Poems: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

Poems, credited to Nora May French, 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 by Nora May French. Read in English by Jeanie; Eric Metzler; Mary Kay; Leonard Wilson; Jennifer Duval; Kristin Gjerløw; Little Tee; Ian King; KHand; Melanie Ward; Assaf Koss; Larry Wilson; Shiloh Fuscello; Lanie Butler; Jesse Liwag; Alton Kane; DomBombadil; Ashley; Jordan Heron Nora May French was a Californian poet and a member of the bohemian literary circles of the Carmel Arts and Crafts Club, which flourished after the Great San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of 1906. She gained minor recognition, but no financial stability, through local magazines. Published posthumously by friends in 1910, four years after French's suicide, Poems by Nora May French was the first and only compilation of her works until 2009. Although many of her poems celebrate the serenity of coastal landscape, others are less sanguine. They offer glimpses into the mind of a young woman plagued by heartbreak and torn between pressure to submit to social roles and longing to live creatively. The most famous poem in the collection, The Spanish Girl, reflects on a failed engagement, the first of many. - Summary by Mary Kay

Recording facts

• Recording title: Poems
• Author credits: Nora May French
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 37
• Listed recording duration: 1:21:41

Catalogue topics

• poetry
• nature
• suicide
• San Francisco
• California
• love
• beauty
• feminist

Opening tracks: first 24 of 37

1. 01 - The Outer Gate — 1:22
2. 02 - Rain / Best-Loved — 1:51
3. 03 - The Rose — 1:30
4. 04 - Between Two Rains — 1:10
5. 05 - The Message / By the Hospital / Oh, Dryad Thoughs — 2:54
6. 06 - Music in the Pavilion — 1:30
7. 07 - Rebuke — 1:30
8. 08 - In Camp — 1:05
9. 09 - The Nymph — 4:12
10. 10 - Vivisection / The Stranger — 1:51
11. 11 - The Constant Ones.- Instinct — 1:32
12. 12 - San Francisco, New Year's, 1907 — 2:43
13. 13 - The Poppy Field — 1:18
14. 14 - You — 1:00
15. 15 - Just a Dog — 2:06
16. 16 - Mirage / Dusk — 2:45
17. 17 - The Spanish Girl, Part I — 7:04
18. 18 - The Spanish Girl, Part II — 4:45
19. 19 - The Spanish Girl, Part III — 5:40
20. 20 - The Garden of Dolores — 1:05
21. 21 - Indifference / After-Knowledge — 2:09
22. 22 - Two Spendthrift Kings / Growth — 1:49
23. 23 - Change / Wistaria — 2:02
24. 24 - My Nook — 2:13

Listen to this recording

Open the complete recording and player on Internet Archive. The player includes the full track list and available download formats.

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.