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This was the weekly poetry project for 14 May 2006. Spring’s flowers come and go all too quickly, but Wordsworth’s classic poem reminds us that their blessings last.

LibriVox volunteers bring you 15 different recordings of Lines Written in Early Spring by William Wordsworth. This was the weekly poetry project for the week of March 25th, 2007.

This is a project which will allow us to compare recording quality of different mp3 players and portable recording devices. Each reader has recorded the poem "Written in March" by William Wordsworth.<BR> For more information on actions taken on recordings please see <a href="http://librivox.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=12222">The Project thread</a>.<BR> Recorders used in the sections: <OL> <LI><a href="http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10551&storeId=10151&langId=-1&partNumber=ICDSX46">Sony ICD-SX46 2</a></LI> <LI><a href="http://www.iriveramerica.com/prod/ultra/T10/">iRiver T10</a></LI> <LI><a href="http://www.sandisk.com/Products/Catalog(1166)-SanDisk_Sansa_e200_Series_MP3_Players.aspx">Sansa m240</a></LI> <LI><a href="http://www.nextar.com/frontend/proddetail.asp?pn=MA566&co=10000309">nextar MA566</a></LI> <LI><a href="http://www.zoom.co.jp/english/products/h2/">Zoom H2Handy Recorder</a></LI> <LI>Sansa C3 MP3 player</LI> <LI><a href="http://www.iriveramerica.com/">iRiver iHP-140</a></LI> <LI><a href="http://www.iriveramerica.com/prod/ultra/T10/">iRiver T10 1GB</a></LI> <LI><a href="http://www.sandisk.com/Products/Default.aspx?CatID=1363">Sandisk Sansa Clip</a></LI> <LI><a href="http://www.creative.com/products/mp3/zenvisionm/">Creative Zen Vision M</a></LI> <LI><a href="http://www.iriver.com/product/p_detail.asp?pidx=35">iRiver ifp780</a> with external mic</li> <LI><a href="http://www.iriver.com/product/p_detail.asp?pidx=35">iRiver ifp780</a> with internal mic</li> <LI><a href="http://www.kodak.com/eknec/PageQuerier.jhtml?pq-path=10387/10388/8016/8018&pq-locale=en_US">Kodak Easyshare Z650 camera</a></LI> <LI><a href="http://www.amazon.com/LogitechUSB-Headset-980374-0403/dp/tech-data/B0007SXHP0/ref=de_a_smtd">Logitech USB Headset 350</a></LI> <LI><a href="http://www.samsontech.com/products/productpage.cfm?prodID=1901">Samson H4</a></LI> <LI><a href="http://www.samsung.com/my/products/audio/mp3player/yp_c1v.asp">Samsung YP-C1</a></LI> <LI><a href="http://www.apple.com/ipodnano/">iPod Nano</a></LI> <LI><a href="http://www.roland.com/products/en/BR-600/index.html">Boss Digital Recorder BR-600</a></LI> <LI><a href="http://www.zoom.co.jp/english/products/h2/">Zoom H2 Handy Recorder</a></LI> <LI><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000AQDOKC/interactiveda95-21">Archos Gmini 402</a></LI> <LI><a href="http://www.sandisk.com/Products/Catalog(1166)-SanDisk_Sansa_e200_Series_MP3_Players.aspx">sansa m240</a></LI> <LI><a href="http://us.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=213&subcategory=214&product=12720&nav=1">Creative Zen Nano Plus</a></LI> <LI><a href="http://www.korg.com/gear/info.asp?a_prod_no=d4">Korg D4 digital recorder</a></LI> <LI><a href="http://uk.samsungmobile.com/mobile/SGH-D600">Samsung D600 mobile phone</a></LI> <LI><a href="http://us.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=213&subcategory=215&product=10737">Creative MuVo N200</a></LI> <LI><a href="http://en.aigo.com/Product/view.asp?id=1701">Aigo A208 mp3 player</a></LI> </OL>

LibriVox volunteers bring you 13 recordings of <em>She Dwelt among the Untrodden Ways</em> by William Wordsworth. This was the weekly poem for the week of May 4th, 2008.

<i>The Excursion: Being a portion of The Recluse, a Poem</i> is a long poem by Romantic poet William Wordsworth and was first published in 1814. It was intended to be the second part of <i>The Recluse</i>, an unfinished larger work that was also meant to include <i>The Prelude</i>, Wordsworth's other long poem, which was eventually published posthumously. The exact dates of its composition are unknown, but the first manuscript is generally dated as either September 1806 or December 1809. (Introduction by Wikipedia)

Wordsworth was a defining member of the English Romantic Movement. Like other Romantics, Wordsworth’s personality and poetry were deeply influenced by his love of nature, especially by the sights and scenes of the Lake Country, in which he spent most of his mature life. A profoundly earnest and sincere thinker, he displayed a high seriousness tempered with tenderness and a love of simplicity. (summary from Bartleby.com)

This is a project which will allow readers and listeners to compare the recording quality of a wide variety of recording devices. It is a sequel to <a href="http://librivox.org/recordings-on-mp3-players-and-other-portable-devices/">another project</a> in which readers submitted readings of a poem on a variety of portable recording devices. For this project, readers have read "I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud" by William Wordsworth. (Summary by Algy Pug)

LibriVox volunteers bring you 16 recordings of Old Man Travelling; Animal Tranquillity and Decay, a Sketch by William Wordsworth. This was the Fortnightly Poetry project for October 2, 2011.<br><br>In 1842 the government awarded Wordsworth a civil list pension amounting to £300 a year. With the death in 1843 of Robert Southey, Wordsworth became the Poet Laureate. He initially refused the honour, saying he was too old, but accepted when Prime Minister Robert Peel assured him "you shall have nothing required of you" (he became the only laureate to write no official poetry). When his daughter, Dora, died in 1847, his production of poetry came to a standstill. (Summary from Wikipedia)

Located in a part of Cumbria that was once part of Lancashire, the River Duddon rises in the high fells of the Lake District and flows for 25 miles through varied scenery before disappearing into the sands between Millom and Barrow-in-Furness. Wordsworth’s series of sonnets, inspired by his walks along the river, were written over a period of years, but are arranged so as to follow its downward course from the fells to the sea. <br /><br />Part One of this reading consists of the 33 sonnets and postscript that were first published as a series in 1820. Later editions of Wordsworth’s works included a 34th sonnet, which is appended to Part One. <br /><br />Part Two contains Wordsworth’s rather eccentric notes on the sonnets, which are largely taken up by an account of the remarkable career of the Reverend ‘Wonderful’ Walker, who lived to the age of 94 after serving as curate of Seathwaite chapel for 67 years from 1735 to 1802. I have read the sonnets using a northern English accent as I believe Wordsworth may have read them himself. (Summary by Phil Benson)

10Prelude

By William Wordsworth

Among monuments of narrative poetry, The Prelude; or, Growth of a Poet's Mind, by William Wordsworth, occupies a unique place. Wordsworth published the first version of the poem in 1798, but continued to work on it for the rest of his life. The final version, which is the subject of this recording, was published posthumously in 1850, by Wordworth’s widow, Mary.<br><br> The Prelude is the first major narrative poem in European literature which deals solely with the spiritual journey of the author. In this respect the only predecessor to which it can be compared in Dante’s Divine Comedy, which is similarly a journey from personal confusion to certitude, from ignorance to realization. However, Dante starts his journey at the age of 35, and, through a lengthy rite of passage, involving both moral and intellectual purification, arrives at a state of illumination that he is not really able to describe. In The Prelude, on the other hand, illumination appears as the background on which the story is inscribed. Wordsworth is really no wiser at the end of his journey than he was at the start, but appears more accepting of the inexorable and sometimes bewildering fluctuations in the flow of human life. Despite Wordsworth’s occasional graceful genuflection to Providence, the poem has a secularity which would have been anathema to a writer like Dante, ensconced in the theocratic fastness of the Middle Ages.<br><br> The tone of the Prelude is gentle and reflective. Almost completely absent are the crashing cadences of narrative poems like the Aeneid and Paradise Lost, and there is nothing to match the terrible and multifarious griefs endured by so many characters in Dante’s Inferno. Wordsworth led an unheroic life, made remarkable by intensity of observation rather than incident. This is not to suggest that Wordsworth was unfamiliar with either grief or difficulty, but rather that he could accommodate such troubles in his view of life, which seems never to have quite lost its lustre.<br><br> The Prelude may be considered as Wordsworth’s crowning achievement, and one not really matched by any other poet. Despite the poem’s intractably self-referential nature, Wordsworth does not come across as either vain or tedious. The avoidance of tedium is largely due to his incomparable versification, which is a shining example of “the art which conceals art.” Nor are we tempted to see Wordsworth as unduly self-centred, because he communicates the potential glory of everyday events in a way that the reader (or listener) is drawn to share them. A hundred years before T.S.Eliot Wordsworth had arrived “'where we started “ and had “known that place for the first time.” (Summary by Algy Pug)

11Lyrical Ballads (1798)

By Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth

<em>Lyrical Ballads, with a Few Other Poems</em> is a collection of poems by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, first published in 1798 and generally considered to have marked the beginning of the English Romantic movement in literature. The immediate effect on critics was modest, but it became and remains a landmark, changing the course of English literature and poetry. Most of the poems in the 1798 edition were written by Wordsworth, with Coleridge contributing only four poems to the collection, including one of his most famous works, <em>The Rime of the Ancient Mariner</em>. (Additionally, though only the two writers are credited for the works, William's sister Dorothy Wordsworth's diary which held powerful descriptions of everyday surroundings influenced William's poetry immensely.) (Summary by Wikipedia)

In the prefatory advertisement to the First Edition of the Prelude, 1850, it is stated that that poem was designed to be introductory to the Recluse, and that the Recluse, if completed, would have consisted of three parts. The second part is the Excursion. The third part was only planned. The first book of the first part was left in manuscript by Wordsworth. It is now (1888) published for the first time in extenso. (Summary from the Preface)

In celebration of Saint David's Day 2016 (or Dydd Dewi Sant), LibriVox.org presents multiple readings of Composed Among the Ruins of a Castle in North Wales by William Wordsworth. Embodying the melancholy of the uniquely welsh word "hiraeth", which roughly translates as a sense of longing for a place that can never be returned to or that never was, this poem is a fitting tribute to the celebration of the patron saint of Wales Summary by Charlotte Duckett

14Place Of Burial In The South Of Scotland

By William Wordsworth

This poem is part of the "Ecclesiastical Sonnets," writen by Wordsworth between 1821 - 22. - Summary by David Lawrence

15Peter Bell: A Tale

By William Wordsworth

A ne'er-do-well's life is changed by an encounter with a stubborn animal. - Summary by Matthew Schneider

16Tables Turned; an Evening Scene

By William Wordsworth

LibriVox volunteers bring you 16 recordings of The Tables Turned; an Evening Scene by William Wordsworth.<br> This was the Fortnightly Poetry project for July 28, 2019. <br> ------<br> Our author is urging his friend to quit his books, get outdoors and appreciate nature. ( David Lawrence )

A narrative poem in seven cantos, set during the Northern Rebellion of 1569. A group of Catholic nobleman from the North of England attempt to unseat Queen Elizabeth I and replace her with Mary, Queen of Scots. They are soon routed and Elizabeth's forces exact their revenge on the people of the Yorkshire Dales. Inspired by a visit to Bolton Abbey, Wordsworth's poem details the sad fate of one Catholic family whose patriarch decides to lend support to the rebellion. Although it is not among his most popular poems, Wordsworth himself considered The White Doe of Rylstone to be one of his finest. - Summary by Phil Benson

18Ode To Duty

By William Wordsworth

LibriVox volunteers bring you 11 recordings of Ode To Duty by William Wordsworth.<br> This was the Fortnightly Poetry project for May 31, 2020 <br> ------<br> “Ode to Duty” is an appeal to the principle of morality for guidance and support. This Fortnightly Poem is taken from The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth — Volume 3 (of 8) by William Wordsworth - Summary by Wikipedia

19Lines Written While Sailing In A Boat At Evening

By William Wordsworth

LibriVox volunteers bring you 19 recordings of Lines Written While Sailing In A Boat At Evening by William Wordsworth.<br> This was the Weekly Poetry project for November 14, 2021. <br> ------<br> This title is scarcely correct. It was during a solitary walk on the banks of the Cam that I was first struck with this appearance, and applied it to my own feelings in the manner here expressed, changing the scene to the Thames, near Windsor. This, and the three stanzas of the following poem, Remembrance of Collins, formed one piece; but, upon the recommendation of Coleridge, the three last stanzas were separated from the other.—I. F. (taken from the notes in the introduction to <i>The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth, edited by William Knight, Vol. 1</i> )

This is a very impressive collection of some of the best sonnets from the pen of the incomparable William Wordsworth. The appreciation that Wordsworth had for the beauty of his surroundings is vibrantly exhibited in these selections, as are his feelings on love, friendship, society, conflict, history, the supernatural and indeed the art of poetry itself. And what better vehicle for the elegant articulation of a master poet's thoughts and inspirations than the sonnet, an art form ideally suited to assertion, verbalization and contemplation.<br><br> In these sonnets, we witness Wordsworth's poetic expertise at its best in superb descriptions of nature's splendor which he astutely juxtaposes with his reflections on a world that is "too much with us," a world in which, "man for brother man has ceased to feel."<br><br> The sanctuary that Wordsworth found and which forms the basis for the inspiration displayed in many of these sonnets was the magnificent Lake District of England, which he depicted as, "At happy distance from Earth's groaning field, / Where ruthless mortals wage incessant wars." Such a sanctuary the poet would have wished for us all, and indeed provided the means for at least our vicarious enjoyment in the form of these enduring and timeless works of art.<br> - Summary by Bruce Kachuk

21"Abe" Lincoln's Anecdotes and Stories

By R. D. Wordsworth

According to the compiler, R.D. Wordsworth, this is a collection of the best stories told by Lincoln which made him famous as America's Best Story Teller. They cover a wide range of subjects and give evidence of Abraham Lincoln's wonderful and wry sense of humor. - Summary by mkirkpat

22Prelude, Version 2

By William Wordsworth

Wordsworth's celebrated poetic summary of his creative life and development, from childhood to old age, in which he examines his motives, inspirations, and analytical processes, in an admirable quest to situate himself as a poet in his world. - Summary by Peter Tucker

23Calm is all nature as a resting wheel

By William Wordsworth

LibriVox volunteers bring you 18 recordings of Calm is all nature as a resting wheel by William Wordsworth.<br> This was the Weekly Poetry project for February 16, 2025. <br> ------<br> William Wordsworth was an English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with their joint publication Lyrical Ballads (1798). - Summary by Wikipedia

24To The Author's Portrait

By William Wordsworth

LibriVox volunteers bring you 16 recordings of To The Author's Portrait by William Wordsworth.<br> This was the Weekly Poetry project for July 20, 2025. <br> ------<br> William Wordsworth was an English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature. Wordsworth was Poet Laureate from 1843 until his death from pleurisy on 23 April 1850. He remains one of the most recognizable names in English poetry and was a key figure of the Romantic poets. - Summary by Wikipedia