From Library Journal
No matter how inspired an actor's reading of poetry might be, there's simply no substitute for hearing a poet read his or her own work. Even if the rendition itself is far from optimal, we hear the cadences, the emotion, and the line breaks exactly as the poem was intended. Since the early 1950s, Caedmon has been the unrivaled leader in spoken-word records and tapes. Though many of these performances are unfortunately out of print now, these three CDs give a taste of things past and, hopefully, to come. And with all but six of these 35 poets now dead, this is one of the few places we can hear the voices of William Butler Yeats, Gertrude Stein, Carl Sandburg, W.H. Auden, Conrad Aiken, Marianne Moore, Stephen Spender, Robert Graves, Edith Sitwell, Wallace Stevens, and the like. T.S. Eliot reads "The Wasteland" in its entirety to end the third CD on a high note. Today's listeners might hope for a more racially diverse collection (Derek Walcott is the only nonwhite American poet included), but this anthology remains a reflective document from the 1950s and early 1960s. Recommended for all public libraries. Rochelle Ratner, formerly with "Soho Weekly News," New York Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From AudioFile
No library or teacher or lover of poetry should be without this fine compilation of Caedmon's extensive backlist of twentieth-century poets reading their work. Many are familiar selections; all are significant recordings--Eliot reading THE WASTELAND, Thomas reading FERN HILL and DO NOT GO GENTLE INTO THAT GOOD NIGHT rare recordings by Yeats, Pound, Plath, Neruda. The sequence is neither chronological nor national, but seems ordered by a fine ear for accents, moods, and peculiarities of voice. For example, Williams, Cummings, Brodsky, Frost, Walcott, Moore, and Spender follow one another, a beguiling and playful sequence of accents and styles that minimizes historical differences and heightens the uniqueness of each poet. Poets rarely make the best readers of their own poetry, and often are not even the best interpreters of it; but always the voice of the poet adds something to our understanding of a poem. These 44 poems are, if not all the best of the last century, easily as great as or greater than any 44 others anyone could assemble. Together they comprise a treasure, a constant surprise and revelation, and an unparalleled listening experience. D.A.W. © AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Book Description
A rare and thrilling listening experience. A choice gathering of some of the twentieth century's greatest poetry... read by the century's greatest poets - here available on CDA reawakened love for the sound of poetry has made modern poems subtly different from the poems of the eighteenth and nineteenth centures. We have only to listen to these poets reading their own works to know how important their interpretations are to a full comprehension of their poems. The ministerial intonations of Eliot, the passionate orchestrations of Thomas, the very very precise formulations of Cummings, the easy conversational inflection of Frost are integral, lending subtle clarifications which go beyond the printed page.The fact that this recording includes the voice of Yeats is something of a miracle. In the early 1930's, when the thought of recording poets occurred to few, Yeats himself made several recordings for radio broadcast. By sheer luck, an unmutilated copy was preserved; and now the rich and melodious voice can be heard by a new generation.The Caedmon Poetry Collection eliminates the struggle for perfect communication between author and reader. Just listen and you'll understand... Contents:CD 1: William Butler Yeats The Song of the Old Mother The Lake Isle of Innisfree W.H. Auden In Memory of W.B. YeatsDylan Thomas A Refusal to Mourn the Death, by Fire, of a Child In LondonFern HillDo Not Go Gentle into That Good NightGalway Kinnell The Dead Shall Be Raised IncorruptibleEdith Sitwell Still Falls the RainMurial Rukeyser The Speed of DarknessMay Swenson The DNA MoleculeRobert Graves Poem to My SonRandall Jarrell Eighth Air ForcePhilip Levine To My God in His SicknessArchibald MacLeish Epistle to Be Left in the EarthW.S. Merwin The Last OneAnne Sexton Divorce, Thy Name is WomanLittle Girl, My String Bean, My Lovely WomanCarl Sandburg The Windy CityFog CD 2:William Carlos Williams The SeafarerE.E. Cummings darling! because my blood can singif everything that happens can't be doneJoseph Brodsky Nature MorteRobert Frost The Road Not TakenAfter Apple PickingDerek Walcott Omeros, Book 1, Chapter1Marianne Moore What Are YearsStephen Spendor SeascapeRobert Lowell Skunk HourConrad Aiken TetelestaiGertrude Stein If I Told Him: A Completed Portrait of PicassoRichard Wilbur Love Calls Us to the Things of This World Sylvia Plath The Thin PeopleRobert Penn Warren Sirocco American Portrait: Old StyleCD 3:Pablo NerudaArte Poetica May Sarton Old Lovers at the BalletRichard Eberhart The GroundhogStephen Vincent Benet Litany for DictatorshipsJames Agee White ManeEzra Pound Moeurs Contemporaines Wallce Stevens The Idea Of Order At Key WestMargarett Atwood The Animals in That CountryT.S. Eliot The Wasteland

About the Author
Valerie and Walter have been in the children's book industry for a combined thirty-five years and have worked with publishers, schools, libraries, medical professionals, corporations, parents, and children. they are lively, knowledgeable, motivational, and entertaining spokespersons for the joy of reading.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

A rare and thrilling listening experience. A choice gathering of some of the twentieth century's greatest poetry... read by the century's greatest poets - here available on CD

A reawakened love for the sound of poetry has made modern poems subtly different from the poems of the eighteenth and nineteenth centures. We have only to listen to these poets reading their own works to know how important their interpretations are to a full comprehension of their poems. The ministerial intonations of Eliot, the passionate orchestrations of Thomas, the very very precise formulations of Cummings, the easy conversational inflection of Frost are integral, lending subtle clarifications which go beyond the printed page.

The fact that this recording includes the voice of Yeats is something of a miracle. In the early 1930's, when the thought of recording poets occurred to few, Yeats himself made several recordings for radio broadcast. By sheer luck, an unmutilated copy was preserved; and now the rich and melodious voice can be heard by a new generation.

The Caedmon Poetry Collection eliminates the struggle for perfect communication between author and reader. Just listen and you'll understand...

Contents:CD 1: William Butler Yeats The Song of the Old Mother The Lake Isle of Innisfree W.H. Auden In Memory of W.B. YeatsDylan Thomas A Refusal to Mourn the Death, by Fire, of a Child In LondonFern HillDo Not Go Gentle into That Good NightGalway Kinnell The Dead Shall Be Raised IncorruptibleEdith Sitwell Still Falls the RainMurial Rukeyser The Speed of DarknessMaySwenson The DNA MoleculeRobert Graves Poem to My SonRandall Jarrell Eighth Air ForcePhilip Levine To My God in His SicknessArchibald MacLeish Epistle to Be Left in the EarthW.S. Merwin The Last OneAnne Sexton Divorce, Thy Name is WomanLittle Girl, My String Bean, My Lovely WomanCarl Sandburg The Windy CityFog CD 2:William Carlos Williams The SeafarerE.E. Cummings darling! because my blood can singif everything that happens can't be doneJoseph Brodsky Nature MorteRobert Frost The Road Not TakenAfter Apple PickingDerek Walcott Omeros, Book 1, Chapter1Marianne Moore What Are YearsStephen Spendor SeascapeRobert Lowell Skunk HourConrad Aiken TetelestaiGertrude Stein If I Told Him: A Completed Portrait of PicassoRichard Wilbur Love Calls Us to the Things of This World Sylvia Plath The Thin PeopleRobert Penn Warren Sirocco American Portrait: Old Style

CD 3:Pablo NerudaArte Poetica May Sarton Old Lovers at the BalletRichard Eberhart The GroundhogStephen Vincent Benet Litany for DictatorshipsJames Agee White ManeEzra Pound Moeurs Contemporaines Wallce Stevens The Idea Of Order At Key WestMargarett Atwood The Animals in That CountryT.S. Eliot The Wasteland

FROM THE CRITICS

AudioFile