Poetry is meant to be read aloud.
This is my little poetry corner, containing dead folks’ poetry (for copyright reasons), in English (because it’s my native language), starting with William Shakespeare.
This series began in 2000, when I was experimenting with the then-new technology of online audio, via RealNetworks‘ RealAudio player. For quite a while I read and uploaded one short poem a week, mainly to learn what’s involved in audio blogging. At the beginning of the project I wasn’t too keen on poetry; now I really enjoy it, and some poems now affect me deeply.
I’m not a professional reader, so expect some naïve interpretations – I cringe at some of my early recordings, but I read on.
Unless otherwise noted, all readings are Copyright Bradford Needham. Permission is granted for personal use. For other uses, please contact me. If I have accidentally infringed on your copyright, please let me know and I will be happy to remove the copyrighted work.
Update: I have many more readings to copy from my old Needhamia.com site… please be patient.
June 21, 2000 Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day? by William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
June 14, 2000 Sylvia by Samuel Croxall (1690?-1752)
June 7, 2000 Love in a Life by Robert Browning (1812-1889)
May 31, 2000 Sleep Song by John Fletcher (1579-1625)
May 24, 2000 Moonrise by Gerard M. Hopkins (1844-1889)
May 17, 2000 Sonnet: To Tartar, a Terrier Beauty by Thomas Lovell Beddoes (1803-1849)
May 10, 2000 The Tyger by William Blake (1757-1827)
May 3, 2000 I wandered lonely as a Cloud…by William Wordsworth (1770-1850)
April 26, 2000 Composed Upon Westminster Bridge by William Wordsworth (1770-1850)
April 19, 2000 My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun…. by William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
April 12, 2000 To Daffadils by Robert Herrick (1591-1674)
April 5, 2000 Brother and Sister by Lewis Carroll (1832-1898)
March 29, 2000 Let me not to the marriage of true minds…. by William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
Featured Image: William Shakespeare by Samuel Cousins, 1849. Public domain courtesy of the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art.