Poetry Readings of Classic Poems by Famous Poets

“Bright Star” by John Keats

admin — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 08:54:20 +0000

Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art–
Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night
And watching, with eternal lids apart,
Like nature’s patient, sleepless Eremite,
The moving waters at their priestlike task
Of pure ablution round earth’s human shores,
Or gazing on the new soft-fallen mask
Of snow upon the mountains and the moors–
No–yet still stedfast, still unchangeable,
Pillow’d upon my fair love’s ripening breast,
To feel for ever its soft fall and swell,
Awake for ever in a sweet unrest,
Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath,
And so live ever–or else swoon to death.

About John Keats

Keats was an English poet who lived to be only 25 years old. He was born October 31, 1795 and died on February 23, 1821. Despite his short life, Keats is one of the most famous poets of his generation and is seen as an important part of the Romantic movement’s second generation.

“The Arrow and the Song” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

admin — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 05:20:13 +0000

I shot an arrow into the air
It fell to earth, I knew not where;
For, so swiftly it flew, the sight
Could not follow it in its flight.

I breathed a song into the air,
It fell to earth, I knew not where;
For who has sight so keen and strong,
That it can follow the flight of song?

Long, long afterward, in an oak
I found the arrow, still unbroke;
And the song, from beginning to end,
I found again in the heart of a friend.

Original Experimental Poetry Reading (with Music)

Photo of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“Terminus” by Ralph Waldo Emerson

admin — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 18:30:09 +0000

It is time to be old,
To take in sail:
The god of bounds,
Who sets to seas a shore,
Come to me in his fatal rounds,
And said: “No more!
No farther shoot
Thy broad ambitious branches, and thy root.
Fancy departs; no more invent;
Contract thy firmament
To compass of a tent.
There’s not enough for this and that,
Make thy option which of two;
Economize the failing river,
Not the less revere the Giver,
Leave the many and hold the few.
Timely wise accept the terms,
Soften the fall with wary foot;
A little while
Still plan and smile,
And—fault of novel germs—
Mature the unfallen fruit.
Curse, if thou wilt, thy sires,
Bad husbands of their fires,
Who, when they gave thee breath,
Failed to bequeath
The needful sinew stark as once.
The baresark marrow to thy bones,
But left a legacy of ebbing veins,
Inconstant heat and nerveless reins,—
Amid the Muses, left thee deaf and dumb,
Amid the gladiators, halt and numb.”

As the bird trims her to the gale,
I trim myself to the storm of time,
I man the rudder, reef the sail,
Obey the voice at eve obeyed at prime:
“Lowly faithful, banish fear,
Right onward drive unharmed;
The port, well worth the cruise, is near,
And every wave is charmed.”

Audio (Original Recording Made For This Site)

This is the first of these poetry readings created for this site (as this is the first poem chosen for the site!) I plan on trying quite a few different approaches with these poetry readings and I expect it’s likely that quite a few people will find them distasteful (or worse) but that’s a chance I’m willing to take.

About Ralph Waldo Emerson

Emerson was an American philosopher, essayist, and poet who lived from 1803 to 1881. He is most remembered for the Transcendentalism movement for which he is credited with starting.

“Self-Reliance” and “Nature” are among his most well known essays. Both of these essays and many more of his writings (including “Terminus”) are included in Essays and Poems.

He was a good friend of Henry David Thorough who was also a part of the Transcendental movement.

Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote this biography of Emerson in 1885. Emerson: The Ideal in America is the first (and only as of this writing) video biography made for Emerson.