Hearing trained actors read poetry is a great pleasure. Actors approach the poems as scripts, and understand how to deliver the lines so that even if they don't make logical sense, they sound beautiful. Listening to an actor read a beloved poem can be like encountering it for the first time. Hearing an unfamiliar poem read beautifully can make one want to find the poem on the page. For the CD Poetic License, Glen Roven enlisted 100 performers to read 100 poems. You'll find some glorious old chestnuts on the disc, and there are surprises, too. See if you can match the actor with his or her poem:
1. Michael Cerveris 1.
New Yorkers, by Edward Field
2. Kathleen Turner 2.
Love looks not with the eyes by Shakespeare
3. JoBeth Williams 3.
Correspondence, by Ariel Dorfman
4. Christine Baranski 4.
Tommy by Rudyard Kipling
5. Michael York 5.
When I have fears that I may cease to be by Keats
6. Paige Davis 6.
The Cinnamon Peeler by Michael Ondaatje
You can hear the correct pairings and more on Poetic License. Buy it here. Now.
-- sdh
