THE VOICE OF THE POET Five American Women

Gertrude Stein, that archetypal American in Paris, painted her poems in the air with a patrician, vaguely British accent. Edna St. Vincent Millay, who began life in Maine, declaimed in orotund style. Louise Bogan simply spoke her deceptively simple poems of heartbreak. The Voice of the Poet series, featuring poets reading their own work, offers insight and interest even when a listener prefers her own style of reading poetry aloud. This is a thoughtful, beautifully packaged production from the musical interlude that introduces the audio to the selections read by the five poets and to the accompanying paperback of the poems (with biographical sketches). A.C.S. (c) AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine [Published: APR/MAY 02]