On Wed, 24 Nov 1999, Richard Caddel wrote:
 
> On Wed, 24 Nov 1999 02:40:11 -0500, Christopher Booth wrote:
>
> I think it should be possible to trace (tentatively) a provisional
> descent of poetry reading style running roughly Yeats > Pound >
> Bunting, and on to some of the younger UK poets. Gathering the
> evidence is not as simple as one might think
 
The Pound/Yeats connection in reading styles is real, though not wholly
one of imitation.  Before EP met Yeats, he was already speaking about the
proper way to recite poetry, in an elocutionary way, with full round
vowels etc.  When he did meet Yeats, Yeats was impressed that EP had
devised a better way for reciting poetry than Mrs. Emery's.  Mrs. Emery,
of course, was Florence Farr, who had been appearing in flowing classical
costume reciting/chanting/singing poetry to the accompaniment of a
"psaltery" (specially constructed by Arnold Dolmetsch), always including
bits of Homer (in Morris's translation) as part of the program.  This
experience certainly affected Yeats's bardic delivery, and doubtless had
its effect on EP as well.
 
Later, in the 1930s, EP had an opportunity to hear his own recorded voice
for the first time, and expressed surprise at his "Irish brogue."
 
Sorry, I'm writing from memory, and I don't have citations at hand for all
this, which I discussed in my now ancient PhD diss;  but parts of it
(including an account of Florence Farr) are in my article on EP's operas
in _Literary Modernism and the Occult Tradition_ (ed Surette &
Tryphonopoulos).
                                Stephen Adams
                                Department of English
                                University of Western Ontario
                                London, Canada  N6A-3K7
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