The Poetry Sounds Map

Italian poet and sound artist Giovanna Iorio has created an interactive map of poetry recordings from around the world, spoken in each writer's native language. The Poetry Sounds Library allows you to both listen to poets' voices and see where those poets come from.

If you click on a marker on the map you can listen to an actual recording of the poem read by the poet. On the map the yellow markers indicate poems by living poets, while the blue markers show poems by poets who are no longer living.

Among the non-living artists is an 1890 recording by Thomas Edison of Alfred Lord Tennyson reading his poem, 'The Charge of the Light Brigade'. The Poetry Sounds Library map also includes an even earlier recording made by the English poet Robert Browning (made in 1899). In this recording Browning begins to recite from his poem 'How they Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix'. However, near the end of the first stanza, Browning apologizes and says "I can't remember my own verses".

If you are interested in discovering poetry which is actually about different locations across the world then you should refer to the Poetry Atlas. The Poetry Atlas is an interactive map of poems which have been written about specific places around the globe.