Tuesday, May 09, 2006

Archived Poetry

Actors may read poems with greater power but poets bring a special resonance since only they know the experiences and the sufferings behind the words ...
Busy this morning, so let me send you off for a poetic romp around a wonderful website which was launched by the British Poet Laureate, Andrew Motion, at the end of last year.

Ever wondered how famous poets would read their own work? In the Poetry Archive you can hear Tennyson, Browning, Yeats and many others ... as well as a host of contemporary poets such as Margaret Atwood and Seamus Heaney.

You can browse poems by poet, theme or form, or begin your journey through the archives with a guided tour. If you're new to poetry and don't know where to begin, there are hints and tips for less confident listeners. And if you haven't much time, or just need a quick fix, try the Lucky Dip feature which picks you a poem at random.

It's a terrific resource for students and teachers, of course, and there's even a special section for children.

I'd now better stop playing with it and go get some work done!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wonderful isn't it? Stumbled across it a short while ago. Have you discovered the BBC's Poetry Out Loud as well? The video sites (video.google.com, youtube.com, etc.) are pretty good for those wanting to *hear* poetry too. Plenty of performance poetry and poetry slams to choose from the last time I looked anyway.

dreameridiot said...

This is an absolute gem of a site! Thanks Sharon, as always.

lainieyeoh said...

oh! OH MY! this is wonderful!

Anonymous said...

It makes me wonder about synchronicity... I found the site only last weekend while looking up Andrew Motion's poetry, and here it is on Bibliobibuli!