This is indeed an old bardic chanting tradition. Uncommon among modern and contemporary American poets, many of whom have striven for a conversational nonchalance, and so it may seem excessively mannered to a modern or contemporary American ear. Wyndham Lewis though Pound's poetry to be somewhat histrionic. Joseph Brodsky chanted his poems. Two very different poetic traditions: one tending towards the rhythms and tonalities of everyday speech, the other hierophantic. 
Tim Romano