Audiobook · read by volunteers
I Do Not Love Thee
Caroline Elizabeth Sarah Norton (1808–1877)
Read by AliceG, Annie Coleman Rothenberg, Betsie Bush, Chris Goringe, Frank, Jen Ford, Joy Chan, Jean Crevier, John Tanner, Kayvan Sylvan · 20 chapters · 36 min
About the book
I do not love thee, the poem begins, and from that first line the speaker seems to be ending something. But Caroline Norton’s poem is full of unsettled feeling. The refusal, the memory and the lingering pain all run through a few simple, haunting stanzas, so the more it protests, the more it seems to confess. Here are twenty different readings of that single poem, from volunteers who each take it in their own direction. Together they show how much room one short text can leave for a voice. Each version is quick, so the whole set lasts around thirty-five minutes, and you can dip in at any point or listen straight through. It is a gentle introduction to a nineteenth-century poet whose work deserves to be better known, and a satisfying exercise in listening closely.
Introduction
Caroline Elizabeth Sarah Norton (1808–1877) was an English writer and social reformer, a granddaughter of the dramatist Richard Brinsley Sheridan who moved in the literary and political society of her day. She published poetry and novels, and she became well known in her time, partly because of a very public and painful marriage dispute. Her experience led her to campaign for reforms in the legal position of married women in England, a cause for which she is remembered alongside her literary work. The poem was widely known in its day and was set to music, and its steady rhythm makes it particularly suitable for the repeated readings gathered here.
I Do Not Love Thee is a love lyric of a particular kind: it is a poem of denial that gradually reveals the emotion it tries to conceal. The language is simple, the rhythm steady and the feeling intense. It was set to music and was widely known in the nineteenth century, and its opening line remains memorable. This recording is a multi-version collection. LibriVox volunteers prepared twenty separate readings as part of a weekly poetry project, so there are 20 short chapters, each one a complete reading, with a total of around 35 minutes.
Listening to twenty performances of the same lines is a curious experience. The words never change, but the meaning shifts according to tone, pace and emphasis, and you begin to notice the poem’s structure in a way that a single reading rarely allows.
It is a short, intimate and often moving listen. The steady rhythm of the lines makes it easy to follow from one reading to the next.
Public domain
Caroline Elizabeth Sarah Norton died in 1877: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text