Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

Offer ends May 1st, 2024 11:59PM GMT. Terms and conditions apply.
£7.99/month after 3 months. Renews automatically.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
The Great Poets: John Donne cover art

The Great Poets: John Donne

By: John Donne
Narrated by: Geoffrey Whitehead, Will Keen
Get this deal Try for £0.00

Pay £99p/month. After 3 months pay £7.99/month. Renews automatically. See terms for eligibility.

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £7.99

Buy Now for £7.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Listeners also enjoyed...

The Great Poets: Percy Bysshe Shelley cover art
All the Sonnets of Shakespeare cover art
The Metaphysical Poets [Naxos Edition] cover art
The Great Poets cover art
The Great Poets: Alfred Lord Tennyson cover art
Shakespeare's Pericles cover art
The Richard Burton Poetry Collection cover art
The Christopher Marlowe BBC Radio Drama Collection cover art
The Great Poets: Lord Byron cover art
The Great Poets: Matthew Arnold cover art
The Prelude cover art
The Poems of T. S. Eliot cover art
The Great Poets: William Wordsworth cover art
Paradise Lost cover art
BBC Radio Shakespeare: A Collection of Eight Comedies cover art
Orwell: The Essays cover art

Editor reviews

The best readers of poetry don't recite it; they enact it, taking on the character of the narrator. The poetry of Metaphysical poet John Donne - once ranked with the works of Shakespeare and Milton - has at least two facets, so it's fitting that this production has two narrators. Geoffrey Whitehead brings out the passion of Donne's religious poetry, particularly the selections from the Holy Sonnets, and Will Keen specializes in the poems about love and sensuality. The two voices are very different, echoing the dualism that is one of Donne's hallmarks. Both men remind us of the intense feeling that underlies the formalism of seventeenth-century English poetry at its best.

Summary

Sophisticated wit and intense emotion, religious fervor and erotic sensuality, delight in life’s pleasures and fascination with death, are all to be found in the paradoxical poetry of John Donne. One of the foremost metaphysical poets, Donne’s ingenious metaphors and inspired use of language has earned him affection and reverence in near equal measure to Shakespeare. This collection of his finest poetry showcases the diverse range of his work, and includes "Death Be Not Proud", "A Hymn to God the Father", "For Whom the Bell Tolls", "Go Catch a Falling Star", "The Flea", and "To His Mistress Going to Bed".

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your My Library section along with the audio.

Public Domain (P)2010 Naxos AudioBooks

What listeners say about The Great Poets: John Donne

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    7
  • 4 Stars
    2
  • 3 Stars
    2
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    3
  • 4 Stars
    4
  • 3 Stars
    2
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    1
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    6
  • 4 Stars
    1
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

John Donne poems

Extraordinary poet and still so underrated. I'd give this 5 stars if GW were reading it all. He has that rare gift of conveying all the intensity of the verse whilst maintaining its structure. Please can he record more, especially the Meditations?

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

4 people found this helpful