What are the world’s most popular poems?
Between May 15th 2007, and March 21st, 2008, Classic Poetry Aloud had some half a million downloads from across the globe. This shows the most downloaded poems, and so the world’s most popular poems, to be:
- She Walks in Beauty by Lord Byron
- Ode to Autumn by John Keats
- If by Rudyard Kipling
- Sonnet 18: Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day? by William Shakespeare
- Kubla Khan by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
- How Do I Love Thee? by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
- O Captain! My Captain! by Walt Whitman
- Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley
- Death by John Donne
- Ode on a Grecian Urn by John Keats
I love the voice of the man who reads the poetry, it is pure beauty. :]
Kirstie, you are too kind. It is the poetry that matters. I only read it.
I am so grateful you take the time to produce this wonderful podcast. I enjoy poetry and your selection has exposed me to “new” poems and poets I now love. Of course you read it so well. I look forward to listening regularly.
As an English teacher, I really appreciate this site. It gives the students I teach a location where they can hear the words with great care and emotion.
Thanks and keep it up!
What a fantastic idea. Whilst one can gain a lot through reading poetry, it always brings, for me, an additional element to hear it out loud.
I can and will recommend this site to others – keep up the good work!
Many thanks everyone for your kind comments. I hope that future readings will continue to provide what you are looking for.
I haven’t heard someone read poetry so well since I finished university; thanks so much for sharing this with all of us.
Great readings and poems!!
Txabi and Petrina – thank you for your kind words. This sort of support really makes the whole Classic Poetry Aloud project worthwhile.
Thank you so much for your poetry. My 8 year old loves to listen to you. I have been waiting for more D.H.Lawrence though. I was wondering if you could read some more of him, like “Self Pity”? Thank you again for your work.
More praise. Your blend of well-known and not so well-known is wonderful. I loved poetry until I studied it in college; thank you for making me love it again. You have enriched my life.
Thank you for this website, it is absolutely amazing! I absolutely love in particular the reading of Annabel Lee
Claudette, Carl and Joey: – thank you for your very kind comments.
Claudette, I am delighted to hear that your 8 year-old likes listening to poetry. So many children do. It’s a pity that (as Carl observes) a formal approach can stifle that enthusiasm.
Yes, we will have more Lawrence in the future and Joey, you can expect some more Poe.
How about reading Desiderata?
brillant,hit on the site by chance.youve kept me up late.!Will return again and again..Many thanks..
Me again..how about something by WB YEATS?,our greatest irish poet.
Steven – I will add Desiderata to the list of requests.
Larry – you asked for some Yeats. There will be some Yeats when he comes out of copyright in 2009.
I came by this recordings through iTunes…
so happy there is someone who spends time and care to produce such things.
Thank you for the occasions you give us, to re-discover what ought to be ours!
I am a beginner poet and subscribe to every poetry podcast on the net. Yours is the only one I listen to every night. Your presentations are flawless, especially your ability to capture and maintain the tone of the poem. You truly keep these poems and poets alive.
If I ever achieve anything in this art form I will owe some of it to you, my anonymous mentor.
great work
thanx a ton(s)
what a wonderful site. another great way for me to enjoy classic poetry.
I am dyslexic and I have a lot of trouble reading. This site has helped me gain an understanding of poetry that I never thought I would get. Thanks for doing it!
Also, I was wondering if the reader uses a laptop to record himself? I am a very good listener and it seems that at the end of each recording I hear a click as if someone has just hit the space bar to stop recording. This happens to me all the time. I’m not saying that it is a big deal or anything. I was just wondering.
Oh and I would love to hear “Evangeline” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow if at all possible? If not that’s fine but I just thought I’d ask.
Many thanks for replying my e-mails. It’s really pleasant to know that there is someone else out there other than us, teachers, who think students are the top priority. I’m looking forward to laying my hands on the latest recordings. I’m pretty sure my students of literature will make the most of them. Thanks again.
Regards
I have been a iTunes subcriber to your podcast, to keep my daily noises to the pure joy that your voice gives me, as the poems come to life in a wonderful way. Currently I am writing an essay on Romanticism, and it does help me to analyze them, as I listen to the poems. However my bfriend gave me a Zune for the holidays and I have a hard time, to transfer the podcast subscription there. Could you help me? are considering to put up a link to zune?
Hi Brigitta
Many thanks for the kind comments on the podcasts, and apologies for my delay in replying.
I have been exploring getting Classic Poetry Aloud set up for the Zune, but as the device is not released in the UK, this is making testing a little difficult. Your message, however, gives me a new sense of impetus, and I will get back to work on putting the readings on to Zune.
Best wishes
Classic Poetry Aloud
I’m currently downloading lots of poems to help me with my English A level. Thanks SO much.
Hello!
Very Interesting post! Thank you for such interesting resource!
PS: Sorry for my bad english, I’v just started to learn this language
See you!
Your, Raiul Baztepo
thx for sharing,it’s just beautiful
hey this is a awesome site, ive always tried to read poetry but woulnd proceed more than a few lines as wouls get bored. but this read aloud thing is great , i feel like soeone is actually sitting next to me and reading out these beatiful poems. thanks a lot
By breathing a new life into the art of poetry i thank you.
William Blake’s The Tyger is something i would love to request.
Hey,
I am loving this podcast, as I see, many others do as well.
I was hoping perhaps you could read The Bells, by Poe. It has long been one of my favorites.
Keep up the great work.
A.
gibi
thanks for such a lovely site. rightly put the poem is all that matters.its great help but if you also give some tip to the age group each falls it will be a great help and time saving while preparing for recitations for childrens and adults. thanks also for the joy and feelings the site evokes. good reading.
thanks and god bless
Thank you for these readings!
The poems chosen are sublime and the marriage of your mellifluous voice and their subject matter elevates each poem to a higher level of enjoyment.
May I put in a humble request for “The Singers” by Longfellow?
All the best!
Wow great job keep up the good work!
It’s a delightful site and, like everyone else who visits, I wish the selection were greater. If our anonymous benefactor would enable visitors to suggest poems on line and if subsequent visitors supported those suggestions, it might be a nice guide to expand the website’s content. Good luck!
Thanks…but isn’t ode to Autumn a poem by P.B. Shelley? thanks.
Hi Marine – Ode to Autumn is definitely by Keats. Shelley did on the other hand write ‘Ode to the West Wind’
the nicest poem is shall i compare thee to a summer’s day maybe it has a very hard language for the people whose there real language isn’t English but it is amazing
I love this website! My students just had a poetry slam and listening to the poems on this website has been a tremendous help. The poems are read with the emotion the poets intended. Thank you!!!
Love this site. Poems here are read with gentle care and great musicality. Thanks so much for making the beauty alive!
I really love your voice, and the way you are reading poems!!! it`s wonderful!!! thank you!!!
She walks in Beauty is the most beautiful poem that I had ever read !!!!
Classic Poetry Aloud has filled the emptiness I felt ever since I finished my BA as an English literature student and started my own business. Thank you.
wow! nice post,]