THE VOICE OF THE POET John Ashbery

[Editor's Note: The following is a combined review with THE VOICE OF THE POET: Randall Jarrell.]--Modern American poets read their own work in this handsome series from Random House. Each 70-minute offering is edited from various rare archival recordings and packaged with an illustrated paperback containing the text of the taped poems and commentary by series editor J.D. McClatchy of THE YALE REVIEW. To versephiles, nothing tops hearing lines delivered by their author. As Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney states, it is "always a unique illumination." Producer Jane Garmey has taken great care to ferret out, assemble, and restore these illuminations. Edifying for the student, a delight for the aficionado, a must for libraries. Y.R. (c) AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine [Published: APR/MAY 02]