Childe Roland and Other Poems
Robert Browning
Read by Alan Mapstone
The title poem was inspired by various images which Browning saw while living in Italy, an old tower in the Carrara Mountains, a painting in Paris and a horse on a tapestry in his home near Florence. These called to his mind the line from Shakespeare's King Lear spoken by Edgar in his feigned madness "Childe Roland to the dark tower came". The poem, full of surreal imagery, evokes the worlds of the 11th century epic poem "The Song of Roland" and of the Arthurian Legends with their notion of the "quest", a journey undertaken by a Knight into unknown hostile territory in search of a mysterious goal. - Summary by Alan Mapstone (0 hr 53 min)
Chapters
| "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came" | 17:17 | Read by Alan Mapstone |
| Porphyria's Lover | 4:07 | Read by Alan Mapstone |
| Incident of the French Camp | 2:42 | Read by Alan Mapstone |
| The Patriot | 2:27 | Read by Alan Mapstone |
| How they brought the good news from Ghent to Aix | 4:15 | Read by Alan Mapstone |
| The Twins | 1:54 | Read by Alan Mapstone |
| Cavalier Tunes | 4:12 | Read by Alan Mapstone |
| My Last Duchess | 4:44 | Read by Alan Mapstone |
| Home Thoughts from Abroad | 1:49 | Read by Alan Mapstone |
| The Heretic's Tragedy | 9:44 | Read by Alan Mapstone |