Reading Journal Entry: Five American Women (Voice of the Poet)

Voice of the Poet offers recordings of poetry read by the author and accompanies by short biographical notes and the texts of the work. This collects readings from five American women, Gertude Stein, Edna St. Vincent Millay, H. D., Louise Bogan, and Muriel Rukeyser.

Unsurprisingly the audio quality was not very good for Gertrude Stein and Millay. I could hardly understand what Stein was saying sometimes. And I found Stein and Millay both surprisingly powerless as readers; Stein's work is compelling when I read it, but the words dissolved into sing-song repetition when she read then. Both exhibited surprisingly little power.

The best reader was Muriel Rukeyser, who reminded me strongly of Burroughs reading The Naked Lunch.

Disappointing.

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