Eighteenth-Century Audio

What’s New

This term students from the Restoration and Early Eighteenth-Century Literature courses at the University of Mary Washington recorded more than fifty poems for Eighteenth-Century Audio. You can identify their readings by the designation “Source: UMW” attached to each. The site has also added more than a hundred links to poems from sources world-wide, including LibriVox.org, PennSound, Classic Poetry Aloud, and others.

Why this site exists

This site was first conceived as a tool for students struggling to understand older poetry. Listening to someone read a poem aloud can clarify what a poet means, even if changes in context and vocabulary over the last few centuries mean we still need the footnotes in our printed editions.

But listening to poetry is also fun. In the long eighteenth century, it was common for families and friends to gather together and listen to one person read aloud. Poems were often printed in large type to make reading easier by candlelight. In an age before electronic entertainment, poetry and song played a large role even in humble homes, while being able to read well was considered an important skill for an educated person. (Of course, what it means to read well is partly a matter of opinion; remember the funny moment in Austen’s Sense and Sensibility where Marianne bemoans Edward’s too-calm reading of Cowper?)

Our ears also detect things our eyes can miss: an interesting rhyme, a startling word choice, a vivid image. Listening to a poem can bring out details we hadn’t noticed. It can show us what another reader finds interesting and important. Sometimes it can change our whole way of thinking about the poem. If a particular reading taught you something about a poem, we invite you to share your thoughts in the comment space on each page.

We hope this audio archive will bring you both pleasure and a deeper understanding of this poetry!

Technology information

The technology design for this site was created by Jim Groom, an Instructional Technology Specialist at the University of Mary Washington and a dedicated literature scholar himself. Without his work, Eighteenth-Century Audio could not exist. This site uses WordPress blogging software with internal RSS feeds. You can learn more by searching for ECAudio at Jim’s blog site.

Study suggestions for students

Whenever possible, follow along with a printed text as you listen. Nearly all these poems can be found on the web if you don’t have your own printed copy. If more than one recording is available, try different readers to see who you find clearest and most interesting.

Preparing to record your own poem: UMW students

Look up anything you don’t know, and figure out what the poem is actually saying in each sentence. Double-check pronunciations. Consider marking words you want to stress and places to pause. Read naturally: rather than coming to a halt at the end of every line, follow the sentence structure of the poem itself. Don’t stress rhymes; listeners’ ears will pick them up anyhow. Start with the author and title, and either at the start or at the end identify yourself as the reader. If you make a mistake, tap your mike to make editing easy, then just reread the lines. For more ideas, see LibriVox.org’s suggestions for readers.

Submitting a poem: listeners outside UMW

We are always looking for more readers. If you have a recorded poem, you can upload it to your own web site and have us link to it, or you can send us the file and have us host it here. We prefer poems saved as MP3 files. Use the “contact” link to request that we record your favorite eighteenth-century poem, to ask questions, or to get in touch about submitting your own recording.