On disc one of the anthology, William Butler Yeats prefaces his lyrical delivery with the disclaimer, “I am going to read my poem with great emphasis upon the rhythm, and that may seem strange if you are not used to it…It gave me a devil of a lot of trouble to get into verse the poems that I am going to read, and that is why I will not read them as if they are prose.” By disc four, Joy Harjo croons “Grace” over acoustic guitar, and Carl Hancock Rux chants “Eleven More Days” along with backup singers, drums, electric guitar, keyboards and his own delayed vocals. In between, renowned poets from myriad styles, movements and eras speak their poetry in voices that ring with their specific brands of honest expression. Poetry on Record includes a staggeringly impressive range of poets famous for an equally impressive range of poetic contributions. The anthology is not only a tour of the evolution of written verse—classicism, modernism, post-modernism, beat, confessional, experimental, performance poetry, etc. It is also an audible timeline of the changing ways we capture sound, from the garbled recordings of the booming Alfred Lord Tennyson to the crisp digital immediacy of contemporary poets. Poetry lovers of all genres will be thrilled by the power with which these voices convey the stirring facets of human experience that remain constant throughout the decades of transforming technology and technique. Poetry on Record will leave you wishing a CD of the poet reading her work accompanied every book of poetry. ( )