Showing results by publisher "Spoken Realms" in Poetry

One of America’s favorite pastimes is baseball, and “Casey at the Bat,” one of the most famous poems in American history, captures the excitement of the game from start to finish! Tension is high that day in the typical late 19th century town of Muddville. We enter the ninth inning, the team is behind by two runs, and things are looking grim for the win unless by some miracle the infamous Casey can get up to bat and possibly save the day.

"Paul Revere's Ride" written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, has long been a staple in the classroom, and an inspiration to many. Now a part of Core State Standards, the student can listen to this poem read by professional narrator Mike Vendetti.

Most can recall what may be termed 'the good old days'. Each generation will recall the best of the past and take the sum of positive experience and call it good. This story shares the very end of the best of times in Acadia. Love is in bloom, reputations are strong, and all look to a bright future. A lifetime of change can come in one 24 hour period. And when all is stripped away perhaps the the best that remains from shattered dreams is hope. A classic story from Longfellow. Narrated by Glenn Hascall.

While it may seem dark and grim this poem story takes us aboard the deck of a ship bound for disaster. Bravado is mixed with fear. A storm is tempered with hope. The end leaves questions and a sense of melancholy that is the pinnacle of what makes this a classic. Narrated by Glenn Hascall.

The life of a Viking is prominent in this story poem. The listener is invited to the heights and depths of a Norseman's life. This is the stuff of ancient bards rekindled for a new generation. Narrated by Glenn Hascall.

An epic battle is taking place in Mudville. If the team can just hold on for Casey to get a whack then life will be grand. Such poise, such command, such promise. A classic poem narrated by Glenn Hascall.

While he may be less known for poetry, author Rudyard Kipling's "The Ballad of Clampherdown" is a yarn of seafaring conflict that chronicles the progression of losing a ship to war. Another great listen, another great tale. Narrated by Glenn Hascall.

Is this truly "the battle-cry of the next thousand years"? This classic poem sets out to describe the plight of certain workers. Narrated by Glenn Hascall.

If you think the blind mice were always blind then you have never read the complete poetic story. Narrator Glenn Hascall reviews the story in its complete form and helps listeners follow the mice through the bold, hungry, and scared days.

The Night Before Christmas by Clement Clarke Moore performed by Glenn Haskell will no doubt become a Christmas tradition in many homes.

The fear of being buried alive was alive and well in the 19th century. It is said that Poe himself harbored this fear. An excellent audiobook to accompany a nighttime visit to a lonely graveyard.

The themes of shared experience, the relationship of human beings to one another throughout time, and the ultimate power of place are explored in this poem by one of the most revered American poets, Walt Whitman. Its setting of NYC is dear to narrator Diane Havens, a native New Yorker, a Brooklynite.

Dusting Contours is a contemplation on the nature of love, passion, devotion, loss, and joy. An anthology of 31 spoken-word performances set to profoundly contemplative music and ambient soundscapes, this sensitive and moving work of art explores the sensual, the passionate, the maternal, the magical, and the sacred.

John Donne (1573-1631) is considered by many to be the finest poet of the Elizabeth Age after Shakespeare. Ironically, poetry was not Donne's dominant preoccupation. In his own day, he was better known as a scholar, and, in later life, a clergyman. His verse was composed sporadically and in an offhand fashion and appears not to have been subjected to revision. In spite of occasional solecisms, his poetic verbiage is vigorous and compelling and marked by a striking use of imagery.

Read by award-winning narrator Mike Vendetti. "Tis better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all." Comes from this poem.

Many masters employed the form of the sonnet, including Petrarch, Spenser, Shakespeare, Keats, and Robert Bridges. However, the most celebrated, and oft quoted, examples are to be found in the collection by Shakespeare, first published in 1609. In the 154 poems, Shakespeare surveys and dissects the subject of love in all its guises, and its relationship with youth, age, illness, death, and memory.

The poets whose work is included in this collection were contemporaries of John Milton and were active during the reigns of Charles I and Charles II, as well as the intervening period of the Commonwealth. While Milton expressed his disdain for these light-hearted lyrics, they display a compelling and ingenious charm which has been rarely equalled.

In 1892, Alfred Tennyson, the official Poet Laureate of Great Britain, died. According to custom, a new Laureate now had to be chosen by the Prime Minister. But on this occasion, uniquely, there was a problem. Many different candidates for the position were suggested, but for several years, none were chosen. In this recording, we listen to selected poems by Tennyson himself and by ten writers nominated to succeed him.

During the Victorian era, many authors tried their hand at a range of literary genres, including poetry. While Victorian verse is often less elegant and graceful than the lyric productions of earlier centuries, it has a distinctive note of earnestness and humanistic charm.

The 16 Evening Voluntaries, the great work of Wordsworth's old age, are half-serious, half-playful meditations designed to take the mind away from "its daily share of earth's unrest" and "the petty pleasures of the garish day," helping us to "walk content with Nature's way," and putting us to rest—the rest that "smooths the way for sleep."