Hear the Poetry

Imagine hearing Tennyson (1809-1892) read "The Charge of the Light Brigade." Wonder no longer! You can hear it at The Poetry Archive.

The Poetry Archive is a United Kingdom site which preserves the oral tradition of poetry by offering free online access to poetry--read by the poets who wrote it. The project is the joint brainchild of Andrew Motion, U.K. Poet Laureate, and Richard Carrington, a recording producer. Some of the recordings are historic, while others have been recorded for the Archive.

And while we're on the subject of anti-war poems (Tennyson wrote "The Charge of the Light Brigade" to commemorate a disastrous charge in the Crimean War), Andrew Motion caused a flutter with his 2003 publication in The Guardian of an anti-war poem:

CAUSA BELLI by Andrew Motion
They read good books, and quote, but never learn
a language other than the scream of rocket-burn.
Our straighter talk is drowned but ironclad:
elections, money, empire, oil and Dad.