The Great Poets: Rudyard Kipling

As poetry often is read aloud in schools and at poetry slams, many listeners may have high standards for spoken verse. Happily, this fine production meets those expectations and reminds us that poetry is meant to be read aloud. Three very different but excellent readers present all of Kipling's standards in this beautifully packaged presentation, including "If," "Danny Deever," "Gunga Din," "Mandalay," and "Boots." Even some lesser-known works, such as "Gods of the Copy Book," appear. Each of the able narrators manages to sound different from poem to poem, matching the pacing and the tone of the contemplative pieces, as well as the rousers. This is a reminder of why many of Kipling's lines have become part of our lexicon.

This anthology of Kipling's most famous poems - "If", "Mandalay", "Gunga Din" - is taken from the Naxos AudioBooks "Great Poets" series. Though sometimes still regarded as a product of the colonial era, Kipling touches a very popular nerve in Britain's literary tradition, and is regarded more generously now as a master of popular verse. It is often forgotten that he won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1907.