Audiobook · read by volunteers
Ballad of the Harp-Weaver
Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892–1950)
Read by Alan Davis Drake (1945-2010), Caliban, Kristin Hughes (1974-2021), Lee Ann Howlett, Laura Caldwell, Robert Scott, Sara Korsmo · 7 chapters · 32 min
About the book
On a bitter winter night, a mother and her son are left with nothing but a bare house and a cold fire. The Ballad of the Harp-Weaver, by Edna St. Vincent Millay, tells their story in haunting, simple verse that echoes the old ballad tradition and carries a touch of the uncanny. Here you can hear seven different recordings of the poem, each by a different LibriVox volunteer. The words are the same, but every voice finds its own mood: one reader may be hushed and tender, another more dramatic, another steadily narrative. It is a fine way to see how much a performer can add to a poem, and a way to hear a modern classic several times without repetition. The collection lasts about half an hour and is perfect for a quiet moment.
Introduction
Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892-1950) was an American poet who became a celebrated voice of the 1920s. She won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1923, the first woman to be so honoured, with The Ballad of the Harp-Weaver among the works cited, and she was admired for her lyrical skill and for a candid, independent spirit. The title poem was published in 1922 and quickly became one of her best-known works.
It is a narrative poem written in the manner of a traditional ballad, with short, rhymed lines and a simple, storytelling voice. It centres on a poor mother and her child during a harsh winter, and it combines domestic realism with a thread of the supernatural, so that the poem has the feeling of a folk tale as well as of a modern lyric. The imagery of music, weaving and cold has made it a favourite for readers and for recitation.
This item belongs to the LibriVox collection of multi-version poems. In such projects, volunteers each record the same short text, and the results are gathered together under one title. There are seven recordings here, among them readings by Alan Davis Drake, Caliban and Kristin Hughes. Each file is labelled with the reader's initials, and the total running time is about half an hour.
Listening to several readings in succession can be revealing. Choices about pace, pauses and emphasis change the emotional colour of the poem, and the same line can sound hopeful or sorrowful depending on the voice. The collection is also a reminder of how well a ballad suits the spoken word: it was made to be heard, and these volunteers show why.
Public domain
Edna St. Vincent Millay died in 1950: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text