Poetry Archive
A poetry archive is being launched on line meaning that the voices of poets reading their own work will be available to everyone.
www.poetryarchive.org

It's been launched by Andrew Motion - there is a historic and a contemporary site - he was talking about it on the radio this morning

The historical archive is acknowledged to be a bit scrappy, as no real effort has been made to compile anything similar before. So if anyone know of or has old records/tapes of poems read by their well-known late authors and not featured in the archive, they'd be interested to have copies etc



Edited 1 times. Last edit at 11/30/05 02:38PM by marian2.

This is Robert Browning's voice? Weird and wonderful site, thanks!

[tinyurl.com]

I have no speakers here
so I will wait til later
but it seems to be very intriguing indeed

Listening to Yeats read his Innisfree one, it is not surprising that maid Maud chose John Macbride over our belovèd William B. Coincidentally, today's Word for the Day is somnific.

[tinyurl.com]

>somnific

Hehe, you mean like those television news shows.



Les

like those people from the planet Cronk....who weaken when exposed to Cronkite?

My first two recommendations from the readings list are:

[www.poetryarchive.org]

Drawing Down the Moon, by Charles Tomlinson

and

In Praise of Vodka, by Ken Smith [www.poetryarchive.org]#


Les



Edited 2 times. Last edit at 12/02/05 07:24PM by lg.

I requested that they try to locate the Walt Whitman

Margaret Atwood sounds like a substitute teacher I once knew. Reminds me also of Julia Child.


Les

I'm afraid of women that are bigger than me

It's always fascinating to hear the voices of the actual poets, especially those from the distant past. How much accents have changed!

That's not too say that a poet is necessarily the best reader of his or her own work.

At poetry readings I have heard some poets read their own work really well, while others, even famous ones, read their own work so badly that it becomes dull and at times almost incomprehensible. Perhaps being the composer can be a handicap. Inside the poet's head the words resonate powerfully and meaningfully, so the poet assumes that he or she only has to say the words for that resonance to be shared by the listeners. Unfortunately it rarely works that way. Writing and elocution are different skills.





Edited 1 times. Last edit at 12/03/05 09:45AM by IanB.