The Great Poets – John Clare
$ 8.00
John Clare was the forgotten Romantic poet, until the late twentieth century. Known by his contemporaries as the ‘Peasant Poet’ he recorded in his poems the natural landscape of rural England before the Industrial Revolution. His poems rival Wordsworth’s for their sensitivity to nature and pantheism: ‘I feel a beautiful providence ever about me,’ Clare wrote. But his life was a long struggle against poverty and mental collapse. Some of his finest poems were written in the local asylum.
Audiobook Details:
Author: John ClareRead by: David Shaw-Parker
Audiobook Type: unabridged
Publisher: Naxos Audiobooks
Running time (hh:mm:ss): 01:01:12
Download size: 32 MB
ISBN: 9781843796039
About the Reader
| David Shaw-Parker David Shaw-Parker trained at RADA and began his career with the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1977. His recent theatre appearances include My Fair Lady, The False Servant and Oedipus Rex at The Royal National Theatre, and The Country Wife, Acorn Antiques, Heavenly Ivy and Uncle Vanya in London's West End. He has recorded extensively for BBC Radio and his recordings for Naxos AudioBooks include The Great Poets: John Clare, The Pilgrim's Progress and The Chronicles of Barsetshire. |
Reviews for this Audiobook:
Even many people who know poetry aren?t familiar with John Clare. Why listen to this reading of some of his work, then? 'The Peasant Poet?, as he was known, fit in with his contemporaries, the Romantics, but, unlike them, his knowledge of nature was from working in it, not strolling in it. Narrator David Shaw-Parker takes advantage of the poetry?s strong structural elements and uses emphasis to aid interpretation. He also varies his voice to match the tone of each poem ? from the pure rustic to the elevated, almost erudite, tone Clare sometimes achieved despite his almost total lack of formal education. This is a fine introduction to Clare?s work. D.M.H., AudioFile
