With Valentine’s Day fast approaching, what better way to get you in the mood than to have some of the world’s great love poems read aloud – for free?
Audible Inc, the world's largest seller of downloadable audiobooks, is offering a 30-minute collection of some of the most cherished love poems narrated by actor Richard Armitage, including Sonnet 116 by William Shakespeare and Andrew Marvell's To His Coy Mistress.
The 15 poems are now available as a free download.
The list also includes She Walks in Beauty by Byron, How Do I Love Thee? by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Maud by Alfred Tennyson, Bright Star by John Keats, Annabel Lee by Edgar Allan Poe, I Carry Your Heart by E E Cummings and Love's Philosophy by Percy Bysshe Shelley.
"These are some of the most beautiful and most romantic verses ever written in the English language," said Armitage, a stage and film actor who played dwarf leader Thorin Oakensheld in The Hobbit trilogy.
“I hope that those who are already admirers of these works enjoy my recitation, and that those discovering them for the first time through this production fall in love with the melodious and heartfelt poetry that makes Valentine’s Day and every day just a little bit more romantic.”
* AP