University of Pennsylvania archive offers free poetry downloads

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This article was published 09/05/2007 (6738 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) – It’s like an iTunes for poetry – and it’s free!

Professors at the University of Pennsylvania are offering recordings of contemporary poets’ work to the public through an online audio archive of digital downloads, without charges or fees.

“It’s unprecedented within poetry,” Charles Bernstein, an English professor and the site’s co-director said, calling it the “first and the biggest site of its kind.”

Started more than two years ago, PennSound features about 200 writers and more than 10,000 digital recordings contributed by poets, fans and scholars worldwide. Some, such as Gertrude Stein recordings from’34, date back decades.

The site mainly focuses on historical avant-garde and innovative contemporary poetry, such as works by Allen Ginsberg or current U.S. poet laureate Donald Hall.

Last month, PennSound announced the acquisition of rare readings by Ezra Pound, including previous unknown recordings made between’62 and’72. They include several cantos, excerpts from Pound’s unfinished epic poem.

“These are really hard recordings to find,” said Kenneth Goldsmith, a PennSound senior editor and creative writing professor. “For lovers of poetry, this is an amazing thing.”

Hearing any poet can make for a different experience than reading that person’s work, said Tree Swenson, director of the Academy of American Poets in New York. Pound in particular, she said, “is a perfect example of a poet whose tone and phrasing is so distinctive.”

Many websites, including that of the Academy of American Poets, stream poetry readings but PennSound offers MP3 files that can be loaded onto digital audio players like iPods, said Bernstein.

PennSound says it has permission from the poets, or their estates, to offer the recordings. There is such a small market for poetry readings that royalties are not as big a concern as they are in the music business, Bernstein said.

“There’s very little commercial value in poetry recordings,” he said. “What there is, is exchange value.”

Gregory Djanikian, who has five collections of published poetry, said that posting his readings on PennSound allows people to “put the voice to the poem.” It also allows him to reach a global audience far beyond those he is reading to, he said.

Emily Warn, editor of Chicago-based poetryfoundation.org, called PennSound a “fabulous resource” that can help expand the audience for poetry.

“People are afraid of poetry. They don’t know where to begin,” Warn said. “They value it in general, they think it sharpens the intellect … but they know very little about it.”

In the past year, the site has had eight million downloads, PennSound co-director Al Filreis notes.

“To have a poetry archive in the United States in the 21st century and have eight million (downloads) in a year … that says something good,” Filreis said.