George Edward Woodberry Poetry Room Collection
These audio files are encoded in RealAudio format and require the RealPlayer software for playback. A basic version is available as a free download from the Real website. Ezra
Pound
The Seafarer (7:18) Recorded May 17, 1939. Wallace
Stevens
The featured Poetry Room audio files are under copyright and are used with permission. |
Use this form to contact the staff for more information about the Poetry Room collection: |
The Woodberry Poetry Room, named in honor of Harvard alumnus and Professor George E. Woodberry (A.B., 1877), opened in 1931 in Widener Library for the purpose of bringing alive the poet's voice and creating a place at Harvard for the enduring delight and significance of poetry. The Poetry Room, which relocated to Lamont Library in 1949, contains a remarkable collection of 20th and 21st-century poetry books, pamphlets, magazines, broadsides, and poetry recordings from the entire English-speaking world, as well as poetic works in other languages translated into English.
Recognized in the first annual selection of the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress, the "spoken" poetry archive of the Woodberry Poetry Room began in 1931 with the recording of T. S. Eliot reading Gerontion and The Hollow Men. In the years since, virtually every major poet has been recorded reading or lecturing at Harvard providing the University with recordings held by no other institution.
The collection uniquely documents world literary history from the 1930's to the present and is utilized by scholars worldwide and in many courses across the Harvard curriculum. In recent years the collection has expanded to include the recorded archive of the Academy of American Poets and of the Aspen Writers Conference, among others.
Nobel laureate and faculty member Seamus Heaney has written, "The Harvard collection is indispensable: it contains not only the voices—from different times of their lives—of the greatest poets, but constitutes a living history of modern poetry."
- Poetry Blue Star Materials
- Use of Poetry Room Audio
- Commercial Use of Poetry Room Audio
- Upcoming Events
- Poetry Room Hours
- Admittance
- Latest News: Poetry Room Collaboration Garners Grammy Nomination
- E-mail the Woodberry Poetry Room staff.
- Contact information is available in the Houghton Staff Directory.
Poetry Blue Star Materials
Poetry "Blue Star" materials, designated "BLUE STAR" in the HOLLIS catalog, are accessible by arrangement with the curator or the curatorial assistant. An ID is required and these materials cannot leave the Poetry Room at any time. Advance arrangements are strongly encouraged.
For a fee, photocopies of materials that are not fragile or whose duplication is not prohibited can be made on request, as staff time permits.
Use of Poetry Room Audio
As it is unlawful in most cases for us to make and/or distribute copies of recordings on deposit at the Poetry Room, all recordings must be listened to in the Poetry Room, by appointment. An appointment must be made with the curatorial assistant to listen to audio materials for which no listening copies exist. If the Poetry Room owns a listening copy, it must be used in the Poetry Room. If no listening copy exists, the user may have to assume part of the expense of having a copy made. The curator will determine whether material is suitable for duplication; certain recordings carry restrictions placed by donors on access and/or copying, or may be too fragile for duplication. All copies remain the property of the Poetry Room. A minimum of one week is required to produce a listening copy of any recording.
Commercial Use of Poetry Room Audio
Contact the curator to inquire about guidelines and fees for commercial use of Poetry Room audio materials. The Poetry Room reserves the right to refuse requests that cannot be filled because of the fragility of master recordings, staff time limitations, or other constraints. The Poetry Room cannot copy material that is or has been made commercially available elsewhere; and no reproductions of recordings can be made without appropriate authorization from the authors or, if they are no longer living, their literary executors. Duplication of audio materials will be done when staff time is available. Sound quality of Poetry Room archival audio materials varies greatly; no guarantee of reproduction quality can be made. Prepayment is required on these orders.
