You can explore the Archive in many different ways. You can look for poets you know, you can let us take you to poets whose work you may not know, you can chose poems on a particular theme, or you can ask our guides to show you the recordings they especially like. As the Archive grows, more guides will be added to the Archive. Some guides will be poets and some will be prominent people from other walks of life. All are poetry lovers who are keen to share with you the recordings they especially enjoy.

To come back to your guide when you've listened to a selection, use your BACK button.

I love this archive. It's an important reminder that all literature has its roots in the human voice. Black print on white paper is not remote and abstract stuff but grows out from 'ordinary' language, is linked to stories told to children at dusk, to gossip and jokes and song. It reaches back to the tales that were spoken and sung long before print existed, to the first stories and spells chanted by firelight in ancient caves.