5 - Celebrity Actors Reading Poetry

It is often a discussion around our house: poetry as performance vs. poetry as enactment. Actors perform a poem in place of the reader enacting it for themselves. A bit like the difference between watching tennis and playing tennis. Both are moving and amazing. This is a fantastic collection: Speak Celebrity. It's an ongoing project, so I am definitely subscribing to see what new gems there are to be enjoyed.

“My Dream” by Christina Rossetti

Read by Helena Bonham Carter

“Love’s Philosophy” by Percy Bysshe Shelley 

Read by Keira Knightley

“Like This” by Rumi

Read by Tilda Swinton

“The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe

Read by Christopher Walken

“To a Stranger” by Walt Whitman

Read by Kenneth Branagh

“Daffodils” by William Wordsworth

Read by Jeremy Irons

“I Like For You To Be Still” by Pablo Neruda

Read by Glenn Close

“In Vain” by Emily Dickinson

Read by Meryl Streep

“Sonnet 150” by William Shakespeare

Read by Al Pacino

“[i carry your heart with me(i carry it in]” by e.e. cummings

Read by Heath Ledger

via Mahjabeen Bee Zafar