Poetry audiobooks

The Canterbury Tales

By: Peter Ackroyd & Geoffrey Chaucer

Narrated by: Ron Keith, Toby Leonard Moore, Colin McPhillamy...

Length: 16 hours 44 minutes

Abridged: No

Author Peter Ackroyd has won the Somerset Maugham Award, the Whitbread Novel of the Year, and the Guardian Fiction Prize, and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Based on Geoffrey Chaucer's immortal work, this retelling of The Canterbury Tales follows a party of travelers as they tell stories amongst themselves about love and chivalry, saints... Read more

John Donne

By: John Donne

Narrated by: Edward Herrmann

Length: 1 hour 23 minutes

Abridged: No

One of the greatest metaphysical poets of all time, Donne could find as much joy in the contemplation of man's relationship to God, as he could in the conjugal significance of a flea bite. Included here: The Flea; To His Mistress Going to Bed; Elegy 16; and A Valediction Forbidding Mourning; among others. Read more

The Mercy

By: Beverly Lewis

Narrated by: Christina Moore

Length: 8 hours 38 minutes

Abridged: No

Rose Kauffman pines for prodigal Nick Franco, the Bishop's foster son who left the Amish under a cloud of suspicion after his foster brother's death. His rebellion led to the "silencing" of their beloved Bishop. But is Nick really the rebel he appears to be? Rose's lingering feelings for her wayward friend refuse to fade, but she is frustrated... Read more

The Type

By: Sarah Kay

Narrated by: Sarah Kay

Length: 6 minutes

Abridged: No

Sarah Kay's powerful spoken word poetry performances have gone viral, with more than 10 million online views and thousands more in global live audiences. In her second single-poem volume, Kay takes readers along a lyrical road toward empowerment, exploring the promise and complicated reality of being a woman.

During her spoken word poetry... Read more

Joy

By: Abigail Santamaria

Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne

Length: 14 hours 10 minutes

Abridged: No

The first full biography of Joy Davidman brings her out from C. S. Lewis’ shadow, where she has long been hidden, to reveal a powerful writer and thinker.Joy Davidman is known, if she is known at all, as the wife of C. S. Lewis. Their marriage was immortalized in the film Shadowlands and Lewis’ memoir A Grief Observed. Now, through extraordinary... Read more

The Iliad

By: Homer & Caroline Alexander

Narrated by: Dominic Keating

Length: 19 hours 46 minutes

Abridged: No

With her virtuoso translation, classicist and bestselling author Caroline Alexander brings to life Homer’s timeless epic of the Trojan WarComposed around 730 B.C., Homer’s Iliad recounts the events of a few momentous weeks in the protracted ten-year war between the invading Achaeans, or Greeks, and the Trojans in their besieged city of Ilion.... Read more

Passport Diaries

By: Tamara Gregory

Narrated by: Myra Taylor

Length: 6 hours 50 minutes

Abridged: No

Kia Carson, a Los Angeles district attorney with beauty, brains, taste, and style, is about to turn thirty-five. There's just one problem with her picture-perfect life—she's not got one eligible man in sight. Well, thank God she has her career . . . at least until she gets suspended from her job. To regain her sense of purpose, she plans a... Read more

Leaves of Grass

By: Walt Whitman

Narrated by: Mel Foster

Length: 15 hours 55 minutes

Abridged: No

Abraham Lincoln read it with approval, but Emily Dickinson described its bold language and themes as "disgraceful." And Ralph Waldo Emerson found Leaves of Grass "the most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom that America has yet contributed," calling it a "combination of the Bhagavad Gita and the New York Herald." Published at the author's own... Read more

The Prophet

By: Kahlil Gibran

Narrated by: Jonathan Reese

Length: 2 hours 47 minutes

Abridged: No

Kahlil Gibran—poet, philosopher, and artist—was born in Lebanon in 1883 but spent his final twenty years of life living in the United States. The three books that compose this audiobook are collections of Gibran's aphorisms, parables, and poetic essays.



The first book, The Prophet, was originally published in 1923 and is considered Gibran's... Read more

The Brothers' War

By: J. Patrick Lewis

Narrated by: Tom Stechschulte

Length: 25 minutes

Abridged: No

In compelling poetry, the spirit of Frederick Douglas, John Brown, and William Tecumseh Sherman comes alive. So does the heart-rending tale of a Confederate son and Union father, the desperate struggle of boys fighting like men, the horrifying shrieks of the wounded, and the pitiful plight of a toil-weary slave. One poetic letter finds... Read more

Neon Aliens Ate My Homework

By: Nick Cannon

Narrated by: Nick Cannon

Length: 45 minutes

Abridged: No

Just in time for National Poetry Month, Nick Cannon, entertainer extraordinaire, debuts his poetry book for children.Nick Cannon---the unstoppable entertainer, comedian, actor, and musician---was inspired to write Neon Aliens Ate My Homework and Other Poems as a way to combine the worlds of poetry and hip-hop. These two mediums have shaped Nick... Read more

Persuasion and Poems

By: Jane Austen

Narrated by: Alison Larkin

Length: 10 hours 15 minutes

Abridged: No

200 years since Jane Austen completed her last novel, Alison Larkin, a witty and always original voice, brings Persuasion and a selection of lesser known poems by Jane Austen to a new audience.
Seven years after Anne Elliot rejects the man she loves after a family friend persuades her that he isn't a good enough match for her, Frederick Wentworth... Read more

Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth

By: Warsan Shire

Narrated by: Warsan Shire

Length: 30 minutes

Abridged: No

What elevates teaching my mother how to give birth, what gives the poems their disturbing brilliance, is Warsan Shire's ability to give simple, beautiful eloquence to the veiled world where sensuality lives in the dominant narrative of Islam; reclaiming the more nuanced truths of earlier times - as in Tayeb Salih's work - and translating to the... Read more

How Did This Happen?

By: Mary D. Esselman & Elizabeth Ash Vélez

Narrated by: Christine Lakin, Karissa Vacker, Erin Bennett &...

Length: 3 hours 24 minutes

Abridged: No

From the bestselling authors of The Hell with Love, a fierce, funny, touching collection that takes the sting out of "aging while female." Read more

The Sonnets

By: William Shakespeare

Narrated by: Frank Muller

Length: 1 hour 35 minutes

Abridged: No

This anthology is a thorough introduction to classic literature for those who have not yet experienced these literary masterworks. For those who have known and loved these works in the past, this is an invitation to reunite with old friends in a fresh new format. From Shakespeare's finesse to Oscar Wilde's wit, this unique collection brings... Read more

Lift Off

By: Donovan Livingston

Narrated by: Donovan Livingston

Length: 9 minutes

Abridged: No

An inspirational rallying call about education, race, and the true nature of equality—the Harvard Graduate School of Education convocation speech praised as “powerful” by Hillary Rodham Clinton in Teen Vogue and “inspired” by Justin Timberlake.

In emotionally charged spoken-word poetry, Livingston shares a message of hope and hard truths,... Read more

Donald Hall: Prose & Poetry

By: Donald Hall

Narrated by: Donald Hall

Length: 3 hours 7 minutes

Abridged: No

Author of more than thirty books of poetry and prose, Donald Hall performs here dozens of his best-loved poems, together with excerpts from six of his works of prose. Donald Hall has been writing poems for over fifty years and now stands as one of America's foremost poets. Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Robert Frost Medal... Read more

Perfecto Pet Show (Bobs and Tweets #2)

By: Pepper Springfield

Narrated by: George Newbern & Stephanie Drake

Length: 22 minutes

Abridged: No

Something is brewing at Bonefish Street Elementary school...Get ready for one perfecto school pet show with the Bobs and Tweets!Dean Bob and Lou Tweet can't wait to perform in the first-ever Bonefish Street Elementary School Pet Show. They've practiced their performances over and over again, and together with their pets, they're ready to... Read more

One Thousand Gifts

By: Ann Voskamp

Narrated by: Ann Voskamp

Length: 7 hours 57 minutes

Abridged: No

More than 1.5 million copies sold! What if you discovered that the life you already have is the life you've always wanted? What if joy and gratefulness is possible right where you are??New York Times?bestselling author Ann Voskamp invites you to embrace everyday blessings and embark on the transformative journey of thankfulness and chronicling... Read more

One Poem at a Time

By: Samuel Hazo

Narrated by: Samuel Hazo

Length: 2 hours 50 minutes

Abridged: No

Edwin Arlington Robinson’s Richard Cory Edwin Arlington Robinson’s Miniver Cheevy A.E. Housman’s I to My Perils Gerard Manley Hopkins’ As Kingfishers Catch Fire A.E. Housman’s Here Dead Lie We Archibald MacLeish’s You, Andrew Marvell John Ciardi’s In Place of a Curse e.e. cummings’ i am a little church William Butler Yeats’ The Deep-Sworn... Read more

Empire of Dreams

By: Giannina Braschi

Narrated by: Adriana Sananes

Length: 4 hours 36 minutes

Abridged: No

An intriguing and hypnotizing work of postmodern fiction from groundbreaking Hispanic-American writer Giannina Braschi, Empire of Dreams chronicles a decade-long love affair with 1980s New York and all its contradictions. The city’s perversions and passions, power and marginality, grandeur and squalor come vibrantly to life in each of the book’s... Read more

Love Poems

By: Pablo Neruda

Narrated by: Armando Durán

Length: 38 minutes

Abridged: No

Sensual, earthy love poems that formed the basis for the popular movie Il Postino, now in a beautiful gift book perfect for weddings, Valentine’s Day, anniversaries, or just to say “I love you!”Charged with sensuality and passion, Pablo Neruda’s love poems are the most celebrated of the Nobel Prize winner’s oeuvre, captivating readers with... Read more

The Inferno

By: Dante

Narrated by: Dominic Hoffman

Length: 4 hours 40 minutes

Abridged: No

“Probably the most finely accomplished and ... most enduring" translation (Los Angeles Times Book Review) of this essential work of world literature—from a renowned scholar and master teacher of Dante and an accomplished poet.

“The Hollanders … act as latter-day Virgils, guiding us through the Italian text that is printed on the facing... Read more

A Surprised Queenhood in the New Black Sun

By: Angela Jackson

Narrated by: Janina Edwards

Length: 7 hours 42 minutes

Abridged: No

A look back at the cultural and political force of Pulitzer Prize–winning poet Gwendolyn Brooks, in celebration of her hundredth birthday

Artist–Rebel–Pioneer

Pulitzer-Prize winning poet Gwendolyn Brooks is one of the great American literary icons of the twentieth century, a protégé of Langston Hughes and mentor to a generation of poets, including... Read more