"The Song of the Wandering Aengus" by W.B. Yeats (poetry reading)

[SailorAlex3]

I didn't notice any mention of stressing verbs or reading to the end of the sentence, not the end of the line. (This isn't disregarding the advice on stress you gave.) But this is what I've been taught by actors and professional poets, and I've found they improve the sound immensely. What's your take on these rules?

[GAIASDREAMER]

This is beautiful. The painting is beautiful too. Thank you.

[lafillenoir]

I'm bewitched, you read the verse so well. I can't quite place of what actor your voice reminds me of.

[TheApollopotter]

this is the one

[daddio7777777]

Thank you so much for reading this poem with feeling and simplicity.

I have never heard it spoken so well. There is such music in this shimmering verse that it reaches deep inside one's soul. I am not impartial. I hold Yeats to be the greatest poet of the English language. I am not Irish but when the Irish speak English they seem to taste it, i think because English to them is a spoken medium. They also love speaking.

[C6H12B26]

Great ! Judy Collins sung version is beautiful, too. But she changed one word :

" and kiss her lips..." becomes "and see her lips ..." as she is not a man ...

Great thanks !

[menkbabe1]

My good friend and Vicar, Father Jack Schanhaar, did like Auden so much that towards the end of his life, when his mind was fading and he was tiring of life, the single book he kept and read from time to time was a book on Auden's life.

As for me, hearing wandering makes me remember well Father Jack. At least as he was towards the end. I think he would like this Yeats poem, as do I. I am sorry I can't tell him about it.

Peter Menkin

Mill Valley, CA USA

(north of San Francisco)

[solarisqs]

Thanks for the tips on how to read poetry too - I like your points about emphasis.