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The Ode Less Travelled
- Unlocking the Poet Within
- Narrated by: Stephen Fry
- Length: 9 hrs and 2 mins
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The Ode Less Travelled
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Summary
Stephen Fry believes that if you can speak and read English, you can write poetry. But it is no fun if you don't know where to start or have been led to believe that anything goes.
Stephen, who has long written poems, and indeed has written long poems, for his own private pleasure, invites you to discover the incomparable delights of metre, rhyme and verse forms.
Whether you want to write a Petrarchan sonnet for your lover's birthday, an epithalamion for your sister's wedding or a villanelle excoriating the government's housing policy, The Ode Less Travelled will give you the tools and the confidence to do so.
Brimful of enjoyable exercises, witty insights and simple step-by-step advice, The Ode Less Travelled guides the listener towards mastery and confidence in the Mother of the Arts.
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What listeners say about The Ode Less Travelled
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Angel Grove Studio
- 01-10-18
Excellent Rendition, Memorable and Simple
As a language trainer, Stephen Fry's English is excellent to listen to, for trainers and students alike.
Stephen does an excellent rendition of poetry as a subject and in practice, breaking down concepts and types of poetry for everyone to understand. Notable for me was ballad and its namesake counterpart in French, the examples of both enabling an easy grasp of the two poetry forms.
I loved listening to this audio book. Thank you, Stephen and a pox on the Audible app's review system for ignoring auto-punctuation on my Android keyboard.
6 people found this helpful
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- Liz Mendes
- 02-02-21
Stephen Fry is Such a talent
I absolutely loved this, I knew I would, It’s incredibly informative I felt like I was in a series of high quality lectures, and he adds humour into it, a thoroughly good purchase, highly recommend
2 people found this helpful
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- Stuart A. McIntosh
- 20-06-20
An academic reference but also a damn good read
I bought the paperback as a text reference but I also bought the audible as I love listening to Stephen Fry. I'm sure I would if he read the 'phone directory (if they still exist), so who better to read his own words. This is an academic study of poetry presented by a lecturer with his expected wit and cheekiness. I have found it useful in reinvigorating my own writing and in providing checks, balances and a good work ethic. True, a lot past me by - I'm not an academic but a scribbler of ditties. I would think this would be a preferred reference tool for students of poetry. It was a good extension from the recordings of Fry's English Delight that I love.
2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- sarah
- 28-02-19
Well Worth a Listen!
Brilliant for anyone trying to learn/develop poetry. I used this in my university studies in creative writing. Really helped.
1 person found this helpful
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- Rebecca
- 21-06-22
Wonderful Stephen Fry
I could listen all day to Stephen Fry's beautiful voice reading just about anything, but this book about poetry is particularly special. I shall listen to it again I'm sure.
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- Anonymous User
- 08-06-22
one for the a level English student
I love Stephen fry but this is one way above my head. I thought yes I'll have a go but was lost after the second task
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- Amazon Customer
- 15-12-21
Didn’t like it
I didn’t like how the author says you should not continue with the audiobook until you have done X, Y and Z, on more than one occasion. I listen to an audiobook for entertainment and information, not to be given instructions and told that if I don’t obey these instructions then I should not continue… I was also looking for something with more of a creative spark.
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- Tim Gauntlett
- 26-05-21
Top of Stephen Fry
obviously Stephen at his best. loved it. I'll best re-reading again after not too long
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- Marc
- 09-07-18
Too many words - but it's Fry'ckin' awesome ...
The author makes it clear from the beginning that his intentions are not to present his own lyrics/poems but to give guidance for writing your own. While this is clearly an acceptable proposition, it leaves the author with a need for overwhelming examples of how "good poetics" can look like.
It would have helped me a lot if there had been more "good" examples in the early parts of this book. Starting around the middle of the book, the author does provide more examples (that, often enough, help in making his points), yet the beginning is quite "dry", Mr. Fry (sorry, couldn't resist).
Overall the text could have done with some heavy editing. The author loves to give "thesaurus"-lists of words to describe matters he discusses, never-ending enumerations of words, where two or a maximum of three would have done nicely. This *can* be done in a humorous way, yet in this book, it *feels* as if the author just wants to have a play with vocabulary.
From a didactic perspective, I would have welcomed more "show the process" instead of "tell about the beauty". By this I mean: Why not come up with a rough version of a poem (which the author does) and then WORK on it, get it into shape, turn it from a "proof of concept" into what the author would consider a "well-done example of good poetry"? Instead, the author provides a line-up of exercises for that he comes up with solutions of his own, almost always saying "but I am sure you can write something better" (at least that was my impression). For someone (like me) who wants to get a "feeling" for poetry this is not helpful at all: I can do poor poetry. I want to learn what GOOD poetry is. I need examples for that and explanations WHY it is good and HOW it was made "good" instead of mediocre.
Sumup: I listened to this "book" because I wanted to learn what "good poetry" is and how I could, maybe, improve my own writing skills. This expectation of mine has not been met by the book, as I still don't know what separates "good" poetry from "bad" (and don't tell me it's in the ear of the listener - for that, I don't need a 9-hour-book).
What the book did provide me with was an overview of what rhyme- and rhythmic-schemes are out there. A very small background is given for most of them, but did not get a "tool-set" to work with poetry nor did I get to listen to any overwhelmingly great texts/lyrics.
I am left with 9 hours of fun-to-listen-to-Mr-Fry (which I enjoyed for the enthusiasm and "personal touch" style of the narration) and a big question mark with an annotation saying "so, what IS poetry all about, then?"
2 people found this helpful