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  The Poetry of Hymns

  John Donne, James Thomson, Ann...

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  Through the centuries in the solace of a church we hear music.  These soaring vaulted often beautiful pieces of architecture have borne witness to hymns that change our emotions and fortify our spirit through life, death and celebrations and memorials of every type in between.  Whether you are of a Christian faith or not, it is difficult to deny that these hymns create something stirring something magical which shouldn't be surprising when you hear the original poems.  They speak with clarity and purpose, uplifting the heart and the soul, rejoicing God’s work and man’s pledge to do better in His eyes.  But Hymns also have a wider duty to perform as there are many facets, themes and help on how to live lives as ourselves and appreciate each other as well as nature.  In listening each of us can be swayed and persuaded on a number of levels. 
   
  However many poets have called their work ‘a Hymn’ and have explored its theme and its definition, in different ways. They can be more irreverent and suggest that hymns can come not from churches but other places - even watermelon pavilions. 
   
  One of the purposes of poems, of verse, of words, is to bring a subject into our view, imbue it with a little understanding and perhaps help us to confirm our opinions or hear in a way we might not have originally thought of it.  Seeing and hearing through others can be a way to find more complex ripples of knowledge or to challenge what we hold and adjust that thinking. 
   
  In this volume we bring you a wide range of Hymns from the religious and the devotional to the humane and the wonderful.

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  New Year Greeting

  Louise R. Waite

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  LibriVox volunteers bring you 7 recordings of New Year Greeting by Louise R. Waite . This was the Weekly Poetry project for March 21st, 2010.,The 21st of March is the ancient Persian festival of Naw-Rúz, also spelled "Noruz" (New Day) which is the Iranian and Zoroastrian New Year's Day. Naw-Rúz is also a Bahá'í holy day and the Baha'i New Year.Louise R. Waite (nee Spencer) was a Bahá'í poet and song writer. She wrote this poem, entitled “New Year Greeting”, for Naw-Rúz, which appeared in the Bahai Bulletin, Vol. 1. January-February-March, 1909, No. 5. According to an article which appeared in the same issue of the Bahai Bulletin: “Each Prophet or Manifestation of God, when he comes to the world, founds a new dispensation, a new time, for his followers…. To-day those who believe in Baha’u’llah, are establishing the Bahai time. It establishes a new method of reckoning… The New Year begins on the twenty-first of March, in accord with the teachings of our Revelator…”Referring to one of Waite’s poems in 1902, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá wrote: “All poems shall be forgotten in the course of time save those that are extraordinary. Thy poems shall be chanted with melody and best voices in the center of Worship (Mashriqu'l-Adhkár) forevermore.” In one Tablet, He referred to her as “Thou bird of pleasing tones” and in another as “Thou eloquent and expressive poetess”. On the 15th of April 1902, she married Edgar F. Waite. In 1910, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá gave her the spiritual name of Shahnáz Khánum (Lady Shahnáz). Shahnáz passed away in her sleep on the 27th of May 1939. (Summary by Nicholas James Bridgewater)

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  The Rivals

  Richard Brinsley Sheridan

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  Romantic havoc ensues in the town of Bath when Sir Anthony arrives to arrange the marriage of his son Captain Jack Absolute to the wealthy Lydia Languish. Jack and Lydia are already in love, but because of Lydia’s obsession with romantic novels, Jack has disguised himself as a poor officer named Ensign Beverly – and he is only one of Lydia’s many suitors. The Rivals was Sheridan’s first play, and this charming comedy of manners continues to be widely performed today.Includes an interview with Linda Kelly, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and the author of Richard Brinsley Sheridan: A Life.An L.A. Theatre Works full-cast performance featuring:Rosalind Ayres as Mrs. MalapropKenneth Danziger as ThomasLucy Davis as Lydia LanguishNeil Dickson as DavidSarah Drew as JuliaJulian Holloway as Sir Lucius O’TriggerChris Neame as Sir Anthony AbsoluteLloyd Owen as Captain Jack AbsoluteMoira Quirk as LucyMatthew Wolf as FaulklandDirected by Martin Jarvis. Recorded at The Invisible Studios, West Hollywood in 2010.

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  Henry VIII (Argo Classics)

  William Shakespeare

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  William Collins Books and Decca Records are proud to present ARGO Classics, a historic catalogue of classic prose and verse read by some of the world’s most renowned voices. Originally released as vinyl records, these expertly remastered stories are now available to download for the first time. 
  ‘Of all losses, time is the most irrecuperable for it can never be redeemed.’ 
  Shakespeare's Henry VIII is a story of a ruthless race to power and the desire for an heir. 
  King Henry VIII listens to Cardinal Wolsey too much and gives 
  him power, which the Cardinal uses to convict a duke of treason. Henry meets Anne Boleyn, divorces his wife Katharine, and marries Anne. Anne gives birth to Princess Elizabeth who the Archbishop prophesies will become great. 
  All of the Shakespeare plays within the ARGO Classics catalogue are performed by the Marlowe Dramatic Society and Professional Players. The Marlowe was founded in 1907 with a mission to focus on effective delivery of verse, respect the integrity of texts, and rescue neglected plays by Shakespeare’s contemporaries and the less performed plays of Shakespeare himself. The Marlowe has performed annually at Cambridge Arts Theatre since its opening in 1936 and continues to produce some of the finest actors of their generations. 
  Thurston Dart, Professor of Music at London University and a Fellow of Jesus College Cambridge, directed the music for this production. 
  The full cast includes: Frank Duncan; Robert Speaight; Richard Dare; Donald Layne-Smith; Denis McCarthy; Ian Lang; Peter Orr; Gary Watson; Terrence Hardiman; Michael Bates; Trevor Nunn; John Barton; Margaretta Scott; Prunella Scales; Vivienne Chatterton. 
  This top performing theatre production, hailed as one of the best, brings to life the European history through the lens of Shakespeare's Henry VIII. The cast's delivery of verse and respect for the integrity of the text is unparalleled, making it a must-see for all theatre enthusiasts. 
  For fans of Richard Parsons (GCSE English Shakespeare Text Guide), and Arthur Miller (Incident at Vichy).

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  Tartuffe

  Molière Molière

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  Initially banned in France by King Louis, Molière's celebrated social satire Tartuffe exposes false piety and hypocrisy in the Catholic Church. When a pious fraud worms his way into a wealthy family and manipulates the patriarch into giving up his fortune, it’s up to his family to expose the truth before they end up in the poorhouse!  
  An L.A. Theatre Works full-cast performance starring:Brian Bedford as TartuffeJB Blanc as M. Loyal and OfficerDaniel Blinkoff as DamisGia Carides as DorineJane Carr as Mme. PernelleJohn de Lancie as CleanteMartin Jarvis as OrgonAlex Kingston as ElmireMatthew Rhys as ValereSarah Zimmerman as Mariane
  Translated by Richard Wilbur. Directed by Dakin Matthews. Recorded at The Invisible Studios, West Hollywood in June, 2010.
  ©2010 L.A. Theatre Works (P)2010 L.A. Theatre Works

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  Elegies & Laments - Poetic...

  Percy Bysshe Shelley, Thomas...

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  In these more modern time perhaps our first thoughts of an Elegy or a Lament is for someone’s passing.  Wreathed in grief and death we think of a headstone on a silent grave and the memories that shelter within our hearts, slowly receding from one generation to the next, as an often lonely voice extols the virtues and traits of the one who has passed. 
   
  But these two very early forms of poetry, dating back to at least Ovid and probably further, are also surprising in their lyrical touch.  These are not just mournful and sad but also whimsical or rich with celebration and tribute as they journey through joy, laughter, love, tears and comfort. 
   
  Our Classic Poets, who have specifically chosen to include the form in the title of their work, include the likes of Percy Bysshe Shelley, Thomas Chatterton, Aphra Behn, Rainer Maria Rilke, Radclyffe Hall and many others of equal measure are always surprising in their views, their analysis and their sharing of words and thoughts, offering feelings that mirror our own and provide a balm of many hues for our wounded and tender souls. 
   
  1 - Elegies and Laments - An Introduction 
  2 - Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard by Thomas Gray 
  3 - The Lament of Swordy Well by John Clare 
  4 - An Elegy on a Pile of Ruins by John Cunningham 
  5 - Lament by Rainer Maria Rilke 
  6 - Elegy - Supposed to Be Written in Barnet Churchyard by George Townsend 
  7 - Elegy by Thomas Chatterton 
  8 - A Lament by Radclyffe Hall 
  9 - An Elegy by Ben Jonson 
  10 - Laeta - A Lament by HP Lovecraft 
  11 - Angellica's Lament by Aphra Behn 
  12 - Amores - Book I Elegy V - Corinna in an Afternoon by Ovid 
  13 - Morning Lament by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 
  14 - The Wind's Lament by John Morris-Jones 
  15 - Noon Day Elegiacs by T W Rolleston 
  16 - Midnight Lamentation by Harold Munro 
  17 - February. An Elegy by Thomas Chatterton 
  18 - Elegy in April and September by Wilfred Owen 
  19 - Elegy by Anna Seward 
  20 - Autumn Elegy by Leslie Norris 
  21 - Elegy on the Year 1788 by Robert Burns 
  22 - Elegy for an Enemy by Stephen Vincent Benet 
  23 - An Elegy on the Death of a Mad Dog by Oliver Goldsmith 
  24 - Pointless It Is To Lament by Narsinh Mehta 
  25 - To the Beloved Dead - A Lament by Alice Meynell 
  26 - The Slave's Lament by Benjamin Cutler Clark 
  27 - The Slaves Lament by Robert Burns 
  28 - A Lament by Katharine Tynan 
  29 - The Going of the Battery (Wives Lament November the 2nd 1899) by Thomas Hardy 
  30 - Lament in 1915 by Harold Munro 
  31 - An Elegy on the Death of Llywelyn ab Gruyffyd by Gruffydd ap Yr Ynad Coch 
  32 - Elegy to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady by Alexander Pope 
  33 - Elegy on a Lady Whom Grief for the Death of Her Bethrothed Killed by Robert Seymour Bridges 
  34 - Lament by Edna St Vincent Millay 
  35 - The Mother's Lament For Her Infant by Lucretia Maria Davidson 
  36 - Elegy on the Death of Mr Phillips by Thomas Chatterton 
  37 - Lament for the Poets, 1916 by Francis Ledwidge 
  38 - Lament for Thomas McDonagh by Francis Ledwidge 
  39 - Elegy on the Earl of Rochester by Anne Wharton 
  40 - Elegy on William Shakespeare by William Basse 
  41 - Adonais - An Elegy on the Death of John Keats by Percy Bysshe Shelley

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