Last Poems


Read by Foon

(4.2 stars; 2 reviews)

"I publish these poems, few though they are, because it is not likely that I shall ever be impelled to write much more. I can no longer expect to be revisited by the continuous excitement under which in the early months of 1895 I wrote the greater part of my first book, nor indeed could I well sustain it if it came; and it is best that what I have written should be printed while I am here to see it through the press and control its spelling and punctuation. About a quarter of this matter belongs to the April of the present year, but most of it to dates between 1895 and 1910.

September 1922" - Summary by Preface (0 hr 49 min)

Chapters

Foreword 1:47 Read by Foon
Poems I-VI 7:27 Read by Foon
Poems VII-XII 6:19 Read by Foon
Poems XIII-XVIII 7:01 Read by Foon
Poems XIX-XXIV 5:29 Read by Foon
Poems XXV-XXX 5:30 Read by Foon
Poems XXXI-XXXVI 9:35 Read by Foon
Poems XXXVII-XLI 6:31 Read by Foon

Reviews


(3.5 stars)

"Last Poems" is simply not as good as "A Shropshire Lad," but I think that has long stood to reason for most as being an uncontroversial opinion. The reader's voice on this final volume of Housman's poetry is calm, well-paced, slightly muted in tone -- which seems functional for some of these poems, but not for others -- and non-abrasively recorded. It's a better-than-average reading for sure.