# Why are poets so bad at reading their own work? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 2, 2006, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-poets-so-bad-at-reading-their-own-work/359182 "2006-06-02T18:57:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2006, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-poets-so-bad-at-reading-their-own-work/359182/1 "2006-06-02T18:57:11Z")
I have heard poets and authors interviewed often on the radio, although I couldn’t name one example off the top of my head. When they read their own work, it is consistently uninspiring. Their readings tend to be very sing-songy, with the same tone and pitch, regardless of the content or emotion expressed in the words. It always sounds to me as if Eeyore were reading it. I would expect that the person who wrote it would have a vivid concept driving the work that would come to life even more in a reading. But no. Is this my own prejudice or has anyone else noticed this? ---
**Author:** ![Push\_You\_Down](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/push_you_down/32/9095_2.png) [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2006, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-poets-so-bad-at-reading-their-own-work/359182/2 "2006-06-02T20:11:53Z")
Its probably partly your own prejudice, partly true. I think Maya Angelou can’t read her own work sto save her life, but I do think the Poet Laurette the followed her (can’t remember the name) was quite good at reading his stuff. But overall it would be because poets are writers not performers. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2006, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-poets-so-bad-at-reading-their-own-work/359182/3 "2006-06-02T20:26:11Z")
It’s prose writers, too. Some of them are terrible. I’ve listened to a lot of books on tape, and **John McPhee** sounds like someone who’s seeing the words for the very first time, not the guy who wrote them. **ernest Hemingway** was terrible reading his own stuff. But the worst of all was **T.S. Eliot**. I swear that he sounds llike a cold and soulless robot reading his poetry. I know some of his stuf is supposed to be bleak, but not _that_ bleak. Eliot’s reading fill you with thoughts of suicide. ---
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2006, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-poets-so-bad-at-reading-their-own-work/359182/4 "2006-06-02T20:26:12Z")
It’s because they’re poets, not public speakers. Reading aloud is a talent, just like making speeches. Just because someone has facility with the written word doesn’t mean they are good speakers or good at reading to an audience. ---
**Author:** ![MandaJo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@MandaJo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MandaJo)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2006, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-poets-so-bad-at-reading-their-own-work/359182/5 "2006-06-02T20:29:27Z")
Recordings of Dylan Thomas reading his own work are awesome. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2006, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-poets-so-bad-at-reading-their-own-work/359182/6 "2006-06-02T20:33:32Z")
I’m told that E. E. Cummings was known for performing some of his work live. I’m guessing not the poem with the excessive semicolons. Some can & some can’t. In this day & age, if you can write stuff that scans, & perform it live, you’ll do better as a singer-songwriter. Even if you’re not so musical, you’ll do well on the Slam circuit, or you can noodle on a guitar & be a sort of “singer-songwriter” like Leonard Cohen did. The “poets” that, because of sheer ineptitude, don’t fit into either the songwriter or performer categories, are bound to be a vocally unimpressive bunch. ---
**Author:** ![Talon\_Karrde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Talon\_Karrde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Talon_Karrde)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2006, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-poets-so-bad-at-reading-their-own-work/359182/7 "2006-06-02T20:40:33Z")
> [@Manda JO](#): > > Recordings of Dylan Thomas reading his own work are awesome. I just came here to post a [link to his reading of "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night](http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15377). Great reading. ---
**Author:** ![Askia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Askia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askia)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2006, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-poets-so-bad-at-reading-their-own-work/359182/8 "2006-06-02T20:57:25Z")
Performing poetry is a much different animal than writing good poetry. Hell, most journalists are pretty shitty at reading their own articles in a way that informs and engages the audience like news anchors/newsreaders do. Some of it’s cultural, too: off-hand most black poets are better than others at performing/reading their works aloud because (generally speaking) there’s a lot more of the rhythms and cadence of African-American oral tradition borrowed/ used in their poetry, and black poets are given greater license to perform their works, and the expectation is for black poets to perform their works aloud, usually without even reading it. Why do you think the pregenitors of rap were The Last Poets? Maya Angelou is actually pretty good at reading her poems aloud, but that said, I’ve seen others really, really get into it far more impressively and expressively than her. ---
**Author:** ![ddgryphon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8c91f0/32.png) [@ddgryphon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ddgryphon)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2006, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-poets-so-bad-at-reading-their-own-work/359182/9 "2006-06-02T21:27:32Z")
Anne Sexton is just creepy reading her stuff – Cuh-ree-pee^3; her reading of “The Truth the Dead Know” while pretty grim, is just ominous in ways I can’t express when she reads it. Not all suck, but many do, because writers usually write as opposed to hang out and socialize and be the center of attention. They are mostly observers by nature. Some adapt, some don’t, and so it goes. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2006, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-poets-so-bad-at-reading-their-own-work/359182/10 "2006-06-02T21:40:01Z")
Robert Frost’s recordings of him reading his own work are revered. ---
**Author:** ![Push\_You\_Down](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/push_you_down/32/9095_2.png) [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2006, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-poets-so-bad-at-reading-their-own-work/359182/11 "2006-06-02T22:23:14Z")
> [@Askia](#): > > Maya Angelou is actually pretty good at reading her poems aloud, but that said, I’ve seen others really, really get into it far more impressively and expressively than her. Different strokes. I find her reading dawdling and snoozeworthy. And its not just her recent stuff. I’ve heard recordings of her from the 70s, same thing… ---
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2006, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-poets-so-bad-at-reading-their-own-work/359182/12 "2006-06-02T22:47:52Z")
**William Burroughs** is amazing reading his own work. In fact, now when I read anything written by him I actually “hear” it spoken in his voice inside my head. ---
**Author:** ![Askia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Askia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askia)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2006, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-poets-so-bad-at-reading-their-own-work/359182/13 "2006-06-02T22:53:11Z")
I’ve enjoyed Mos Def, Nikki Giovanni, Harlan Ellison, Sistah Souljah, Jean-Claude T, Walter Mosley and the late Alex Haley and Octavia Butler’s readings/recordings – although most of these are prose writers, not poets. ---
**Author:** ![Talon\_Karrde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Talon\_Karrde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Talon_Karrde)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2006, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-poets-so-bad-at-reading-their-own-work/359182/14 "2006-06-02T23:10:24Z")
> [@Pochacco](#): > > **William Burroughs** is amazing reading his own work. In fact, now when I read anything written by him I actually “hear” it spoken in his voice inside my head. I’ve heard one of his songs on the radio once. It was weird. ---
**Author:** ![Push\_You\_Down](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/push_you_down/32/9095_2.png) [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2006, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-poets-so-bad-at-reading-their-own-work/359182/15 "2006-06-02T23:40:49Z")
They use his voice at different points in the Wilson production of Black Rider. (The musical that Burroughs wrote and Tom Waits di the music for) ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2006, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-poets-so-bad-at-reading-their-own-work/359182/16 "2006-06-02T23:57:29Z")
Charles Bukowski was \*famous \* for his readings.