Published: March 2005
Two senior members of the English faculty have recently released CDs of spoken verse: John Mahoney’s The Poetry of Faith and Fr. Robert Barth’s Poetry of William Wordsworth. The mostly-classic poems (which range from biblical verses to a work by Paul Mariani, a current member of Boston College faculty) are delivered in classic style, underscoring plain meaning and narrative form.
John Mahoney, the Rattigan Professor of English Emeritus and author or editor of 11 books, reads The Poetry of Faith (2005). Before he retired in 2002, Mahoney taught “Poetry of Religious Experience” and as professor emeritus he teaches “Poets, Poems, and Poetics.” The album includes 37 works from the Old Testament, New Testament, and Koran, and poets from William Blake and Emily Dickinson, to Seamus Heaney.
- Introduction to the CD (:37)
- “Lilies of the Field,” Luke 12:22–31 (1:59)
- “To My Dear and Loving Husband,” Anne Bradstreet (1612–1672) (1:23)
- “Death Be Not Proud,” John Donne (1572–1631) (1:03)
- “Love III,” George Herbert (1593–1633) (1:01)
- “To Autumn,” John Keats (1795–1821) (2:17)
- “Making Capital,” Paul Mariani (1940–) (2:43)
Professor J. Robert Barth, SJ, the James P. McIntyre Chair in the English department and author of seven books, reads 14 works for Poetry of William Wordsworth (2004), his fourth poetry recording.
- “We Are Seven” (4:29)
- “The Solitary Reaper” (2:14)
- “Elegiac Stanzas, Suggested by a Picture of Peele Castle, in a Storm, Painted by Sir George Beaumont” (5:55)
- “Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood” (12:58)
Many of the recordings include short introductions to the poems.
