Holy Sonnets: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

Holy Sonnets, credited to John Donne, 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 Holy Sonnets, by John Donne. Read by David Barnes John Donne (1572 – March 31, 1631) was a Jacobean poet and preacher, representative of the metaphysical poets of the period. His works, notable for their realistic and sensual style, include sonnets, love poetry, religious poems, Latin translations, epigrams, elegies, songs, satires and sermons. His poetry is noted for its vibrancy of language and immediacy of metaphor, compared with that of his contemporaries. Towards the end of his life Donne wrote works that challenged death, and the fear that it inspired in many men, on the grounds of his belief that those who die are sent to Heaven to live eternally. One example of this challenge is his Holy Sonnet X, from which come the famous lines “Death, be not proud, though some have called thee mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so.” (Summary from Wikipedia)

Recording facts

• Recording title: Holy Sonnets
• Author credits: John Donne
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 19
• Listed recording duration: 23:47

Catalogue topics

• poetry
• religion

Track guide

1. Holy Sonnet 01 - Thou hast made me, and shall Thy work decay? — 1:17
2. Holy Sonnet 02 - As due by many titles I resign my self to Thee... — 1:13
3. Holy Sonnet 03 - O might those sighs and tears return again... — 1:14
4. Holy Sonnet 04 - Oh my black soul! now art thou summoned... — 1:10
5. Holy Sonnet 05 - I am a little world made cunningly... — 1:14
6. Holy Sonnet 06 - This is my play's last scene... — 1:22
7. Holy Sonnet 07 - At the round earth's imagin'd corners... — 1:15
8. Holy Sonnet 08 - If faithful angels be alike glorified... — 1:11
9. Holy Sonnet 09 - If poisonous minerals... — 1:13
10. Holy Sonnet 10 - Death, be not proud... — 1:20
11. Holy Sonnet 11 - Spit in my face you Jews... — 1:17
12. Holy Sonnet 12 - Why are we by all creatures waited on? — 1:15
13. Holy Sonnet 13 - What if this present were the world's last night? — 1:16
14. Holy Sonnet 14 - Batter my heart, three-personed God... — 1:19
15. Holy Sonnet 15 - Wilt thou love God, as he thee? — 1:16
16. Holy Sonnet 16 - Father, part of his double interest... — 1:14
17. Holy Sonnet 17 - Since she whom I loved hath paid her last debt... — 1:17
18. Holy Sonnet 18 - Show me dear Christ, thy spouse so bright and clear... — 1:18
19. Holy Sonnet 19 - Oh, to vex me, contraries meet in one... — 1:14

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Source and rights

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