Uploaded September 2015 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Here's a virtual movie of the great Edgar Allan Poe reading his most famous and much loved poem "The Raven"
This video suggests that Poe may not have been the actual author of this great poem.
youtube.com/watch?v=dgoGmZaV5-w&feature=youtu.be
The Raven" is a narrative poem by American writer Edgar Allan Poe. First published in January 1845, the poem is often noted for its musicality, stylized language, and supernatural atmosphere. It tells of a talking raven's mysterious visit to a distraught lover, tracing the man's slow fall into madness. The lover, often identified as being a student,[1][2] is lamenting the loss of his love, Lenore. Sitting on a bust of Pallas, the raven seems to further instigate his distress with its constant repetition of the word "Nevermore". The poem makes use of a number of folk, mythological, religious, and classical references.
Poe claimed to have written the poem very logically and methodically, intending to create a poem that would appeal to both critical and popular tastes, as he explained in his 1846 follow-up essay, "The Philosophy of Composition". The poem was inspired in part by a talking raven in the novel Barnaby Rudge: A Tale of the Riots of 'Eighty by Charles Dickens.[3] Poe borrows the complex rhythm and meter of Elizabeth Barrett's poem "Lady Geraldine's Courtship", and makes use of internal rhyme as well as alliteration throughout.
"The Raven" was first attributed to Poe in print in the New York Evening Mirror on January 29, 1845. Its publication made Poe widely popular in his lifetime, although it did not bring him much financial success. The poem was soon reprinted, parodied, and illustrated. Critical opinion is divided as to the poem's literary status, but it nevertheless remains one of the most famous poems ever written.
"The Raven" follows an unnamed narrator on a dreary night in December who sits reading "forgotten lore" by a dying fire [6] as a way to forget the death of his beloved Lenore. A "rapping at [his] chamber door"[6] reveals nothing, but excites his soul to "burning".[7] The rapping is repeated, slightly louder, and he realizes it is coming from his window. When he goes to investigate, a raven flutters into his chamber. Paying no attention to the man, the raven perches on a bust of Pallas above the door.
Amused by the raven's comically serious disposition, the man asks that the bird tell him its name. The raven's only answer is "Nevermore".[7] The narrator is surprised that the raven can talk, though at this point it has said nothing further. The narrator remarks to himself that his "friend" the raven will soon fly out of his life, just as "other friends have flown before"[7] along with his previous hopes. As if answering, the raven responds again with "Nevermore".[7] The narrator reasons that the bird learned the word "Nevermore" from some "unhappy master" and that it is the only word it knows.[7]
Even so, the narrator pulls his chair directly in front of the raven, determined to learn more about it. He thinks for a moment in silence, and his mind wanders back to his lost Lenore. He thinks the air grows denser and feels the presence of angels, and wonders if God is sending him a sign that he is to forget Lenore. The bird again replies in the negative, suggesting that he can never be free of his memories. The narrator becomes angry, calling the raven a "thing of evil" and a "prophet".[8] Finally, he asks the raven whether he will be reunited with Lenore in Heaven. When the raven responds with its typical "Nevermore", he is enraged, and, calling it a liar, commands the bird to return to the "Plutonian shore",[8]—but it does not move. Presumably at the time of the poem's recitation by the narrator, the raven "still is sitting"[8] on the bust of Pallas. The narrator's final admission is that his soul is trapped beneath the raven's shadow and shall be lifted "Nevermor.
Edgar Allan Poe (/poʊ/; born Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American author, poet, editor, and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story, and is generally considered the inventor of the detective fiction genre. He is further credited with contributing to the emerging genre of science fiction.[1] He was the first well-known American writer to try to earn a living through writing alone, resulting in a financially difficult life and career.
Kind Regards
Jim Clark
All rights are reserved on this video recording copyright Jim Clark 2015
Here's a virtual movie of the great Edgar Allan Poe reading his most famous and much loved poem "The Raven"
This video suggests that Poe may not have been the actual author of this great poem.
youtube.com/watch?v=dgoGmZaV5-w&feature=youtu.be
The Raven" is a narrative poem by American writer Edgar Allan Poe. First published in January 1845, the poem is often noted for its musicality, stylized language, and supernatural atmosphere. It tells of a talking raven's mysterious visit to a distraught lover, tracing the man's slow fall into madness. The lover, often identified as being a student,[1][2] is lamenting the loss of his love, Lenore. Sitting on a bust of Pallas, the raven seems to further instigate his distress with its constant repetition of the word "Nevermore". The poem makes use of a number of folk, mythological, religious, and classical references.
Poe claimed to have written the poem very logically and methodically, intending to create a poem that would appeal to both critical and popular tastes, as he explained in his 1846 follow-up essay, "The Philosophy of Composition". The poem was inspired in part by a talking raven in the novel Barnaby Rudge: A Tale of the Riots of 'Eighty by Charles Dickens.[3] Poe borrows the complex rhythm and meter of Elizabeth Barrett's poem "Lady Geraldine's Courtship", and makes use of internal rhyme as well as alliteration throughout.
"The Raven" was first attributed to Poe in print in the New York Evening Mirror on January 29, 1845. Its publication made Poe widely popular in his lifetime, although it did not bring him much financial success. The poem was soon reprinted, parodied, and illustrated. Critical opinion is divided as to the poem's literary status, but it nevertheless remains one of the most famous poems ever written.
"The Raven" follows an unnamed narrator on a dreary night in December who sits reading "forgotten lore" by a dying fire [6] as a way to forget the death of his beloved Lenore. A "rapping at [his] chamber door"[6] reveals nothing, but excites his soul to "burning".[7] The rapping is repeated, slightly louder, and he realizes it is coming from his window. When he goes to investigate, a raven flutters into his chamber. Paying no attention to the man, the raven perches on a bust of Pallas above the door.
Amused by the raven's comically serious disposition, the man asks that the bird tell him its name. The raven's only answer is "Nevermore".[7] The narrator is surprised that the raven can talk, though at this point it has said nothing further. The narrator remarks to himself that his "friend" the raven will soon fly out of his life, just as "other friends have flown before"[7] along with his previous hopes. As if answering, the raven responds again with "Nevermore".[7] The narrator reasons that the bird learned the word "Nevermore" from some "unhappy master" and that it is the only word it knows.[7]
Even so, the narrator pulls his chair directly in front of the raven, determined to learn more about it. He thinks for a moment in silence, and his mind wanders back to his lost Lenore. He thinks the air grows denser and feels the presence of angels, and wonders if God is sending him a sign that he is to forget Lenore. The bird again replies in the negative, suggesting that he can never be free of his memories. The narrator becomes angry, calling the raven a "thing of evil" and a "prophet".[8] Finally, he asks the raven whether he will be reunited with Lenore in Heaven. When the raven responds with its typical "Nevermore", he is enraged, and, calling it a liar, commands the bird to return to the "Plutonian shore",[8]—but it does not move. Presumably at the time of the poem's recitation by the narrator, the raven "still is sitting"[8] on the bust of Pallas. The narrator's final admission is that his soul is trapped beneath the raven's shadow and shall be lifted "Nevermor.
Edgar Allan Poe (/poʊ/; born Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American author, poet, editor, and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story, and is generally considered the inventor of the detective fiction genre. He is further credited with contributing to the emerging genre of science fiction.[1] He was the first well-known American writer to try to earn a living through writing alone, resulting in a financially difficult life and career.
Kind Regards
Jim Clark
All rights are reserved on this video recording copyright Jim Clark 2015
![The Mockery of Life -, by Wilfrid Scawen Blunt - Poem animation
Heres the Victorian English Romantic poet Wilfrid Scawen Blunt reading his exquisite despairing bittersweet poem The Mockery of Life first published in 1881.This definitve if somewhat under recorded recital comes from fellow youtuber Ceminon
https://www.youtube.com/user/Ceminon/about
Blunt was in my opinion one of the finest Victorian writers of elegant romantic poetry these days he is regarded by many as rather old fashioned and has become qiute overlooked his genteel idolisation of the female is perhaps to many out of place in the world today where the sexes are deemed in all respects to be equal ,but his poetry deserves to be appreciated more for its sheer genteel olde worlde elegance as the stuff of pure romance.
The Mockery of Life
1God! What a mockery is this life of ours!
2Cast forth in blood and pain from our mothers womb,
3Most like an excrement, and weeping showers
4Of senseless tears: unreasoning, naked, dumb,
5The symbol of all weakness and the sum:
6Our very life a sufferance. Presently,
7Grown stronger, we must fight for standing-room
8Upon the earth, and the bare liberty
9To breathe and move. We crave the right to toil.
10We push, we strive, we jostle with the rest.
11We learn new courage, stifle our old fears,
12Stand with stiff backs, take part in every broil.
13It may be that we love, that we are blest.
14It may be, for a little space of years,
15We conquer fate and half forget our tears.
16And then fate strikes us. First our joys decay.
17Youth, with its pleasures, is a tale soon told.
18We grow a little poorer day by day.
19Old friendships falter. Loves grow strangely cold.
20In vain we shift our hearts to a new hold
21And barter joy for joy, the less for less.
22We doubt our strength, our wisdom, and our gold.
23We stand alone, as in a wilderness
24Of doubts and terrors. Then, if we be wise,
25We make our terms with fate and, while we may,
26Sell our lifes last sad remnant for a hope.
27And it is wisdom thus to close our eyes.
28But for the foolish, those who cannot pray,
29What else remains of their dark horoscope
30But a tall tree and courage and a rope?
31And who shall tell what ignominy death
32Has yet in store for us; what abject fears
33Even for the best of us; what fights for breath;
34What sobs, what supplications, what wild tears;
35What impotence of soul against despairs
36Which blot out reason? The last trembling thought
37Of each poor brain, as dissolution nears,
38Is not of fair life lost, of Heaven bought
39And glory won. Tis not the thought of grief;
40Of friends deserted; loving hearts which bleed;
41Wives, sisters, children who around us weep.
42But only a mad clutching for relief
43From physical pain, importunate Natures need;
44The search as for a womb where we may creep
45Back from the world, to hide, perhaps to sleep.
Wilfrid Scawen Blunt (17 August 1840[1] 10 September 1922[2]) (Sometimes spelled Wilfred) was an English poet and writer. He was born at Petworth House in Sussex, and served in the Diplomatic Service from 1858 to 1869. He was raised in the faith of his mother, a Catholic convert, and educated at Twyford School, Stonyhurst, and at St Marys College, Oscott. He was best known for his poetry, which was published in a collected edition in 1914, but also wrote a number of political essays and polemics. Blunt is also known for his relatively enlightened views on imperialism:
His most memorable line of poetry on the subject comes from Satan Absolved (1899), where a cynical devil explains to the Almighty that, The white mans burden, Lord, is the burden of his cash (Poetical Works, 2.254). Blunt thus stands Rudyard Kiplings familiar concept on its head, arguing that the imperialists burden is not their moral responsibility for the colonized peoples, but their urge to make money out of them. - Elizabeth Longford, .
Kind Regards
Jim Clark
All rights are reserved on this video recording copyright Jim Clark 2014 The Mockery of Life -, by Wilfrid Scawen Blunt - Poem animation](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/LM2uemSq4HE/mqdefault.jpg)


![Long Legged Fly By William Butler Yeats Recited by Seamus Heaney - Poem - Animation
Heres a virtual movie of a recitation of my favourite Poem by William Butler Yeats Long Legged Fly Recited By the late Celebrated Irish poet Seamus Heaney.
William Butler Yeats explored many themes, including Irish folklore, spirituality, unrequited love, and Irelands struggle for independence. Yeats helped lead the Irish Renaissance, a movement in the late 19th and early 20th centuries that sought to restore the influence of Gaelic language and culture on Irish literature. Long-Legged Fly, which appeared in The Nation almost three months after the poet died in 1939, is included in Yeatss Last Poems and Two Plays (1939). William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) was born in Dublin. His father was a lawyer and a well-known portrait painter. Yeats was educated in London and in Dublin, but he spent his summers in the west of Ireland in the familys summer house at Connaught. The young Yeats was very much part of the fin de siècle in London; at the same time he was active in societies that attempted an Irish literary revival. His first volume of verse appeared in 1887, but in his earlier period his dramatic production outweighed his poetry both in bulk and in import. Together with Lady Gregory he founded the Irish Theatre, which was to become the Abbey Theatre, and served as its chief playwright until the movement was joined by John Synge. His plays usually treat Irish legends; they also reflect his fascination with mysticism and spiritualism. The Countess Cathleen (1892), The Land of Hearts Desire (1894), Cathleen ni Houlihan (1902), The Kings Threshold (1904), and Deirdre (1907) are among the best known. After 1910, Yeatss dramatic art took a sharp turn toward a highly poetical, static, and esoteric style. His later plays were written for small audiences; they experiment with masks, dance, and music, and were profoundly influenced by the Japanese Noh plays. Although a convinced patriot, Yeats deplored the hatred and the bigotry of the Nationalist movement, and his poetry is full of moving protests against it. He was appointed to the Irish Senate in 1922. Yeats is one of the few writers whose greatest works were written after the award of the Nobel Prize. Whereas he received the Prize chiefly for his dramatic works, his significance today rests on his lyric achievement. His poetry, especially the volumes The Wild Swans at Coole (1919), Michael Robartes and the Dancer (1921), The Tower (1928), The Winding Stair and Other Poems (1933), and Last Poems and Plays (1940), made him one of the outstanding and most influential twentieth-century poets writing in English. His recurrent themes are the contrast of art and life, masks, cyclical theories of life (the symbol of the winding stairs), and the ideal of beauty and ceremony contrasting with the hubbub of modern life.
Seamus Justin Heaney, MRIA (/ˈʃeɪməs ˈhiːni/; 13 April 1939 – 30 August 2013) was an Irish poet, playwright, translator and lecturer, and the recipient of the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature.[1][2] In the early 1960s, he became a lecturer in Belfast after attending university there and began to publish poetry. He lived in Sandymount, Dublin, from 1976 until his death
Kind Regards
Jim Clark
All rights are reserved on this video recording copyright Jim Clark 2014
Long Legged Fly.........
That civilization may not sink Its great battle lost, Quiet the dog, tether the pony To a distant post. Our master Caesar is in the tent Where the maps are spread, His eyes fixed upon nothing, A hand under his head. Like a long-legged fly upon the stream His mind moves upon silence. That the topless towers be burnt And men recall that face, Move most gently if move you must In this lonely place. She thinks, part woman, three parts a child, That nobody looks; her feet Practice a tinker shuffle Picked up on the street. Like a long-legged fly upon the stream Her mind moves upon silence. That girls at puberty may find The first Adam in their thought, Shut the door of the Popes Chapel, Keep those children out. There on that scaffolding reclines Michael Angelo. With no more sound than the mice make His hand moves to and fro. Like a long-legged fly upon the stream His mind moves upon silence. Long Legged Fly By William Butler Yeats Recited by Seamus Heaney - Poem - Animation](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/M68feBKyhp4/mqdefault.jpg)


![Ode on Indolence by John Keats - Poem - animation
Heres a virtual movie of Ode on Indolence by John Keats a beautiful poem dedicated to the lazy art of being a couch potatoe
The Ode on Indolence is one of five odes composed by English poet John Keats in the spring of 1819. The others were Ode on a Grecian Urn, Ode on Melancholy, Ode to a Nightingale and Ode to Psyche. The poem describes the state of indolence, otherwise known as laziness, and was written during a time when he felt that he should devote his efforts to earning an income instead of composing poetry. After finishing the spring poems, Keats wrote in June 1819 that its composition brought him more pleasure than anything else he had written that year.[1] Unlike the other odes he wrote that year, Ode on Indolence was not published until 1848, 27 years after his death.
The poem is an example of Keatss break from the structure of the classical form. It follows the poets contemplation of a morning spent in idleness. Three figures are presented—Ambition, Love and Poesy — dressed in placid sandals and white robes. The narrator examines each using a series of questions and statements on life and art. The poem concludes with the narrator giving up on having all three of the figures as part of his life. Some critics regard Ode on Indolence as inferior to the other four 1819 odes. Others suggest that the poem exemplifies a continuity of themes and imagery characteristic of his more widely read works, and provides valuable biographical insight into his poetic career.
By the spring of 1819, Keats had left his poorly paid position as a surgeon at Guys Hospital, Southwark, London, to devote himself to poetry. On 12 May 1819, he abandoned this plan after receiving a request for financial assistance from his brother, George. Unable to help, Keats was torn by guilt and despair and sought projects more lucrative than poetry. It was under these circumstances that he wrote Ode on Indolence.
Kind Regards
Jim Clark
All rights are reserved on this video recording copyright Jim Clark 2014 Ode on Indolence by John Keats - Poem - animation](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/N63IfzEpAoo/mqdefault.jpg)
![The Chimney Sweeper - William Blake Poem - Animation
Heres a virtual movie of a recital The Chimney Sweeper by William Blake the poem is read to perfection by the late great American Shakespearean stage actor Erasmus J Spellbinder who was renowned for his recitals of classic poetry in the 1930s. The poem utilises the tragic voice of a child chimney sweep of his time to express his disgust at the obscenity of child labour.
The Chimney Sweeper is the title of two poems by William Blake, published in Songs of Innocence in 1789 and Songs of Experience in 1794.[2] The poem The Chimney Sweeper is set against the dark background of child labor that was prominent in England in the late 18th and 19th century. At the age of four and five, boys were sold to clean chimneys, due to their small size. These children were oppressed and had a diminutive existence that was socially accepted at the time. In the earlier poem, a young chimney sweeper recounts a dream had by one of his fellows, in which an angel rescues the boys from coffins and takes them to a sunny meadow; in the later poem, an apparently adult speaker encounters a child chimney sweeper abandoned in the snow while his parents are at church or possibly even suffered death where church is referring to being with God.
TSongs of Innocence:
The Chimney Sweeper
When my mother died I was very young,
And my father sold me while yet my tongue
Could scarcely cry weep! weep! weep! weep![a]
So your chimneys I sweep, and in soot I sleep.
Theres little Tom Dacre, who cried when his head,
That curled like a lambs back, was shaved: so I said,
Hush, Tom! never mind it, for when your heads bare,
You know that the soot cannot spoil your white hair.
And so he was quiet; and that very night,
As Tom was a-sleeping, he had such a sight, -
That thousands of sweepers, Dick, Joe, Ned, and Jack,
Were all of them locked up in coffins of black.
And by came an angel who had a bright key,
And he opened the coffins and set them all free;
Then down a green plain leaping, laughing, they run,
And wash in a river, and shine in the sun.
Then naked and white, all their bags left behind,
They rise upon clouds and sport in the wind;
And the angel told Tom, if hed be a good boy,
Hed have God for his father, and never want joy.
And so Tom awoke; and we rose in the dark,
And got with our bags and our brushes to work.
Though the morning was cold, Tom was happy and warm;
So if all do their duty they need not fear harm.
Kind Regards
Jim Clark
All rights are reserved on this video recording copyright Jim Clark 2015 The Chimney Sweeper - William Blake Poem - Animation](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/NFzmVgn41Zs/mqdefault.jpg)
![Down By the Salley Gardens By William Butler Yeats Poem Animation
Heres a virtual movie of Down By the Salley Gardens. By William Butler Yeats.
Apologies for the extraneous noises towards the end of this very ancient recording that was rescued from many decades immersed in a barrel of guinness having sobered up after drinking the contents purely in the interests of science of course ha ha,but its such a lovely rendition of this wonderful poem come song i think it is still rewarding to the ear to listen to.
Down by the Salley Gardens (Irish: Gort na Saileán) is a poem by William Butler Yeats published in The Wanderings of Oisin and Other Poems in 1889.
Yeats indicated in a note that it was an attempt to reconstruct an old song from three lines imperfectly remembered by an old peasant woman in the village of Ballisodare, Sligo, who often sings them to herself.[2] The old song may have been the ballad The Rambling Boys of Pleasure[3] which contains the following verse:
Down by yon flowery garden my love and I we first did meet.
I took her in my arms and to her I gave kisses sweet
She bade me take life easy just as the leaves fall from the tree.
But I being young and foolish, with my darling did not agree.
The similarity to the first verse of the Yeats version is unmistakable and would suggest that this was indeed the song Yeats remembered the old woman singing. The rest of the song, however, is quite different.
Yeatss original title, An Old Song Re-Sung, reflected his debt to The Rambling Boys of Pleasure. It first appeared under its present title when it was reprinted in Poems in 1895. Down By the Salley Gardens By William Butler Yeats Poem Animation](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/NHj3miF8sqs/mqdefault.jpg)
![The Hill - Edgar Lee Masters - Poem - Animation
Heres a virtual movie of the celebrated American poet Edgar Lee Masters reading in his own voice circa 1934 The Hill from his brilliant and much loved Spoon River Anthology circa 1915. To hear more amazing actual recordings of Edgar Lee Masters reading his own poems visit The Pennsound Website here where you will hear rare recordings from many great American poets..
http://writing.upenn.edu/pennsound/x/Masters.php
Spoon River Anthology (1915), by Edgar Lee Masters, is a collection of short free-form poems that collectively narrates the epitaphs of the residents of Spoon River, a fictional small town named after the real Spoon River that ran near Masters home town. The aim of the poems is to demystify the rural, small town American life. The collection includes two hundred and twelve separate characters, all providing two-hundred forty-four accounts of their lives and losses. The poems were originally published in the magazine Reedys Mirror.
Edgar Lee Masters (August 23, 1868 – March 5, 1950) was an American attorney, poet, biographer, and dramatist. He is the author of Spoon River Anthology, The New Star Chamber and Other Essays, Songs and Satires, The Great Valley, The Serpent in the Wilderness An Obscure Tale, The Spleen, Mark Twain: A Portrait, Lincoln: The Man, and Illinois Poems. In all, Masters published twelve plays, twenty-one books of poetry, six novels and six biographies, including those of Abraham Lincoln, Mark Twain, Vachel Lindsay, and Walt Whitman.
Born in Garnett, Kansas to attorney Hardin Wallace Masters and Emma J. Dexter,[2] his father had briefly moved to set up a law practice, then soon moved back to his paternal grandparents farm near Petersburg in Menard County, Illinois. In 1880 they moved to Lewistown, Illinois, where he attended high school and had his first publication in the Chicago Daily News. The culture around Lewistown, in addition to the towns cemetery at Oak Hill, and the nearby Spoon River were the inspirations for many of his works, most notably Spoon River Anthology, his most famous and acclaimed work.
Kind Regards
Jim Clark
All rights are reserved on this video recording copyright Jim Clark 2016 The Hill - Edgar Lee Masters - Poem - Animation](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/NSbOlx4hjkc/mqdefault.jpg)
![Suicide in the Trenches By Siegfried Sassoon Poem animation
Heres a virtual movie of the soldier poet Siegfried Sassoon reading his poem Suicide in the Trenches
Suicide in the Trenches is a poem by Siegfried Sassoon, written during his First World War military service and published in his 1918 collection: Counter-Attack and Other Poems The poem, is one of the many poems Sassoon composed in response to World War I. It reflects his own notable service in that especially bloody conflict. Sassoon was a brave and gallant upper-class officer who eventually opposed the war, but he never lost his admiration for the common soldiers who had to fight it. Sassoon felt contempt for the political leaders and civilian war hawks who, safe in their power and comfort, sent young men off to die in huge battles that seemed futile and pointless.
Siegfried Loraine Sassoon, CBE, MC (8 September 1886 1 September 1967) was an eminent English poet, writer, and soldier. Decorated for bravery on the Western Front, he became one of the leading poets of the First World War. His poetry both described the horrors of the trenches, and satirised the patriotic pretensions of those who, in Sassoons view, were responsible for a jingoism-fuelled war.[1] He later won acclaim for his prose work, notably his three-volume fictionalised autobiography, collectively known as the Sherston trilogy.
Kind Regards
Jim Clark
All rights are reserved on this video recording copyright Jim Clark 2014 Suicide in the Trenches By Siegfried Sassoon Poem animation](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Nf5Ow7dLzzI/mqdefault.jpg)