The Poetical Works of Thomas Lovell Beddoes, Volume 1


Read by LibriVox Volunteers

The English poet Thomas Lovell Beddoes was born in Clifton in Bristol and educated at Pembroke College, Oxford. He later studied medicine at Göttingen in Germany before leading an itinerant life in Germany and Switzerland and committing suicide at the age of 45.

His early verse drama The Bride's Tragedy was well reviewed but later attempts at dramas were mostly left incomplete. His Collected Poems were published 2 years after his death. The poems read here are from a later edition of his complete Poetical Works published in 1890 by Edmund Gosse. They are in 3 sections: Poems Collected in 1851, Poems Hitherto Unpublished, and Miscellaneous Poems.

Beddoes had a preoccupation with death, he studied medicine in the hope of finding clinical evidence of the existence of an immortal soul, and this preoccupation influenced much of his work.

Lytton Strachey described Beddoes as "the last Elizabethan", and said that he was distinguished not for his "illuminating views on men and things, or for a philosophy", but for the quality of his expression. - Summary by Alan Mapstone (2 hr 43 min)

Chapters

POEMS COLLECTED IN 1851: Alfarabi 13:11 Read by Alan Mapstone
The Romance of the Lily 17:24 Read by Algy Pug
Pygmalion 18:20 Read by Alan Mapstone
Lines written in a Blank Leaf of the "Prometheus Unbound" 1:31 Read by Bruce Kachuk
Sonnet 1:14 Read by Algy Pug
Letter to B.W.Procter,Esq. 7:12 Read by Alan Mapstone
Another Letter to the Same 4:35 Read by jonbuder
The Boding Dreams 3:10 Read by Algy Pug
Song of a Maid whose Love is Dead 1:34 Read by dc
The Ghost's Moonshine 2:11 Read by Algy Pug
From the German 1:17 Read by jonbuder
The Phantom-Wooer 1:09 Read by jonbuder
A Dirge 1:13 Read by Bruce Kachuk
Another Dirge (for a young maiden) 1:00 Read by Bruce Kachuk
Bridal Serenade 1:06 Read by Nalifa
Dirge 0:43 Read by Nalifa
Dirge and Hymeneal 2:23 Read by Alan Mapstone
Dial-Thoughts 2:04 Read by jonbuder
Dream-Pedlary 2:12 Read by jonbuder
Ballad of Human Life 1:40 Read by dc
Song on the Water 1:47 Read by ShrimpPhish
Love-in-Idleness 2:39 Read by ShrimpPhish
The Reason Why 2:02 Read by jonbuder
The Two Archers 2:54 Read by jonbuder
The Runaway 0:59 Read by Felicia Molyneux
Song on the Water 0:39 Read by Sonali Ekka
Alpine Spirit's Song 2:02 Read by PaulGrancio
Song 2:13 Read by Alan Mapstone
Song of the Stygian Naiades 1:54 Read by DanaAnn NiteOwLNanny
The Lily of the Valley 1:44 Read by jonbuder
A Lament 0:38 Read by jonbuder
Dirge 0:55 Read by Sonali Ekka
Epitaph 0:43 Read by Am Pab
The Tree of Life 1:50 Read by ShrimpPhish
The New-Born Star 2:04 Read by ShrimpPhish
Threnody 1:07 Read by Larry Wilson
Lines Written at Geneva 2:32 Read by David Lawrence
Stanzas 1:14 Read by David Lawrence
Lines Written in Switzerland 5:07 Read by F1nBr8d
Doomesday 4:12 Read by Felicia Molyneux
Threnody 0:58 Read by David Lawrence
POEMS HITHERTO UNPUBLISHED: The Old Ghost 1:25 Read by Alan Mapstone
Written in Album at Clifton 6:24 Read by Alan Mapstone
Sonnet to Zoë King 1:11 Read by Am Pab
Fragment 0:48 Read by Anthony Will
The Flowery Alchemist 1:18 Read by Anthony Will
Fragment 0:35 Read by Anthony Will
Lord Alcohol 1:35 Read by Anthony Will
The Oviparous Tailor 2:16 Read by April6090
Silenus in Proteus 1:24 Read by ShrimpPhish
Song 1:17 Read by ShrimpPhish
MISCELLANEOUS POEMS: The Comet 2:33 Read by Larry Wilson
Quatorzains: I. To Perfume 1:26 Read by Alan Mapstone
II. Thoughts 1:03 Read by Larry Wilson
III. A Rivulet 1:07 Read by Anthony Will
IV. To Sound 2:03 Read by dc
V. To Night 1:11 Read by Owlivia
VI. A Fantastic Simile 1:09 Read by Anthony Will
VII. Another 1:08 Read by Owlivia
VIII. To Silence 1:06 Read by Larry Wilson
IX. To My Lyre 1:13 Read by dc
X. To Poesy 1:08 Read by Larry Wilson
XI. A Clock striking at Midnight 2:37 Read by Alan Mapstone
To a Bunch of Grapes 2:29 Read by Alan Mapstone