Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)All in all, I think this is a great selection of poems. What I like the most is that it includes more than the requisite 2 or 3 for a given poet. The most well-represented are Donne, Herbert, Herrick, Jonson, and Milton--each with at least half a dozen poems included. This was a great pleasure to discover, since I am a great fan of Donne. Also because I love Herbert, and his work is a lot harder to find in audio format. Others represented are Waller, Suckling, Marvel, Lovelace, and the rest of the gang you expect to find here.
There are 101 poems spanning two cassettes. The order is not chronological, or even grouped by poet. Instead, you'll find small groupings of a poet's works spread throughout. Long poems are included, but usually preceded and followed by shorter ones. Donne is probably the best represented (by number of poems), with Herrick in second place. Surprisingly, Herbert is in the running for third place. A few of Milton's sonnets are included along with his most well-known long works.
All of the readers are professional and do a great job. My only complaint is the audio quality. For a recent production, it has a truly amazing amount of tape hiss present. Furthermore, Penguin did not use a chrome tape or dolby noise reduction to help reduce it. Even for a normal bias tape, this one is very noisy. Had this not been the case, I would have rated it with 5 stars.
Brandon Barnes
Click Here to see more reviews about: English Verse: Volume 2: The Seventeenth Century: Donne to Rochester (Penguin English Verse)
The mid-17th century was a time of turmoil in England. The decades of civil war, revolution and restoration were dominated in the realm of poetry by Marvell, Donne, Milton and Dryden. This anthology also contains readings from Ben Johnson; Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire; the mystic vision of Thomas Traherene; and the libertine wit of John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester. 2 cassettes.
