Customer Reviews

The Ode Less Travelled CD

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I'm a big fan of Stephen Fry.
Try as I might though, I can't say why.
One reason I suppose is that his Delight's are so short,
Two CD's are the limit of my train of thought!

When I bought this, I was put off at first;
7 CDs!!! It made my brain hurt!
I cautiously tried one and found it complex;
A reading of a long and difficult text.

I left it six months and tried it again.
This time I got it - right there and then!
Though I was too lazy to do the 18 exercises,
the teaching of poetry covered all shapes and sizes.

Filled with words like 'enjambment', 'caesura' and 'metre',
it felt like a subject worthy of its teacher.
Only Mr Fry could convey so well,
the art of poetry, which many find Hell.

***

Well - that's my attempt at a poetic review! It would probably sound better if I'd done the exercises, but I felt it would be an insult to not use what I learned in the review.

Though I tried, I've omitted various details about the audio book that I thought I should fill in. First thing to say is that Fry introduces the CD's with three rules you must read before starting the book (as he says: it's rather like an iTunes agreement - tick 'I agree' before proceeding).
At the end he also includes suggestions for being a better poet, including an Oscar Wilde insight that "Bad poetry comes from genuine feelings" and Fry's own opinion that "Bad poetry stems from laziness".

Next thing to say is that these CD's are very technical & go into great detail about 'Hemisticks', 'Metre' & 'Iambic pentameter's (among other poetic terms)). These concepts are a little difficult to grasp (especially if you're just listening to this during a commute to work) but they do sink in.

Third thing to mention is that Fry goes into a great QI-style detail on the types of poem. Amongst others, I managed to note down some of the following curiousities:
Villanelle's (the reason for Fry writing this book)
Sistina's (a type of poem whose rhyming structure is precisely dictated by mathematics)
Clerihue's (Comic descriptions of people in verse)
Rhopalic's (each new line has one more syllable than the preceeding line)
& Concrete Poetry (Poems that don't use words, but sounds to convey its meaning).

Where possible, Fry reads out a famous example, which adds to the richness of the CD. Some of the classics I noted were 'Charge of the Light Brigade' and Sonnet 18 ("Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?") but there are also a great deal of curiosities by more obscure poets - such as Gerard Hopkins - which are a treat to listen to.

Last thing to mention is that each section has exercises after it &, although I did not do them myself, they seem to gradually build in complexity & don't shy away from making you do difficult poems to stretch your abilities (e.g. the aforementioned 'Sistina's).

So, if you're looking for an interesting, if slightly challenging, audio book then this comes highly recommended as a thorough and well-written work which has enough breadth of material to retain interest.
One caveat I would add is that, if you are genuinely seeking to become a poet, then this is not the best format, and the more popular book format (The Ode Less Travelled) is more suitable.
That being said, a surprising amount of this book sinks in with this format and, as Stephen himself says towards the end of the CD's, it comes from the poetic side of him that the public doesn't see that would have preferred to have become a teacher.
Sadly this means that he is unlikely to release his own poems and this fine work is all we have.
Still, at least we have his novels...