I Read Poetry With BandLab (YouTube Clips)

In these three short YouTube clips, I read three poems. The first is by Sappho, the second is a found poem with text from a 1990s sociology textbook, and the third is by Aphra Behn. I recorded all of these clips in BandLab. 

I've been playing around with BandLab for the past week. I saw a post on Tumblr about how anyone can make music, without knowing how to play an instrument or even owning an instrument, using some of the websites in the post. (Some of them are broken.) 

First, Sappho's "Now to please my little friend." This English translation is in the public domain; I found it in Project Gutenberg.

Next, a found poem from an outdated sociology textbook.

Finally, a poem by Aphra Behn (1640-1689), one of the first women in English history to earn her living solely by her writing. She was a poet and playwright. In fact, she was the second-most performed playwright in her time, second only to England's poet laureate, John Dryden. John Dryden was so famous and beloved in the 17th century that he was buried in Westminster Abbey right next to Geoffrey Chaucer.

All of Aphra Behn's poems are in the public domain. She lived a really long time ago.