listening downloads

Address to the Haggis
This famous poem by the great Scottish poet Robert Burns is regularly recited during celebrations throughout the world, whenever Haggis makes an appearance on the menu.
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Banyan Tree
This poem is by Nobel Prize for Literature winner Rabindranath Tagore, from India. Tagore once said ‘To study a banyan tree, you not only must know its main stem in its own soil, but also must trace the growth of its greatness in the further soil, for then you can know the true nature of its vitality’.
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Eye Halve a Spelling Chequer
In this amusing poem the correct words have been substituted by homophones (two or more words that are spelt differently, but pronounced the same). It proves that computer spelling checkers are not infallible!
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The Good Old Days
This amusing poem compares the meanings of words and expressions as they are used nowadays when speaking about computers, and in their original contexts.
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An Irish Airman Foresees His Death
According to encyclopedia.com “William Butler Yeats, 1865-1939, Irish poet and playwright ... (was) the greatest lyric poet Ireland has produced and one of the major figures of 20th-century literature”. This poem graphically illustrates how it felt to be an Irishman fighting for the Allies.
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landlocked
This poem by Celia Thaxter, who during her lifetime and briefly thereafter, was one of the better known women poets in America, vividly portrays the feelings of someone who yearns for the sea.
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Let America Be America Again
This poem, whose title was chosen by John Kerry as the slogan for his 2004 US Presidential campaign, was written by Langston Hughes, particularly known for his insightful, colorful portrayals of black life in America from the twenties through the sixties.
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Mountain fable
In this fable by Ralph Waldo Emerson, the American essayist, poet, and leader of the Transcendentalist movement, a squirrel and a mountain have an argument!
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Mulga Bill's Bicycle
This funny ballad by one of Australia’s favourite poets, ‘Banjo’ Paterson (whose most famous work is undoubtedly Waltzing Matilda), is typical of his work in that his love for the bush and its colourful characters are very apparent.
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on chloris being ill
In this poem (written as a song), the great Scottish poet Robert Burns laments the illness of his loved one.
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pronunciation poem
This clever and amusing poem explains why English pronunciation is so very difficult.
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ring out wild bells
One of Tennyson's most famous poems - partly due to its association with New Year's Eve.
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the seven ages of man
The famous lines from Shakespeare's play 'As You Like It'.
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The Sick Child
In this sad little poem by Robert Louis Stevenson, a mother spends the night at her sick child's bedside.
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the tay bridge disaster
The most famous poem from William Topaz McGonagall, who is renowned as one of the worst poets in the English language!
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Travelling post office
This ballad by ‘Banjo’ Paterson shows what an enormous task it was delivering mail in a country as vast as Australia before modern technologies existed.
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The Tyger
This famous poem by William Blake conjures up amazingly vivid images of the mighty tiger.
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Welsh Landscape
This grim poem by R. S. Thomas, the pre-eminent Welsh poet writing in the English language is typical of his work, which is uncompromising: images like slate - hard and sharp; his style spare, unflinching, honest."
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