A Century of Roundels: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

A Century of Roundels, credited to Algernon Charles Swinburne, is available as a LibriVox volunteer audiobook. This guide identifies the recording, its source summary and its audio tracks.

About the work

The LibriVox catalogue summary, preserved with the recording, reads:

LibriVox recording of A Century of Roundels by Algernon Charles Swinburne. Read in English by ravenotation. A roundel (not to be confused with the rondel) is a form of verse used in English language poetry devised by Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837–1909). It is a variation of the French rondeau form. It makes use of refrains, repeated according to a certain stylized pattern. A roundel consists of nine lines each having the same number of syllables, plus a refrain after the third line and after the last line. The refrain must be identical with the beginning of the first line: it may be a half-line, and rhymes with the second line. It has three stanzas and its rhyme scheme is as follows: A B A R ; B A B ; A B A R ; where R is the refrain. Swinburne had published a book A Century of Roundels. He dedicated these poems to his friend Christina Rossetti, who then started writing roundels herself, as evidenced by the following examples from her anthology of poetry: Wife to Husband; A Better Resurrection; A Life's Parallels; Today for me; It is finished; From Metastasio. (Summary by wikipedia)

Recording facts

• Recording title: A Century of Roundels
• Author credits: Algernon Charles Swinburne
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 52
• Listed recording duration: 1:38:30

Opening tracks: first 24 of 52

1. 00 - Dedication to Christina G. Rossetti — 1:26
2. 01 - In Harbour — 2:05
3. 02 - The Way of the Wind — 1:04
4. 03 - 'Had I Wist' — 1:13
5. 04 - Recollections — 3:00
6. 05 - Time and Life — 2:06
7. 06 - A Dialogue — 3:10
8. 07 - Plus Ultra — 1:21
9. 08 - A Dead Friend — 4:06
10. 09 - Past Days — 2:52
11. 10 - Autumn and Winter — 3:34
12. 11 - The Death of Richard Wagner — 3:21
13. 12 - Two Preludes\ — 1:46
14. 13 - The Lute and the Lyre — 1:27
15. 14 - Plus Intra — 1:19
16. 15 - Change — 1:04
17. 16 - A Baby's Death — 4:49
18. 17 - One of Twain — 2:05
19. 18 - Death and Birth — 1:14
20. 19 - Birth and Death — 1:14
21. 20 - Benediction — 1:12
22. 21 - Etude Realiste — 2:30
23. 22 - Babyhood — 2:38
24. 23 - First Footsteps — 0:58

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Source and rights

This is a record from LibriVox's official Internet Archive collection, with a public-domain licence recorded in its metadata. LibriVox's policy includes its catalogue summaries as well as its recordings. Its public-domain assessment follows United States law; copyright status can differ elsewhere. The summary and track facts are reproduced and reformatted from that record. Dates attached to the archive upload are not treated as original book publication dates.