A Playlist for Poetry’s September 2016 Issue

For our September 2016 playlist, we asked Maggie Queeney, the Poetry Foundation’s library coordinator, to read through the issue and curate a selection of music for us. You can read about her approach to creating the playlist below. Click here to open the playlist in your Spotify app. 

Compiling this playlist, I was looking to recognize topical, emotional, tonal, or sonic links. Each song corresponds to a single poem, in order, which is meant to create a listening experience that echoes the reading experience. In some poem-song pairs, the song corresponds to, elaborates on, or amplifies the poem. In other couples, the song questions, erodes, or complicates the poem. My hope is that each song will serve as an alternate conduit to the work, or as a background that throws aspects of the poem into relief.

You can find past playlists here.