The Poet's Own Voice
SEEM to remember reading somewhere that an old cylindrical record. was once rediscovered, of Tennyson reading his own poetry. But when the anxious investigators put it on the machine, all that emerged was a muffled and melodious booming, Tennyson was unfortunate in being a little too soon: for the recent activity of the British Council in sponsoring recordings, and the enterprise of the Library of Congress, make it likely that. major poets will, from now on, be accurately and permanently recorded. The possible effect of this on the "speakability" of verse is incalculable. Now, poets are not always good readers: some (like Dylan Thomas) are, some are not. But as T. S. Eliot points out in the note to his recording of the Quartets, although the poet’s reading may be neither effective nor even final, it at least helps us to know how the poem sounded to him. The BBC recording of Ash Wednesday (heard again from 1YC) is just as good a demonstration of this as the wellknown Quartets. Regarded simply as reading, it may be inferior to that of Robert Speaight (the ideal interpreter of Eliot); but as a kind of spoken docu-
ment, it is invaluable. a
M.K.
J.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19530724.2.22.2
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 29, Issue 732, 24 July 1953, Page 10
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206The Poet's Own Voice New Zealand Listener, Volume 29, Issue 732, 24 July 1953, Page 10
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Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
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