasion almost a dismal reality.
These poems, these snapshots of life, these glimpses of the pathos of the here and the mystery of the hereafter are assured to fascinate, allure and indeed perplex, motivate and inspire. Hope and faith, to which the human condition is wont to aspire are ever present in Rossetti's poems, along with the assurance that, "death be strong, yet love is strong as death." Foremost components of Rossetti's concept of hope and faith are that love can prevail, love can promise and love can unite, "happy equals in the flowering land / Of love, that knows not a dividing sea." And if fate decrees a parting should take place between those who love, Rossetti has issued the memorable, inspiring, albeit arduous entreaty, "Better by far you should forget and smile / Than that you should remember and be sad."
- Summary by Bruce Kachuk (1 hr 4 min)
Chapters
| Song | 1:10 | Read by Bruce Kachuk |
| A Pause | 1:23 | Read by Bruce Kachuk |
| After Death | 1:20 | Read by Bruce Kachuk |
| An Echo From Willow-Wood | 1:20 | Read by Bruce Kachuk |
| Sonnet | 1:13 | Read by Bruce Kachuk |
| Sonnet | 1:17 | Read by Bruce Kachuk |
| Sonnet | 1:16 | Read by Bruce Kachuk |
| Rest | 1:15 | Read by Bruce Kachuk |
| Immalee | 1:16 | Read by Bruce Kachuk |
| Venus's Looking Glass | 1:17 | Read by Bruce Kachuk |
| Love Lies Bleeding | 1:27 | Read by Bruce Kachuk |
| Touching Never | 1:18 | Read by Bruce Kachuk |
| Remember | 1:08 | Read by Bruce Kachuk |
| Resurgam | 1:21 | Read by Bruce Kachuk |
| From the Psalms | 1:20 | Read by Bruce Kachuk |
| A Portrait | 1:22 | Read by Bruce Kachuk |
| Son, Remember | 1:22 | Read by Bruce Kachuk |
| Who Have a Form of Godliness | 1:20 | Read by Bruce Kachuk |
| One Certainty | 1:15 | Read by Bruce Kachuk |
| Sonnet | 1:19 | Read by Bruce Kachuk |
| Sonnet | 1:25 | Read by Bruce Kachuk |
| Sonnet | 1:15 | Read by Bruce Kachuk |
| Sonnet | 1:23 | Read by Bruce Kachuk |
| Sonnet | 1:24 | Read by Bruce Kachuk |
| Sonnet | 1:21 | Read by Bruce Kachuk |
| Vanity of Vanities | 1:15 | Read by Bruce Kachuk |
| From Sunset to Star Rise | 1:16 | Read by Bruce Kachuk |
| Sonnet | 1:27 | Read by Bruce Kachuk |
| By Way of Remembrance | 1:24 | Read by Bruce Kachuk |
| Lady Montrevor | 1:20 | Read by Bruce Kachuk |
| Babylon the Great | 1:23 | Read by Bruce Kachuk |
| In an Artist's Studio | 1:19 | Read by Bruce Kachuk |
| A Triad | 1:20 | Read by Bruce Kachuk |
| A Soul | 1:22 | Read by Bruce Kachuk |
| To Every Seed His Own Body | 1:22 | Read by Bruce Kachuk |
| The Thread of Life | 1:28 | Read by Bruce Kachuk |
| Monna Innominata - A Sonnet of Sonnets | 14:34 | Read by Bruce Kachuk |
| The End of the First Part | 2:14 | Read by Bruce Kachuk |