The Great Poets – Matthew Arnold (selections)

Audio Sample

Matthew Arnold

The Great Poets – Matthew Arnold

Read by Jonathan Keeble

selections

Considered the bridge between romanticism and modernism, Matthew Arnold wrote verse that is simple, unadorned and straightforward. From the hypnotic and beautiful lines of Dover Beach to the pastoral narrative of The Scholar Gipsy, Arnold cast a gaze at the main intellectual issues of the nineteenth century while giving a timeless insight into man and nature. This collection covers his major poetic works, including the narrative poems, sonnets and elegiac poems, illuminating the lyricism and serenity of Arnold’s best poetry.

  • 1 CDs

    Running Time: 1 h 18 m

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    More product details
    ISBN:978-1-78198-056-9
    Digital ISBN:978-1-78198-057-6
    Cat. no.:NA0271
    Download size:30 MB
    Produced by:John Foley
    Edited by:Andrew Riches
    BISAC:POE005020
    Released:August 2017
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Included in this title
  • Dover Beach
  • Desire
  • Longing
  • A Summer Night
  • Consolation
  • Philomela
  • A Dream
  • The Scholar Gipsy
  • East London
  • West London
  • Thyrsis
  • Immortality
  • Growing Old
  • A Wish
  • Bacchanalia; Or, The New Age
  • A Modern Sappho
  • The Hayswater Boat
  • The River
  • Human Life
  • The Buried Life
  • Austerity of Poetry
  • A Farewell
  • Requiescat
Reviews

Matthew Arnold’s poetry is not widely read today, except for Dover Beach and perhaps The Scholar Gipsy, but this selection shows the strengths that made him popular in the nineteenth century. Jonathan Keeble’s readings are romantic, as the poems are, and they show the result of careful thought. Arnold’s writerly craft and ideas come through. Keeble reads the antique diction and Romantic ideals as they might have been first heard, even if those qualities are no longer in fashion. The contemporary audience for Arnold’s poetry is probably rather specialised, but these texts helped shape later poems and thinking about poems. Keeble gives us a more than worthy introduction to an important mid-Victorian artist.

D.M.H., AudioFile

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