Audiobook · read by volunteers
In a Garden
Amy Lowell (1874–1925)
Read by Alan Davis Drake (1945-2010), Clarica, Darren Greer, Glamour Diva, Hans Dekker, JemmaBlythe, James Gladwin, Katie Gibboney, Kristin Hughes (1974-2021), Lee Ann Howlett · 16 chapters · 22 min
About the book
A garden, a quiet scene and a handful of well-chosen images: In a Garden is a short poem by the American poet Amy Lowell, and here you can hear it sixteen different ways. The recordings were made by LibriVox volunteers for the weekly poetry project of October 2007, and each reader draws something of their own from the same lines. A change of pace, a longer pause or a lighter touch is enough to shift the colour of the poem from one version to the next. The whole collection lasts under half an hour, so it is easy to listen to many readings in a row or simply to choose a few. It is a refreshing way to appreciate the music of modern poetry, a small celebration of the art of reading aloud, and a good first meeting with the work of Amy Lowell.
Introduction
Amy Lowell (1874-1925) was an American poet born into a prominent Massachusetts family. She became a leading figure in the Imagist movement (she also wrote a large biography of John Keats, published in 1925, the year of her death), which favoured clear images, concise language and freedom of form, and she was an energetic promoter of new poetry in the United States. After her death, she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for her collection What's O'Clock. Her poems are known for their vivid pictures, their sensuous detail and their frank treatment of feeling.
In a Garden is a short poem from the early years of her career. The brevity of the poem makes it an excellent candidate for the type of project represented here.
This is a multi-version poem, one of the weekly poetry projects organised by LibriVox. In each project, volunteers record the same short poem, and the results are gathered into a single collection. This set was assembled for the week of 14 October 2007 and contains sixteen readings, among them contributions from Alan Davis Drake, Clarica and Darren Greer. Each file is labelled with the reader's initials.
Hearing the poem in so many voices makes it possible to notice details that might be missed in a single reading. A different pace or a slightly changed emphasis can bring out a particular image, and the contrast between the readers shows how much interpretation is involved in even the simplest performance. The collection is brief and rewarding, whether you listen to one version, to all sixteen or to your three favourites.
Public domain
Amy Lowell died in 1925: 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