Eighteenth-Century Audio

Read by Hugh McGuire. Source: Librivox. Download Title

Read by Brad Bush. Source: Librivox. Download Title

Read by Jean O’Sullivan. Source: Librivox. Download Title

Read by Kara Shallenberg. Source: Librivox. Download Title

Read by Squiddhartha (Mark Bradford). Source: Librivox. Download Title

Read by Michael Lanser. Source: Librivox. Download Title

Read by Sean McKinley. Source: Librivox. Download Title

The Voice of the Ancient Bard

Youth of delight! come hither
And see the opening morn,
Image of Truth new-born.
Doubt is fled, and clouds of reason,
Dark disputes and artful teazing.
Folly is an endless maze;
Tangled roots perplex her ways;
How many have fallen there!
They stumble all night over bones of the dead;
And feel — they know not what but care;
And wish to lead others, when they should be led.

Read by David Barnes. Source: LibriVox. Download

Read by Ira Sadoff. Source: Romantic Circles. Download

Read by Ken Edwards. Source: Romantic Circles. Download

London

I wander thro’ each charter’d street,
Near where the charter’d Thames does flow,
And mark in every face I meet
Marks of weakness, marks of woe.

In every cry of every Man,
In every Infant’s cry of fear,
In every voice, in every ban,
The mind-forg’d manacles I hear.

How the Chimney-sweeper’s cry
Every black’ning Church appalls;
And the hapless Soldier’s sigh
Runs in blood down Palace walls.

But most thro’ midnight streets I hear
How the youthful Harlot’s curse
Blasts the new born Infant’s tear,
And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse.

Read by Cleopatra Mathis. Source: Romantic Circles. Download

Read by Ilya Kaminsky. Source: Romantic Circles. Download

Read by Jim Caldwell. Source: LibriVox. Download

Read by Aldon Hynes. Source: LibriVox. Download

Read by Sean McKinley. Source: LibriVox. Download

Read by Julia K. Walton. Source: LibriVox. Download

Read by Hit Picker (David Butler). Source: LibriVox. Download

The Tyger

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night.
What Immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand, dare sieze the fire?

And what shoulder, and what art,
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? and what dread feet?

What the hammer? What the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears,
And water’d heaven with their tears,
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the lamb make thee?

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright,
In the forests of the night.
What Immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?