-
The Nation's Favourite Poems
- Narrated by: John Nettles, Siobhan Redmond, Greg Wise, Emma Fielding
- Length: 2 hrs and 1 min
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $8.71
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Publisher's summary
Forty-five of Britain's best-loved poems, read by John Nettles, Siobhan Redmond, Greg Wise and Emma Fielding.
In a national poll conducted to discover Britain's favourite poem, Rudyard Kipling's 'If -' was voted number one. This unique anthology brings together over forty poems from the poll, including the top ten.
Here is poignant war poetry (Wilfred Owen's 'Dulce et Decorum Est' and 'Anthem for Doomed Youth', Rupert Brooke's 'The Soldier' and Siegfried Sassoon's 'Everyone Sang' ); romantic verse such as Shakespeare's 'Sonnet 18: Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day?' and W. B. Yeats' 'When You Are Old'; Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear's great nonsense poems 'Jabberwocky' and 'The Owl and the Pussy-Cat', and much more. Classics such as Wordsworth's 'The Daffodils' and Tennyson's 'The Lady of Shallot' sit alongside contemporary poetry like Allan Ahlberg's 'Please Mrs Butler' and Wendy Cope's 'Bloody Men'.
Superbly read by John Nettles, Siobhan Redmond, Greg Wise and Emma Fielding, this popular collection includes many of the very best examples of British verse, as chosen by poetry lovers nationwide.
The poems included in this collection are:
1 'If -' by Rudyard Kipling, read by John Nettles
2 'The Lady of Shallot' by Alfred Lord Tennyson, read by Siobhan Redmond
3 'The Listeners' by Walter de la Mare, read by Greg Wise
4 'Not Waving but Drowning' by Stevie Smith, read by Siobhan Redmond
5 'The Daffodils' by William Wordsworth, read by John Nettles
6 'To Autumn' by John Keats, read by Siobhan Redmond
7 'The Lake Isle of Innisfree' by William Butler Yeats, read by Emma Fielding
8 'Dulce et Decorum Est' by Wilfred Owen, read by Greg Wise
9 'Ode to a Nightingale' by John Keats, read by Siobhan Redmond
10 'He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven' by William Butler Yeats, read by John Nettles
11 'Remember' by Christina Rossetti, read by Siobhan Redmond
12 'Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard' by Thomas Gray, read by John Nettles
13 'Fern Hill' by Dylan Thomas, read by John Nettles
14 'Leisure' by William Henry Davies, read by Emma Fielding
15 'The Highwayman' by Alfred Noyes, read by Greg Wise
16 'To His Coy Mistress' by Andrew Marvell, read by Greg Wise
17 'Dover Beach' by Matthew Arnold, read by John Nettles
18 'The Tyger' by William Blake, read by John Nettles
19 'Adlestrop' by Edward Thomas, read by Siobhan Redmond
20 'The Soldier' by Rupert Brooke, read by Greg Wise
21 'Sea-Fever' by John Masefield, read by John Nettles
22 'Upon Westminster Bridge' by William Wordsworth, read by Greg Wise
23 'How Do I Love Thee?' by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, read by Emma Fielding
24 'Cargoes' by John Masefield, read by Greg Wise
25 'Jabberwocky' by Lewis Carroll, read by Emma Fielding
26 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner' by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, read by John Nettles
27 'Ozymandias of Egypt' by Percy Bysshe Shelley, read by Greg Wise
28 'Abou ben Adhem' by Leigh Hunt, read by John Nettles
29 'Everyone Sang' by Siegfried Sassoon, read by Greg Wise
30 'The Windhover' by Gerard Manley Hopkins, read by Siobhan Redmond
31 'Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night' by Dylan Thomas, read by John Nettles
32 'Sonnet 18: Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day?' by William Shakespeare, read by Siobhan Redmond
33 'When You Are Old' by William Butler Yeats, read by Emma Fielding
34 'Lessons of the War (To Alan Mitchell): Naming of Parts' by Henry Reed, read by John Nettles
35 'The Darkling Thrush' by Thomas Hardy, read by Emma Fielding
36 'Please Mrs Butler' by Allan Ahlberg, read by Emma Fielding
37 'Kubla Khan' by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, read by John Nettles
38 'Home-Thoughts, from Abroad' by Robert Browning, read by Greg Wise
39 'High Flight (An Airman's Ecstasy)' by John Gillespie Magee, read by Greg Wise
40 'The Owl and the Pussy-Cat' by Edward Lear, read by Emma Fielding
41 'The Glory of the Garden' by Rudyard Kipling, read by Greg Wise
42 'The Road Not Taken' by Robert Frost, read by Siobhan Redmond
43 'The Way through the Woods' by Rudyard Kipling, read by Emma Fielding
44 'Anthem for Doomed Youth' by Wilfred Owen, read by Greg Wise
45 'Bloody Men' by Wendy Cope, read by Siobhan Redmond
Related to this topic
-
Dead Med
- By: Freida McFadden
- Narrated by: Patricia Santomasso, Scott Merriman
- Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Heather McKinley dreamed of becoming a doctor, she imagined curing sick kids and sporting pink stethoscopes. She never anticipated the sleepless nights, grueling exams, and endless labs. And she certainly never knew that her medical school earned the nickname Dead Med thanks to the tragic history of students overdosing on illegal drugs. But Heather would never consider doing anything like that. That is, until her longtime boyfriend dumps her, she finds herself failing anatomy, and her world starts to crumble.
-
-
Hmm
- By Morgan Meaux on 08-22-24
By: Freida McFadden
-
Wynonna Earp
- Tales from Purgatory
- By: Emily Andras
- Narrated by: Melanie Scrofano, Tim Rozon, Dom Provost-Chalkley, and others
- Length: 4 hrs
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Saddle up and join Wynonna Earp on an immersive new audio adventure in the gritty supernatural world of Purgatory. This Audible Original invites you deeper into the Weird West to follow Wynonna Earp (Melanie Scrofano), as she embarks on her craziest adventure yet: riding off into the sunset with her soulmate, Doc Holliday (Tim Rozon)—yes ... that Doc Holliday. Brace yourself for more wise-cracking demon hunters, earth-shattering revelations and all the genre-blending action you've come to expect from the cult hit TV series.
-
-
Happy #Earper ☺️
- By Kate Skidmore on 10-17-24
By: Emily Andras
-
George Orwell’s 1984
- An Audible Original adaptation
- By: George Orwell, Joe White - adaptation
- Narrated by: Andrew Garfield, Cynthia Erivo, Andrew Scott, and others
- Length: 3 hrs and 27 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It’s 1984, and life has changed beyond recognition. Airstrip One, formerly known as Great Britain, is a place where Big Brother is always watching, and nobody can hide. Except, perhaps, for Winston Smith. Whilst working at the Ministry of Truth, rewriting history, he secretly dreams of freedom. And in a world where love and sex are forbidden, where it’s hard to distinguish between friend and foe, he meets Julia and O’Brien and vows to rebel.
-
-
A Revelation!
- By wotsallthisthen on 04-07-24
By: George Orwell, and others
-
Starship Troopers
- By: Robert A. Heinlein
- Narrated by: R.C. Bray
- Length: 8 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Johnnie Rico never really intended to join up—and definitely not the infantry. But now that he’s in the thick of it, trying to get through combat training harder than anything he could have imagined, he knows everyone in his unit is one bad move away from buying the farm in the interstellar war the Terran Federation is waging against the Arachnids. Because everyone in the Mobile Infantry fights. And if the training doesn’t kill you, the Bugs are more than ready to finish the job.
-
-
The definitive version!
- By Kristopher G. Hesson on 10-03-24
-
The Art of War
- By: Sun Tzu
- Narrated by: Aidan Gillen
- Length: 1 hr and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The 13 chapters of The Art of War, each devoted to one aspect of warfare, were compiled by the high-ranking Chinese military general, strategist, and philosopher Sun-Tzu. In spite of its battlefield specificity, The Art of War has found new life in the modern age, with leaders in fields as wide and far-reaching as world politics, human psychology, and corporate strategy finding valuable insight in its timeworn words.
-
-
The actual book The Art of War, not a commentary
- By Fred271 on 12-31-19
By: Sun Tzu
-
Technically Speaking
- By: Michael Elliot
- Narrated by: Coco Jones, Keith Powers, Queen Latifah, and others
- Length: 1 hr and 50 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Oakland-bred LaVeesha “Vee” Gilliam (Coco Jones) is a determined single mother of an autistic son and a gifted aspiring coder. When Vee loses her job as a food-services worker at the onsite restaurant at Grapengine, a large Silicon Valley tech company, she’s unable to pay for her son’s much-needed specialized education. By a twist of fate, mistaken identity, and her tech skills, Vee meets Troy Wilson (Keith Powers), the company’s wealthy founder and CEO and a wunderkind in the tech industry, who believes that Vee is a college-educated techie who works at his company.
-
-
Overdue Diverse Representation in Tech!
- By Jatai Pollock on 09-26-24
By: Michael Elliot
-
Dead Med
- By: Freida McFadden
- Narrated by: Patricia Santomasso, Scott Merriman
- Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Heather McKinley dreamed of becoming a doctor, she imagined curing sick kids and sporting pink stethoscopes. She never anticipated the sleepless nights, grueling exams, and endless labs. And she certainly never knew that her medical school earned the nickname Dead Med thanks to the tragic history of students overdosing on illegal drugs. But Heather would never consider doing anything like that. That is, until her longtime boyfriend dumps her, she finds herself failing anatomy, and her world starts to crumble.
-
-
Hmm
- By Morgan Meaux on 08-22-24
By: Freida McFadden
-
Wynonna Earp
- Tales from Purgatory
- By: Emily Andras
- Narrated by: Melanie Scrofano, Tim Rozon, Dom Provost-Chalkley, and others
- Length: 4 hrs
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Saddle up and join Wynonna Earp on an immersive new audio adventure in the gritty supernatural world of Purgatory. This Audible Original invites you deeper into the Weird West to follow Wynonna Earp (Melanie Scrofano), as she embarks on her craziest adventure yet: riding off into the sunset with her soulmate, Doc Holliday (Tim Rozon)—yes ... that Doc Holliday. Brace yourself for more wise-cracking demon hunters, earth-shattering revelations and all the genre-blending action you've come to expect from the cult hit TV series.
-
-
Happy #Earper ☺️
- By Kate Skidmore on 10-17-24
By: Emily Andras
-
George Orwell’s 1984
- An Audible Original adaptation
- By: George Orwell, Joe White - adaptation
- Narrated by: Andrew Garfield, Cynthia Erivo, Andrew Scott, and others
- Length: 3 hrs and 27 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It’s 1984, and life has changed beyond recognition. Airstrip One, formerly known as Great Britain, is a place where Big Brother is always watching, and nobody can hide. Except, perhaps, for Winston Smith. Whilst working at the Ministry of Truth, rewriting history, he secretly dreams of freedom. And in a world where love and sex are forbidden, where it’s hard to distinguish between friend and foe, he meets Julia and O’Brien and vows to rebel.
-
-
A Revelation!
- By wotsallthisthen on 04-07-24
By: George Orwell, and others
-
Starship Troopers
- By: Robert A. Heinlein
- Narrated by: R.C. Bray
- Length: 8 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Johnnie Rico never really intended to join up—and definitely not the infantry. But now that he’s in the thick of it, trying to get through combat training harder than anything he could have imagined, he knows everyone in his unit is one bad move away from buying the farm in the interstellar war the Terran Federation is waging against the Arachnids. Because everyone in the Mobile Infantry fights. And if the training doesn’t kill you, the Bugs are more than ready to finish the job.
-
-
The definitive version!
- By Kristopher G. Hesson on 10-03-24
-
The Art of War
- By: Sun Tzu
- Narrated by: Aidan Gillen
- Length: 1 hr and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The 13 chapters of The Art of War, each devoted to one aspect of warfare, were compiled by the high-ranking Chinese military general, strategist, and philosopher Sun-Tzu. In spite of its battlefield specificity, The Art of War has found new life in the modern age, with leaders in fields as wide and far-reaching as world politics, human psychology, and corporate strategy finding valuable insight in its timeworn words.
-
-
The actual book The Art of War, not a commentary
- By Fred271 on 12-31-19
By: Sun Tzu
-
Technically Speaking
- By: Michael Elliot
- Narrated by: Coco Jones, Keith Powers, Queen Latifah, and others
- Length: 1 hr and 50 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Oakland-bred LaVeesha “Vee” Gilliam (Coco Jones) is a determined single mother of an autistic son and a gifted aspiring coder. When Vee loses her job as a food-services worker at the onsite restaurant at Grapengine, a large Silicon Valley tech company, she’s unable to pay for her son’s much-needed specialized education. By a twist of fate, mistaken identity, and her tech skills, Vee meets Troy Wilson (Keith Powers), the company’s wealthy founder and CEO and a wunderkind in the tech industry, who believes that Vee is a college-educated techie who works at his company.
-
-
Overdue Diverse Representation in Tech!
- By Jatai Pollock on 09-26-24
By: Michael Elliot
-
Ghost Stories: Stephen Fry's Definitive Collection
- By: Stephen Fry, Washington Irving, M.R. James, and others
- Narrated by: Stephen Fry
- Length: 8 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As the days grow shorter and the temperature drops, Halloween approaches. Come, brave listener, pull up a chair, and spend some time with master storyteller Stephen Fry as he tells us some of his favourite ghost stories of all time, in truly terrifying spatial audio. From the headless horseman of Sleepy Hollow to the tortured spirits of M.R. James, from Edgar Allan Poe’s terrifying tale of a doppelganger to Charlotte Riddell’s Open Door that should definitely stay shut, join Stephen as he tells you some truly terrifying tales.
-
-
Wonderful narration. Mediocre stories.
- By Michael Fuchs on 11-07-23
By: Stephen Fry, and others
-
Dracula [Audible Edition]
- By: Bram Stoker
- Narrated by: Alan Cumming, Tim Curry, Simon Vance, and others
- Length: 15 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The modern audience hasn't had a chance to truly appreciate the unknowing dread that readers would have felt when reading Bram Stoker's original 1897 manuscript. Most modern productions employ campiness or sound effects to try to bring back that gothic tension, but we've tried something different. By returning to Stoker's original storytelling structure - a series of letters and journal entries voiced by Jonathan Harker, Dr. Van Helsing, and other characters - with an all-star cast of narrators, we've sought to recapture its originally intended horror and power.
-
-
IS THAT NOT SO?
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 11-05-15
By: Bram Stoker
-
Brain Damage
- By: Freida McFadden
- Narrated by: Megan Tusing
- Length: 9 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As Charly struggles to recover from her brain injury, she begins to realize that the events of that fateful night are trapped in the damaged right side of her brain. Now, she must put the jigsaw pieces together to discover the identity of the man who tried to kill her...before he finishes the job he started.
-
-
Who Else Laughed, Cried, and Shuddered?
- By Jennifer Chichester on 09-16-22
By: Freida McFadden
-
Frankenstein
- By: Mary Shelley
- Narrated by: Dan Stevens
- Length: 8 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Narrator Dan Stevens ( Downton Abbey) presents an uncanny performance of Mary Shelley's timeless gothic novel, an epic battle between man and monster at its greatest literary pitch. In trying to create life, the young student Victor Frankenstein unleashes forces beyond his control, setting into motion a long and tragic chain of events that brings Victor to the very brink of madness. How he tries to destroy his creation, as it destroys everything Victor loves, is a powerful story of love, friendship, scientific hubris, and horror.
-
-
ARE WE ALWAYS TO BE UNHAPPY?
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 01-28-16
By: Mary Shelley
-
The Strange Case
- By: Derek Kolstad, Mitali Jahagirdar, Laurie Kirwan-Ashman, and others
- Narrated by: Vanessa Kirby, David Oyelowo, Sofie Gråbøl, and others
- Length: 4 hrs and 9 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dr. Jekyll (Vanessa Kirby) is an elite international specialist in energy systems, working closely with her handler Louis (David Oyelowo) in a career that takes her across the globe to politically volatile territories such as Iran and North Korea. But when an arms dealer accuses her of having killed his family, Dr. Jekyll begins to question details of her life, who Louis really is, and whether her strange recurring dream has a greater meaning. She enlists the help of psychologist Sigrun (Sofie Gråbøl), and together they delve into Dr. Jekyll’s darker other side, a brutal assassin named… Hyde.
-
-
Love the Originals !!
- By r2coder on 08-04-24
By: Derek Kolstad, and others
-
The Cut
- By: Richard Armitage
- Narrated by: Richard Armitage, Jacob Dudman
- Length: 10 hrs and 13 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Welcome to Barton Mallet, a remote village in the Midlands that has been chosen as the unlikely location for a new feature film from Hollywood producer Max Crow. Teenagers from the local drama group are encouraged to audition for a story about the trials and tribulations of growing up. Benjamin Knot, the CEO of a well-known architecture firm, discovers that his children, Lily and Nathan, have each been offered a role. But Barton Mallet has a deep wound that has never truly healed.
-
-
Hard to get into
- By felicialeash on 09-15-24
By: Richard Armitage
What listeners say about The Nation's Favourite Poems
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anonymous User
- 04-27-21
Excellent selection of poems but let down by poor editing
Overall one of the better audible collections of popular poems with the majority being very well read. That being said, the overemphasised meter and slightly breathy, lilting style of some was too distracting from the natural cadence and detracted from the message a little.
The editing is terrible. The music can overlap with the readings erratically and can have a jarringly contrasting tone to the poem, some introductions for the poems are inserted after they have begun and the start of each poem can be difficult to find because the starting point is approximated. Clearly done in haste, but while these could be considered a few small quirks they do make the collection less easy to use and will prevent these beautiful stories from being enjoyed by the widest audience possible. Some very good work, and in the main enjoyable to listen to.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Niamh
- 05-12-12
Love the poems from my school days and beyond!
What did you love best about The Nation's Favourite Poems?
I remember when they were voted for and have to concur with the number one and most of my favourites were way up there.
Which character – as performed by the narrators – was your favorite?
John Nettles performing "If" was very moving.
Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
Poetry is very moving and I had to read a lot of it at school so it was great to hear it again, I have the full tapes but having this abridged version for my Kindle is great.
Any additional comments?
Its often hard to get stuff from my home country on Kindle so this was a nice surprise. I would love to see more stuff available for Kindle. Real copies are so yesterday, actually I have no more room to store them!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Theodata
- 01-17-21
excellent reading of classic poems with caveat
Truly excellent readings of classic British poems, however liberally bracketed with very irritating music. At some point after I purchased, the publishers added proper chapter breaks and titles. Unfortunately, they got at least one of them very wrong (e.g. ‘driving’ instead of ‘drowning’ - accidental dark humor at its best).
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Mia
- 11-14-20
Bizarre musical background to poems...
The poems are truly wonderful but some idiot has inserted musical clips between the poems that seem to have been taken from a cell phone menu or a children’s television show. The music is louder than the poems- and repeats the same tunes randomly. I have to pull my headphones out after each poem.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful