Oscar Wilde: The Poems

by Oscar Wilde, Seán Barrett (Narrator)

Oscar Wilde – The Poems. When we think of Oscar Wilde we think of his wonderful wit and of course his plays and short stories. We rarely think of his poetry. We should. His work brings new insights into both his view of the world and how we can view him. Of course many know The Ballad Of Reading Gaol and now we bring you many others; Endymon; Serenade; Helas!; Requescat; Italia; Athanasia; Chanson; The Ballad Of Reading Gaol; To Milton; A Vision; Sonnet To Liberty; Easter Day; Vita Nuova; Her Voice; Impression Du Matin; Sonnet On Approaching Italy; The Grave Of Shelley; In The Gold Room - A Harmony; Santa Decca; Madonna Mia; The Garden Of Eros. This selection is read for you by Sean Barrett.

Genres: Poetry, Classics, Audiobook

Audiobook

Published January 14, 2013

About the author

Oscar Fingal O'Fflahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is best remembered for his epigrams and plays, his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, and his criminal conviction for gross indecency for homosexual acts.
Wilde's parents were Anglo-Irish intellectuals in Dublin. In his youth, Wilde learned to speak fluent French and German. At university, he read Greats; he demonstrated himself to be an exceptional classicist, first at Trinity College Dublin, then at Magdalen College, Oxford. He became associated with the emerging philosophy of aestheticism, led by two of his tutors, Walter Pater and John Ruskin. After university, Wilde moved to London into fashionable cultural and social circles.
Wilde tried his hand at various literary activities: he wrote a play, published a book of poems, lectured in the United States and Canada on "The English Renaissance" in art and interior decoration, and then returned to London where he lectured on his American travels and wrote reviews for various periodicals. Known for his biting wit, flamboyant dress and glittering conversational skill, Wilde became one of the best-known personalities of his day. At the turn of the 1890s, he refined his ideas about the supremacy of art in a series of dialogues and essays, and incorporated themes of decadence, duplicity, and beauty into what would be his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890). Wilde returned to drama, writing Salome (1891) in French while in Paris, but it was refused a licence for England due to an absolute prohibition on the portrayal of Biblical subjects on the English stage. Undiscouraged, Wilde produced four society comedies in the early 1890s, which made him one of the most successful playwrights of late-Victorian London.
At the height of his fame and success, while An Ideal Husband (1895) and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) were still being performed in London, Wilde issued a civil writ against John Sholto Douglas, the 9th Marquess of Queensberry for criminal libel. The Marquess was the father of Wilde's lover, Lord Alfred Douglas. The libel hearings unearthed evidence that caused Wilde to drop his charges and led to his own arrest and criminal prosecution for gross indecency with other males. The jury was unable to reach a verdict and so a retrial was ordered. In the second trial Wilde was convicted and sentenced to two years' hard labour, the maximum penalty, and was jailed from 1895 to 1897. During his last year in prison he wrote De Profundis (published posthumously in abridged form in 1905), a long letter that discusses his spiritual journey through his trials and is a dark counterpoint to his earlier philosophy of pleasure. On the day of his release, he caught the overnight steamer to France, never to return to Britain or Ireland. In France and Italy, he wrote his last work, The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898), a long poem commemorating the harsh rhythms of prison life.

Reviews

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

'... Sweet, there is nothing left to say
  But this, that love is never lost,
Keen winter stabs the breasts of May
  Whose crimson roses burst his frost,
    Ships tempest-tossed
Will find a harbour in some bay,
    And so we may.

And there is nothing left to do
  But to kiss once again, and part,
Nay, there is nothing we should rue,
  I have my beauty,—you your Art,
    Nay, do not start,
One world was not enough for two
    Like me and you...'

- Extract from 'Her Voice' by Oscar Wilde, 1881

Some days, when the world is grinding me down, and my own body is failing and I feel my mind is surely soon to follow, I need to read some Oscar Wilde poetry. Today was one of those days.

This is a wonderful collection, full of romance, tragedy, beauty, humour and art. It is beautifully read by Sean Barrett. Stick it in your ears; it only lasts an hour, but what an hour...

[Trish · Rating 5 out of 5]

What is there I can say about Oscar Wilde apart from him having been a genius?!
I love his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray but also his poetry of which we have a collection in audio form here.
His poems are masterfully crafted, beautiful, packed with meaning and emotions and the narrator of this little collection, Sean Barrett, did a spectacular job!

This has always been my favourite one (apparently, Paul's too):

Her Voice
The wild bee reels from bough to bough
With his furry coat and his gauzy wing.
Now in a lily-cup, and now
Setting a jacinth bell a-swing,
In his wandering;
Sit closer love: it was here I trow
I made that vow,

Swore that two lives should be like one
As long as the sea-gull loved the sea,
As long as the sunflower sought the sun,--
It shall be, I said, for eternity
'Twixt you and me!
Dear friend, those times are over and done,
Love's web is spun.

Look upward where the poplar trees
Sway and sway in the summer air,
Here in the valley never a breeze
Scatters the thistledown, but there
Great winds blow fair
From the mighty murmuring mystical seas,
And the wave-lashed leas.

Look upward where the white gull screams,
What does it see that we do not see?
Is that a star? or the lamp that gleams
On some outward voyaging argosy,--
Ah! can it be
We have lived our lives in a land of dreams!
How sad it seems.

Sweet, there is nothing left to say
But this, that love is never lost,
Keen winter stabs the breasts of May
Whose crimson roses burst his frost,
Ships tempest-tossed
Will find a harbour in some bay,
And so we may.

And there is nothing left to do
But to kiss once again, and part,
Nay, there is nothing we should rue,
I have my beauty,--you your Art,
Nay, do not start,
One world was not enough for two
Like me and you.

[Patrícia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Poetry is always a mixed bag for me HOWEVER "The Ballad of Reading Gaol" is a 5/5 for sure

[Haley · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Ballad of Reading Gaol - 5/5
Endymon - 3/5
Serenade - 4/5
Helas - 3/5
Requescat - 2/5
Italia - 3/5
Athanasia - 2/5
Chanson - 2/5
To Milton - 3/5
A Vision - 2/5
Sonnet to Liberty - 2/5
Easter Day - 2/5
Vita Nuova - 2/5
Her Voice - 3/5
Impression Du Matin - 2/5
Sonnet on Approaching Italy - 3/5
The Grave of Shelley - 3/5
In the Gold Room - A Harmony - 3/5
Santa Decca - 4/5
Madonna Mia - 3/5
The Garden of Eros - 2/5

[Mike McVey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I struggle with poetry. Most of it read well, just not my cup of tea.