Good poetry - Read or spoken?

[zooropamanda]

Hey kids,
Today I went to some poetry readings at the NSW Writer's Centre, where I listened to supposedly some great Australian poets. In my opinion one out of the three were good. 2 of them almost bored me and 1 of them didnt get me to feel anything from her poetry. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that she wasn't a good performer and her words seemed to die in her monotone speech.
Do you think poetry is better read or spoken?
The one poet who was a performance poet made her words come alive with the way she read and it was much more interesting.
Do you think poems should be read aloud?
Is it a dying art?
I ask this one because at the same time there was a "Writing for televsion" talk on in the other room which was bursting at the rafters with people, whereas the poetry session had plenty of spare seats.

I wonder why poetry is considered not as important, and overlooked.
Look at your bookstore shelves. Rows and rows of novels and usually about half one shelf devoted to poetry books.

*sigh*

 

[brettig]

i usually prefer to read it rather than listen, but it often depends on the type of poem, or the subject matter...



[This message has been edited by brettig (edited 03-09-2002).]

 

[The Wanderer]

I would say I like reading them better.

Wow, I once heard a tape recording of T.S. Eliot reciting "The Wasteland" and it was the most ridiculous thing ever, he sounded like he was 130 years old and reading in the dark...

Why is poetry overlooked? I don't know, I think a lot of people are ignorant of poetry, I also think it's more difficult to write a great literary novel than a poem or short story, though in many cases I would prefer a collection of brilliant little poems and/or short stories over most of your "classic" novels. Still, maybe the greatest of all poetry is the poetry that comes when the really great authors mix poetry with prose (an art perhaps made most famous by William Shakespeare). But I've been reading thru this collection of "The Best Short Stories of 1999" (yeah, I'm a little behind the times, I know), and it just breaks my heart to be reading along intently and all of the sudden the author sprays you with this amazing passage from out of no where that reads quite like a poem, so subtle, so eloquent, so beautiful, so perfect... ugh, kills me because I will never be any where near that good, it's quite demoralizing to be plainly honest. Oh well, I guess you have to be a popstar in order to move the masses to take notice of poetry... or whatever you want to call it

 

[bullet the blue sky]

You need to read it because that takes more effort. You can switch off if you are listening to it. Unless, of course, it is being presented by a professional actor/actress/speech readery type person.

 

[zooropamanda]

Maybe we could launch a bunch of rockstar poets. We could have a band and dress in leather pants and wear dark glasses and read poetry. Yeah! Revolutionize it!!!
I'm taking this thing on the road.

 

[scatteroflight]

Originally posted by The Wanderer:


Wow, I once heard a tape recording of T.S. Eliot reciting "The Wasteland" and it was the most ridiculous thing ever, he sounded like he was 130 years old and reading in the dark...

T.S. Eliot was a terrible reader! I heard a recording of him reading The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock and it was really bad. Someone in my class started falling asleep!

It really depends on the poetry. Some is better read, some better listened to...if it's read well. Some people are no good at reading their own work. But then, a couple of years ago I heard P.K. Page, one of my favourite poets (and she lives just outside my town) read some of her poems and it was delightful because she was an excellent reader as well as a great poet. Not that I thought listening to her read was TONS better than just reading the poems.



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Your sun so bright it leaves no shadows, only scars
Carved into stone on the face of earth
The moon is up and over One Tree Hill
We see the sun go down in your eyes

 

[Salome]

it depends
sometimes hearing someone reading a poem, the words they choose to highlight and the little pauzes they take can even change your view about a poem
when someone sucks at the performing part I'd rather read it myself

the main advantage of reading poems yourself is - obviously - the freedom to reread (part of) the poem

my real preference, I guess, is listening to music

------------------
Salome
Shake it, shake it, shake it

 

[foray]

Spoken poetry is a dying art, you're right. As for sung poetry...

I think music is the new poetic revolution and vehicle. In this sense, 'heard poetry' is surviving. A song's lyrics have to sound right when rolling off the tongue. So there you go!

foray

 

[Solar Supernova]

I agree with what Foray says, though to make myself clear, if its not sung, then I dont want to hear it. Id much rather read it.

 

[ACROB@T]

almost certaintly read..sometimes I just prefer to not always know what the ideas were behind it, what its trying to convey...maybe its a tad self-absorbed but I prefer making it my own, misinterpret whats written if need be to take in what I can relate to..which is difficult to do when its delivered how intended..sorry for the unusual tangent