Here is a selection of recordings by American poets of the 20th century (Walt Whitman being the exception; the collection kicks off with a wax-cylinder recording of Whitman reading in about 1890!) The poems are not arranged by date of composition or recording, but in order of the poet's birth. And it's not supposed to be any all inclusive best of sort of deal, and it doesn't reflect my 'taste'. It's just a few files I lifted.
Walt Whitman (1819 –1892)
America.
William Carlos Williams (1883 –1963)
The Red Wheelbarrow
To Elsie
e.e. cummings (1894 –1962)
Next of Course God America
Anyone Lived in a Pretty How Town
Ogden Nash (1902 –1971)
Portrait of the Artist as a Prematurely Old Man
Langston Hughes (1902 –1967)
The Negro Speaks of Rivers
Theodore Roethke (1908 –1963)
Elegy for Jane
Lawrence Ferlinghetti (b.1919)
See It Was Like This When..
Underwear
Charles Bukowski (1920- 1994)
The Secret of My Endurance
Jack Kerouac (1922-1969)
American Haikus [Excerpt]
Allen Ginsberg (1926 –1997)
America
Anne Sexton (1928-1974)
The Truth the Dead Know
All My Pretty Ones
Maya Angelou (b.1928)
Phenomenal Woman
Gary Snyder (b.1930)
The Song of the Taste
How Poetry Comes to Me
Why I Take Good Care of My Macintosh Computer
There is some controversy as to whether the Whitman recording is indeed the Good Gray Poet. Many people believe it is, and many are sure it is a hoax. There are good reasons supporting both viewpoints.
ReplyDeleteYou can read a thorough analysis of the history of this controversy at my blog:
redhermwheelbarrow.blogspot.com
Look for the piece called "The Voice of the Poet."