Tristram and Iseult and other poems
Matthew Arnold
Read by LibriVox Volunteers
The English poet and cultural critic Matthew Arnold was the son of the headmaster of Rugby School who became a fellow of Oriel College, Oxford. He famously described Oxford as "that sweet city with it's dreaming spires". A deeply committed Christian he was well-versed in Greek and Latin classics and had a fascination with pre-christian myth and legend. His version of the Celtic legend of Tristram and Iseult is dramatised here.
This selection includes some of Arnold's best known poems Dover Beach, Thyrsis and The Scholar-Gypsy as well as early works like The Forsaken Merman and a dramatised reading of The Strayed Reveller. His poetry was strongly influenced by Woodsworth, whose death he memorialised in the final poem.
(Summary by Alan Mapstone)
Cast of Tristam and Iseult
Tristram: Greg Giordano
Iseult of Ireland: Agnes Robert Behr
The Page: Adrian Stephens
Huntsman: Algy Pug
Cast of The Strayed Reveller
The Youth: Inkell
Circe: ShrimpPhish
Ulysses: Alan Mapstone
(2 hr 33 min)
Chapters
| Tristram and Iseult Part 1: Tristram | 24:53 | Read by LibriVox Volunteers |
| Tristram and Iseult Part 2: Iseult of Ireland | 14:11 | Read by LibriVox Volunteers |
| Tristram and Iseult Part 3: Iseult of Brittany | 17:25 | Read by Alan Mapstone |
| Dover Beach | 2:59 | Read by Alan Mapstone |
| Thrysis | 19:33 | Read by Alan Mapstone |
| Saint Brandan | 3:53 | Read by Yaron Bernstein |
| The Neckan | 3:24 | Read by Agnes Robert Behr |
| The Forsaken Merman | 6:15 | Read by Yaron Bernstein |
| Austerity of Poetry | 1:19 | Read by Bruce Kachuk |
| East and West | 1:17 | Read by Bruce Kachuk |
| East London | 1:17 | Read by Bruce Kachuk |
| West London | 1:19 | Read by Agnes Robert Behr |
| The Divinity | 1:09 | Read by Larry Wilson |
| Immortality | 1:08 | Read by Larry Wilson |
| The Good Shepherd with the Kid | 1:08 | Read by Larry Wilson |
| Monica's last Prayer | 1:10 | Read by Larry Wilson |
| Cadmus and Harmonia | 2:13 | Read by Yaron Bernstein |
| Apollo Musagetes | 1:59 | Read by Yaron Bernstein |
| Urania | 1:53 | Read by Agnes Robert Behr |
| Euphrosyne | 1:51 | Read by Adrian Stephens |
| Lines written in Kensington Gardens | 3:01 | Read by Adrian Stephens |
| The Scholar Gypsy | 16:45 | Read by Adrian Stephens |
| Calais Sands | 2:39 | Read by Alan Mapstone |
| Stanzas from Carnac | 3:45 | Read by Alan Mapstone |
| The Strayed Reveller | 11:09 | Read by LibriVox Volunteers |
| Memorial Verses | 5:29 | Read by Alan Mapstone |