Customer Reviews

Poetry On Record: 98 Poets Read Their Work (1888-2006)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is an excellent collection, worth having, but primarily for the first two CDs. (I wasn't aware any recording of Walt Whitman existed at all.)

Many of the recordings are surprising for the style of reading. Whitman's is one -- his accent made me gape. Likewise, the style of Yeats or Eliot is a real insight into how poetry was received in a different time.

I give the collection 4 stars instead of 5 for its unevenness. I can think of vastly more interesting people than Rebekah Presson Mosby to compile such a collection. And the selection of contemporary poets is erratic with glaring omissions and curious (even pointless) inclusions. Why three selections of Amiri Baraka (whose work I do like) but only one of Seamus Heaney? Or A.R. Ammons or John Ashberry or Adrienne Rich?

Sadly missing (a partial list and in no particular order): Louise Gluck, Nikki Giovanni, Mark Doty, Thomas Hardy, Marianne Moore, Philip Larkin, W.S. Merwin, Michael Ondaatje. (Of course, I have my own biases.)

And it would have been wonderful to hear some poets back to back on the same work. For example, William Butler Yeats and Galway Kinnell reading "The Lake Isle of Innisfree" (Yeats's work and one of Kinnell's favorites). Admittedly, this might be asking too much.

So, on balance, very worth having for the recordings of the late poets.

This set was nominated for a Grammy and I certainly think it is worthy of winning. Rebekah Presson Mosby has compiled and produced an outstanding collection of some of the most important poets to date. To hear Walt Whitman, Robert Frost, T.S. Eliot and Gertrude Stein in their own voices is truly amazing. It's easy to get lost in the poetry, much nicer than listening to music while driving. I have all of Rebekah Presson Mosby's works and I think this set and Our Souls Have Grown Deep Like The Rivers are my two favorites.

It's awesome hearing the poetry in the voices of the poets, and I understand that these are amazingly rare and old recordings, but maybe it wasn't worth including pieces that just can't be understood? Or relate that fact to the customer so that they understand that the quality is diminished because of the oldness and rarity of the pieces.

A follow up reading by a contemporary poet on those pieces would add value to the set, and allow the customer two views of the written work.

I didn't listen to this myself at all. I bought it for my mother in law who didn't realize at first it was the actual poets reading and LOVED it when she actually listened and realized it was their voices.

To hear a poet read his or her own work is a revelation. Poetry is voice-activated and peculiar to the individual writer. I plan to listen to all four CDs again of _Poetry on Record: 98 Poets Read Their Work 1888-2006_.

For me, there were many surprises and delights: the tenderness of Robert Hayden (I never heard of him `til now--honestly!), the voices of Ezra Pound, Dorothy Parker, Elizabeth Bishop, Dylan Thomas, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Maxine Kumin, Adrienne Rich, Marge Piercy, and Charles Bukowski. I'd never heard of Gloria Vando, Anne Waldman, Vijay Seshadri, Elise Paschen, or Carl Hancock Rux and Pedro Pietri and many others. I enjoyed old favorites: Simon J. Ortiz, Juan Felipe Herrerea, Luis Rodgriquez, Seamus Heaney, and Amiri Baraka. The recordings of Lord Tennyson and Robert Browning were made "on a wax cylinder supplied by Thomas Edison."

Perhaps, Pulitzer Prize winners are over-represented, but the selections are thoroughly enjoyable. Also, nearly everyone is an American poet, but it would take ten CDs or more to cover Europe, so I can understand the production was in the U.S only. (The notes on Simon Ortiz are incorrect; he's from Acoma Pueblo, not Acuna). The four CDs are in lovely autumn colors (russet, dark orange, pale green, and golden yellow; the cover of the box is of autumn oak leaves--such a beautiful production. The listener will become especially aware of the long-term work of Rebekah Presson Mosby in recording many of these poets and producing the _Poetry on Record_ as well writing several essays in the accompanying booklet.

Beautiful packaging. I wish there was a tiny bit of space between poems, but neat product.

I gave this to my Mother for Christmas as she is an avid reader of poetry. She was delighted to be able to hear the voices of some of her favorite poets reading their own works . . . recordings over 100 years old in some cases. She has listened to each of the 4 CDs twice already and her friends can hardly wait for her to share them! I told her to tell them to go to [...] for their own copies!

My sister, a college professor and writer, loved this book. It is beautifully done, from the packaging to the selection of poems.

Exellent for poetry lovers who don't have time to read and can listen while driving.