Eighteenth-Century Audio

Source UMW. Text. Download Title

O King of Terrors, whose unbounded Sway
All that have Life, must certainly Obey;
The King, the Priest, the Prophet, all are Thine,
Nor wou’d ev’n God (in Flesh) thy Stroke decline.
My Name is on thy Roll, and sure I must
Encrease thy gloomy Kingdom in the Dust.
My soul at this no Apprehension feels,
But trembles at thy Swords, thy Racks, thy Wheels;
Thy scorching Fevers, which distract the Sense,
And snatch us raving, unprepar’d from hence;
At thy contagious Darts, that wound the Heads
Of weeping Friends, who wait at dying Beds.
Spare these, and let thy Time be when it will;
My Bus’ness is to Dye, and Thine to Kill.
Gently thy fatal Sceptre on me lay,
And take to thy cold Arms, insensibly, thy Prey.

Source: Classic Poetry Aloud. Text. Download Title

Source: Classic Poetry Aloud. Text. Download Title

Source: Classic Poetry Aloud. (Note: poor sound quality in introductory phrase improves for poem.) Download Title

Can life be a blessing,
Or worth the possessing,
Can life be a blessing if love were away?
Ah no! though our love all night keep us waking,
And though he torment us with cares all the day,
Yet he sweetens, he sweetens our pains in the taking,
There’s an hour at the last, there’s an hour to repay.

In ev’ry possessing,
The ravishing blessing,
In ev’ry possessing the fruit of our pain,
Poor lovers forget long ages of anguish,
Whate’er they have suffer’d and done to obtain;
‘Tis a pleasure, a pleasure to sigh and to languish,
When we hope, when we hope to be happy again.

John Henry Dryden

Source: Classic Poetry Aloud. Download Title

Source: Classic Poetry Aloud. Includes short introduction. Download Title

Source: Classic Poetry Aloud. Includes short introduction. Download Title

Includes “A Rhodomontade on his Cruel Mistress” and “To My More Than Meritorious Wife.”

Source: Classic Poetry Aloud. Includes short introduction. Download Title

Source: Classic Poetry Aloud. Includes introduction.  Download Title

Source: Classic Poetry Aloud. Download Title