Should poets perform their own work?

*rushes in* Any jaffa cakes left? I've lived all over the country and have a lovely accent made up of northern, southern and Oirish overtones. Am I allowed to read aloud, or should I just pass my work onto one of my posh Cambridge friends to read?

I remember watching a video of CAD reading her poem about stealing a snowman and she completely wrecked it for me. Everyone in my English class agreed that she was crap at reading her own work. I think that if anyone's going to read their work, the poet often does it best, but if they can't do it well then they shouldn't at all. Poetry can be wonderful heard aloud, although I find it harder to understand without being able to see it and re-read it myself, but if it's read badly or blandly then I think it makes it rubbish. Miaow.

<> Take it youre not a northerner then?

blimy! here we go. *wonders if e-griff knows how many northern accents there are here?* *nips home for biscuits* *gets back to thread. finds comfy position* jaffa cake anyone?

*stalks in, rolls sleeves up*

I'm a northerner, but my accents musical, not whiney and droney. Do I come in for scorn?

OK, here I am! ready to respond! First - to the casters of stones:----I grew up in Liverpool, and have a nasal, northern accent, but modified by many yrs doon south. Also half Welsh! So there! You should first appreciate that I meant 'whiney, droney and northern' as three independent adjectives (ie, being 'northern' doesn't mean you are whiney or droney -OK? Let's ditch that little rabble-rouser) But, I have detected a style, a 'mode of presentation'adopted by certain 'poets' which is flat, expressionless (CAD, Roger McG) . that is what I guess i meant. It is a fashion. I don't like it. What I like about Zephania is he bounces in, full of expression - he lives it. So do others. Dylan T was flat, stilted - of course Richard B did it better! i guess there is no rule, each is individual. Just imagine! CAD by Martin Jarvis! Would it fly? You can be a great poet, but a bad deliverer of poems. Did shakespear perform? do playwrights perform? Some speech defects are fine, others get in the way - not the poet's fault and no shame, I agree. And I always think that poetry is far better heard than read, even in a flat, whiney, northern (3 adjectives, Ok) accent!

*gets Deckchair and Flask of tea out*

I might some poetry and perform it, just to stir things up.

wanna dunk one of my jaffa's Liana?

Glad E-Griff admits superiority of Welsh poetic voice (in both cases fuelled by booze) I'm Welsh and live oop north, so I guess I win both ways *quietly smug*

I might write some as well

Speech defects and lisps and accents for that matter, pretty much beyond someone's control. Rather that than received pronounciation.

As to whether poets should perform their own work, well, that'd be up to them, and the audience to judge. Exactly as e-griff has.

can't wait 'till Auntie Jackie sees this thread.

*dashes in to grab spare deckchair ... hands out spam sarnies ...* pass us some tea liana duck ... and i think i WILL have a jaffa ...

her you are fish ... it's a brand new packet ... nice and fresh. liana will be back with her flask when aol lets her in again

*opens jaffas* cheers storms ... hey its ages since we had one of these deckchair jaffa jobs innit? ... have you got your sleeping bag???

posh stuck up.. prim and proper accents.. do we need them?? oh hasn't he got a marvelous voice.. he must have studied at her majesties elocution school. Now that's how poetry should be read.. oh hawhawhaw {what's all this hype} Man the author knows how to say his/her words, much better than anyone else who reads them. For starters they know the right moments to pause. The right way to pronounce the things they wrote.. the tone of voice it's meant to be spoken in. Whether it's an angry piece, a mellow piece, a pepped up piece.. whatever kinda piece. Cause they're the one's who wrote it.. I mean often when I write, I speak as I'am writing. So that's how I intend my work to go across sometimes.. not all the time.. I don't speak as I write all the time.. sometimes i write in silence. Alright not everyone's got the confidence to read in public. So their voice isn't particularly strong. I certainly haven't got the confidence to do it.. I couldn't do it. So some authors because they're nervous might not come across very well. So I can understand someone else reading another author's work out at times. I doubt I'll ever have the guts to read my stuff out in public. Just aint got the bottle. That's why I write, I find writing easier to do than talking out loud to an audience.. my audience is the silent reader.. I don't see them, and that's what I like about it. No eyes are watching me intently.. I'am alone and able to focus my thoughts. It's an intimate moment between me and the reader.. not an auditorium filled with people. What's all this hype about reading stuff out anyway? Poems and stories are written down, and meant to be read in quiet. Not spoken. Often some pieces of writing cannot be spoken, they are meant to be read and read only. Though having said that.. sometimes they are effectrive when read out.. like speeches for instance.. and in the old days, by camp fires.. people orally told tales.. and yeah sometimes I like to read out loud, passages from books to friends. But still books are mainly read in silence. I dunno.. I jus resent this pedantic attitude towards accents. can anyone tell me what the correct way to speak is? Jus cause someone can't speak all posh - don't make them a bad public speaker. If anything it makes the reading more real.. cause it's a real voice. Not a fake learnt one. ~FS.2002~ ()-:

Am Back. I was just thinking... as a poet from *oop north* who regularly performs my own poems....... do I whine and drone? Fish? Storms?

yep it's a four season job so I can stay all night. hmm might send out for some quattro staggianni later if anyone's interested?

*waves a "Yayyy You Go Funky!!!" banner from the sidelines* *hotches deckchair* *pours tea for everyone*

*pretends not to hear Liana's question* what? oh, tea please ... two thick sugars me duck.

no sugar for me ta chuck ... *waves little flag with Fun Ky written on it* i've brought me knittin ...

Poetry IS better heard than read! (Definitely, because that's the only way I can absorb it.) I have the urge to just live a year in England only so I can figure out what you guys are talking about. Northern accent - Did members of the Beatles have a Northern accent? (If they did, then I think I might know what you're talking about.) Are jaffa cakes kind of like cup cakes?

mark made some good points, I thought. keep me place. gotta take eldest out. *bloody taxi, mutter mutter, taken for granted, mutter*

*puts knitting bag on stormy's deckchair* *thinks* mark DID make some good points too ...

I read the question and immediately thought a)who else is going to read the poet's work out? and b)it's a damn sight worse form for a poet to stand up and read someone else's work out. A broader question I suppose is do you actually get anything more from a poem by performing it than by the reader reading it for themself? Not qualified to answer that one - for me, the very thought of audio-books makes me feel sick and pale. I don't want someone's voice trampling on my thoughts, and I read far, far faster than people can talk, so I'd get bored.

Being an American who is blissfully and completely ignorant of all these regional rivalries and class-my-ass-system distinctions without a difference, I would say that the author should certianly read his/her own stuff and to hell with what anyone thinks. Could a professional actor do a better job of it? Maybe, maybe not. Even if a professional actor could do a better job, I would like to hear the author's version. It might be "worse," but I'd like to hear it anyway. For whatever its worth, and probably not much as I am an ignorant American, but I've heard Liana read and she sounded just fine. So does fish. So does Eddie. Actually, everyone I've heard read so far sounded just fine. I guess some of them have "northern" accents, but I'll be damned if I know what that means. They all sounded fine to me. I have lots of tapes and CDs of Bukowski reading his own work. He did not have a professional-sounding actor's voice by any stretch of the imagination. Yet I can't imagine anyone else reading his work with so much effect. Now, in the case of prose...it might well be better to get a professional actor to read lengthy pieces...even whole books...but poetry strikes me as a very personal matter...a conversation...I do not hire stand-ins to conduct conversations for me....well...not often anyway.

*offers andrew a jaffa* i had a poem read on Poetry Please once ... i forgot to listen to it myself (it was Eating Orange for any of you with a good memory) ... but several people complained that it was done in a plummy BeeeBeeeCeeee voice and they would rather have heard it read by me .... i'd rather have read it myself too ... *sips tea and thinks about knitting new hat for funky*

Hmmmm....posted while that while Andrew was posting his....I like audio books up to a point....but only certain kinds....Stephen King's novels usually come across well when read aloud....it's something for the background while I tidy up the apartment or windex the windows....but I would not want to make a steady diet of audio books...poetry reading though is great....

Come on Grief, you wind up the accent-sensitive section of the site then skulk out of sight. You ain't doin' the rest of us 'south of Watford' lot any favours with ya prejudices. (Think I'm gonna nominate Grief fer the tactless oscar.)

Sure, poets should read their own stuff -- but why did Garnet (?) have to sing his own tunes? (The brilliant, but vomit-inflicting songs of the Midnight Oil)

Hey you guys!...don't hog all the jaffas.... *sits on floor (knowing own place) * *whispers* how we doin then?

Jaffa cakes are the new educational tool for understanding phases of the moon. Well, according to their advert they are. "full moon. half moon. total eclipse." Of course, the actress in the advert sounds to me like she has a Polish accent, but there you have it.

She also seems to say "total clipse. "

*packs up deckchair, tucks empty jaffa wrapper into pocket, thanks Liana for the tea, hands Fish her knitting back - having dropped a few pearls first, goes off to check squibs for dampness*

If I had my mouth full of jaffa cake, I'd say 'clipse too, just before choking. :))