Audiobook · read by volunteers
Broadway
Sara Teasdale (1884–1933)
Read by Alan Davis Drake (1945-2010), Corun, Caliban, Vonseal, JemmaBlythe, James Gladwin, Katie Gibboney, Kristin Hughes (1974-2021), Lee Ann Howlett, Laura Caldwell · 16 chapters · 17 min
About the book
Broadway is a short poem by Sara Teasdale that captures the glow, noise and restless energy of a great city at night. Here you can hear sixteen different readings of the same poem, each recorded by a separate LibriVox volunteer. The text never changes, yet every performance brings out something new: one reader may be dreamy, another brisk, another quietly wistful. It is a fascinating way to experience how voice, tempo and emphasis can reshape a few lines of verse. The whole collection lasts under twenty minutes, so you can listen to a handful of versions during a coffee break or play them all in a row and decide on your favourite. Originally prepared as a weekly poetry project in September 2007, it remains a charming introduction to Teasdale's lyrical style and to the creativity of ordinary readers.
Introduction
Sara Teasdale (1884-1933) was an American poet from St. Louis, Missouri, who became one of the most popular lyric voices of her time. Her poems are usually short, musical and personal, often concerned with love, solitude and the passing of time. She published several collections during her life, and her work was widely read in the early decades of the twentieth century. This poem, Broadway, appeared in 1915.
Its subject is the great thoroughfare of New York and the dazzling nights that unfold along it. Instead of describing the city in broad terms, the poet catches a mood: the sense of light and movement, and the longing that can lie beneath the glitter of a crowd. Because the poem is brief, it is an ideal candidate for the type of project featured here.
This recording belongs to what LibriVox calls a weekly poetry project. Each week, volunteers are invited to record the same short poem, and all the submissions are gathered under one title. This particular set was assembled for the week of 23 September 2007 and contains sixteen versions, among them readings by Alan Davis Drake, Corun and Caliban. Listening to them one after another is a small lesson in interpretation. The same pause can feel tender in one voice and ironic in another, and a line that sounds light in one reading can seem heavy in the next.
You might treat the collection as a gentle comparison exercise, or simply pick the voice that appeals to you. Either way, it offers a quick and rewarding encounter with Teasdale's clarity and with the creativity of a community that loves reading aloud.
Public domain
Sara Teasdale died in 1933: 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