Poems (1686): Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

Poems (1686), credited to Anne Killigrew, 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 Poems (1686) by Anne Killigrew. Read in English by Arthur Krolman These are the original, tender and thoughtful poems of a young female artist who lived and died in seventeenth century London -- only 70 years after William Shakespeare. Her diction is readily accessible to listeners after almost 350 years and the subjects on her mind we can imagine on the minds of educated young women today. She writes often of love, broken hearts and the beauty of reason and self-control -- as if she knew the Age of Enlightenment was just around the corner. She also opines intelligently and optimistically on death and the soul although she mentions God seldomly. More commonly she betrays her familiarity with Ovid referencing Greek nymphs and heroes while projecting herself in the scene in a charming girlish way. Her poetic prowess was noticed by critics who openly doubted a mere girl could write with such touching originality on her own. Her rejoinder verse in this collection shows admirable restraint and conclusivity. One only wonders what would have followed as she matured and what artistic output of Miss Killigrew the world has done without. She died of smallpox in her twenty-fifth year. - Summary by Arthur Krolman

Recording facts

• Recording title: Poems (1686)
• Author credits: Anne Killigrew
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 24
• Listed recording duration: 1:49:50

Catalogue topics

• London
• pope
• swift
• romantic
• Ovid
• feminist
• seventeenth century
• age of enlightenment

Track guide

1. 01 - Alexandreis — 6:50
2. 02 - To the Queen — 4:36
3. 03 - A Pastoral Dialogue — 2:53
4. 04 - On Death — 2:57
5. 05 - Epigrams: First, Bellinda, Atheist, Galla and Farewell to Worldly Joys — 4:29
6. 06 - The Complaint of a Lover — 3:05
7. 07 - Love, the Soul of Poetry — 1:37
8. 08 - To my Lady Berkeley, Afflicted upon her Son, My Lord Berkeley's Early Engaging in the Sea-Service — 4:32
9. 09 - St. John Baptist and Herodias — 2:06
10. 10 - Two Nymphs of Diana — 1:43
11. 11 - An Invective Against Gold — 2:15
12. 12 - The Miseries of Man — 17:45
13. 13 - Upon the saying that my Verses were made by another — 4:48
14. 14 - On the Birthday of Queen Katherine — 1:52
15. 15 - To My Lord Colrane, In Answer to his Complemental Verses sent me under the Name of Cleanor — 2:47
16. 16 - The Discontent — 8:11
17. 17 - A Pastoral Dialogue — 8:19
18. 18 - A Pastoral Dialogue with Meliboeus — 17:39
19. 19 - On My Aunt, Mrs. A.K. — 1:55
20. 20 - On a Young Lady whose Lord was Traveling — 2:40
21. 21 - On the Duchess of Grafton — 1:36
22. 22 - Penelope to Ulysses — 2:22
23. 23 - An Epitaph on Herself — 1:56
24. 24 - Extemporary Counsel given to a Young Gallant in a Frolick — 0:57

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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.