Popular Poetry, Popular Verse

By: William Shakespeare, John Milton, more

Narrated by: Anton Lesser, Simon Russell Beale

With more than 80 of the most popular and loved poems in the English language, this collection is one of the most comprehensive anthologies of its kind. It covers a remarkable range, from the striking visions of Blake and Shelley and the insights of Keats to lighter but equally memorable verse by Tennyson, Kipling, G.K. Chesterton and Edward Lear.

Download the accompanying reference guide.©1994 NAXOS AudioBooks Ltd. (P)1994 NAXOS AudioBooks Ltd.

a nice collection with a flawed presentation

I enjoy listening to poetry reading while I am falling asleep. This a a good volume for this purpose and probably for whatever other purpose a poetry lover may want to put it to.
I give it five stars for the narration because the narrations themselves were very good. However, I have the same complaint about this production that I have with many other audiobooks: a rushed feeling. Sometimes there is a nice musical interlude between readings. Other times there barely a second's pause between the end of one and the beginning of the next. I find this jarring and annoying. I would rather they put one fewer poem into the collection and allow a breath or two between each.

Highly enjoyable

I love Anton Lesser and especially Simon Russell Beale. I saw the latter live in London in 1998 and still think he's one of the best actors alive. This is a good collection of poetry, and the performance by Lesser and Beale is excellent. I do not regret this purchase and intend to listen to this a second time.