Poetry on the web by Gracie

=Connectivity in PennSound=

PennSound, a website sponsored by the University of Pennsylvania, provides extensive archives of audio recordings of poetry that span from readings of ancient to present day poetry, whether it be the author reading his or her own poetry or the work of another. It also features highlights of various current authors or individuals who somehow contribute in a significant way to the poetic community, as well as collections of poets who somehow, in PennSound’s perspective, relate to one another. The website uses this span of postings and recordings to argue that poetry is a single, connected body, and it uses the auditory to bind poetry’s foundations with its present day innovations.

The website includes a list of readings of ancient poets and those from previous literary ages, some in their original language, some in translation, and some with musical accompaniment. The list includes Homer, one of the early epic authors, as well as Sappho, one of the earliest lyric poets that we know of and definitely one of the first female lyric poets. Later authors such as Chaucer, and those from the Restoration and Romantic periods appear in PennSound’s cannon of classics; it even includes the more recent Walt Whitman and Ezra Pound. While this collection definitely leaves out literary greats, it notes the importance and impact of the authors from each of these time periods, implying that they affect the modern authors of contemporary poetry. Also, great moments of connectivity between the present and past occur when the contemporary Allen Ginsberg sings William Blake, and when during the reading of Sappho’s ancient Greek, an actual siren from the city outside goes off. This collection not only recognizes the importance of noting Poetry’s foundations and growth, but it also reveals how the old supersedes mere influence on the new because it continues to form new connections with the present.

The focus on audio specifically binds the span of poetry that appears on the website as it argues how audio binds all poetry together. The use of the audio relates closely to the foundations of poetry and how it was created to be read aloud so everyone could enjoy it, not only the select few literate individuals. Audio ties poetry back to its roots and original purpose: to connect poetry to all people and to connect all people to one another. For instance, listening to Elizabeth Alexander’s 2004 reading at the Kelly Writers House, the audience can listen to Homer in the language that he wrote, spoke, and sang in. This process connects us, the audience, to the contemporary poet as well as to the ancient poet, which connects us to the ancient audience who heard the same words and pronunciations. The process then forms connections between the contemporary poet and the ancient poet. The act alone of listening to the poetry also binds the present to the past through the ability to hear the meter and how the same iambs, trochees, and dactyls appear in contemporary English as the ones utilized in the ancient Greek. The language or style may differ, but the drive to relate remains the same. Beyond the technical aspects of sounds, PennSound’s inclusion of audio recordings in English translation allows a connection of ideas through sound and enables the discovery of personal, cultural, religious, etc. connections to people from the past.

PennSound also incorporates a wide variety of modern poets, especially those who somehow continue to bind through poetry. In its Poetry Daily section, one of the posts discusses Piotr Sommer as an influential new poet whose readings are recently available on the website. He reads Polish poems, as well as his translations into English, and he has translated Allen Ginsberg and other English-writing greats into Polish. In fact, after he translated Frank O’Hara into Polish, a divide formed in Polish poetic society between those who wanted to hold onto traditionally Polish poetry and those who wanted to experiment with the craft, basing their revolution on O’Hara’s work. This choice to include Piotr Sommer both as an author on the Authors page and as a highlighted individual under the Poetry Daily page signifies his importance and how PennSound intends to focus and promote connectivity. Sommer has connected English and Polish poetry, and while he has created a divide in poetic thought to some extent, he binds the larger aspects of two different cultures through poetry, offering the Polish access to foundational works of our contemporary poetry that reflect major movements in our culture while offering us access to ideas and themes that permeate Polish culture and poetry. PennSound itself then participates in this connection by making it available to the masses on the internet. It allows us to experience the same phenomenon as with listening to ancient poetry: we can hear the poetry in the original language, thus connecting to the Polish who listen to the same exact words, but the corresponding reading in English translation allows us to understand it on the same level of ideas and images as well. This instance surpasses the connectivity with ancient or medieval audiences in that the Polish audience can listen to the poems in English and hear the sounds that we understand, and it can read our poetry. The connectivity begins to flow in two directions. It forms a platform for continuous exchange. PennSound even elaborates on this specific connection in its Cross cultural Poetics Series that features a series of radio interviews that discusses problems and ideas about the flow of poetry and language and the topics involved from one culture to another.

The website furthers connectivity as it links to other sources of poetic discourse and publishing, including The University of Buffalo's electronic poetry center, UbuWeb, and Poem Talk. Abiding by the idea that poetry acts as a means of connection, PennSound makes all of the connections discussed available on the internet, which it in turn uses to connect to other places that form poetic connections as well.

PennSound allows free creative license to the audience, in that it offers very limited explanation, allowing just enough for basic background information, and releases the audio of the poetry. The listener can form whatever connections (s)he notices. The one flaw in this system is that there is no means for the audience to express its ideas within the website. While allowing commentary could decrease the formality and academic atmosphere, it could also lead to interesting discussion, and it would allow each individual who accesses the poetry to further the connectivity to other individuals in the audience. This action would form a contemporary community.

Overall, PennSound paints poetry as a unified and yet diverse body. It continually grows and expands, with new ideas, styles, languages, and cultures. However, it never rejects its foundations, keeping whatever poetry that has been preserved and ever morphing as it continues to form new connections and to expound upon old connections of current poetry to earlier poetry to ancient poetry. Despite differences, it binds into one being. Should the website allow participation from its audience, it would serve to further expand the poetic being.