Fascinating point, Joanna, & I agree. To all points, but I think it's
also to do with differentiating the genres, drama & poetry, so that
holding that book or page while you 'read' a poem signals precisely
that what is happening has to do with poetry not drama. Which is not to
say that there are good & poor readings, & that a good one does involve
learning how to pitch the poem, how to 'embody' it, etc....
Doug
On 10-Dec-05, at 2:46 PM, Joanna Boulter wrote:
> A few times, I've heard memorised poetry performed. I must say, this
> usually makes me somewhat uneasy -- it tends to lead performance
> towards declamation if it's not very carefully handled.
>
> This is not the same, I would stress, as giving a reading and finding
> part way through that you've been doing occasional bits from memory.
>
> Didn't we have a thread somewhat along these lines, some time ago?
> It's still interesting.
>
> joanna
Douglas Barbour
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