[R. S. Gwynn]

Just in case you've seen the fake news story and are ready to post:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/...b0c147f0bb9b46

[Andrew Szilvasy]

This poet's website is truly amazing. I mean, wow. Below are a few of my favorite parts.

(Frustratingly, in each of attachments you must click to enlarge.)



I thought the Romantics engaged in self-expression. WRONG! All these years of enjoying Eliot, Stevens, Williams, etc.--the list goes on and on--man, sucks to know that all the spent time was "empty and meaningless."



"Today, only two poets compose traditional sonnets." MacKenzie and...



This may be my favorite. Mackenzie has the best words. Filled with the best αρετη.

[Aaron Novick]

https://mackenziepoet.com/british-ac...rist-the-king/

"A ten-year veteran of the British stage, Ian Russell, has undertaken the extremely difficult task of recording MacKenzie’s Sonnets for Christ the King for imminent publication in audiobook form. The news of Mr. Russell’s appointment came after MacKenziePoet.com completed a lengthy auditioning process eliminating almost 100 candidates.

The poet himself was searching for “a manly but affable voice capable of transmitting the music of the sonnets while preserving their sense.” This turned out to be a tall order. One revelation emerging from the complicated, online audition process is that decades of crippling modernism in the British theatre have created a dearth of actors capable of verse recitation.

Another discovery was more technical. Modernism has corrupted the so-called “Received English” accent many British actors claim to possess. The elegant, refined accent the world once heard in the voices of John Gielgud and Ernest Milton has been deformed by the intrusion of less noble speech habits, such as the articulation of the letter “w” in words such as “flower.” Slight departures from the highest and noblest form of Received English were found even in the auditions of London-born actors. Only Ian Russell offered the authentic euphony of England’s gold standard of beautiful speech.

MacKenziePoet.com joins the ranks of Mr. Russell’s most prominent clients, including Coca Cola, Samsung, Mastercard, Nestlé, and Club Med. The contract with a recognized master of voice recording, who is also an experienced English actor, marks a victory for traditional lyric verse. Mr. Russell’s world-historical recording comes at a time when consumers have rejected modernist so-called “poetry” as unreadable nonsense, a scam promoted by ignorant, out-of-touch elites in failed, self-serving academia. Given the paucity of traditional lyric poets, these recordings make Ian Russell the preeminent voice of lyric poetry today—a singular, but important, distinction.

With such a magnificent recording in the works, traditional lyric verse is about to stage its first historical triumph in over a century."

[R. S. Gwynn]

Here is Mr Russell's website:

https://www.voices.com/people/Thebritishvoice

He has one film credit, from ten years ago, on imdb.com

[Andrew Szilvasy]

Oh my god, yes:

The elegant, refined accent the world once heard in the voices of John Gielgud and Ernest Milton has been deformed by the intrusion of less noble speech habits, such as the articulation of the letter “w” in words such as “flower.”

Oh, that ignoble "w"!

Russell has a list of languages he speaks:

"English (North American), English (British), English, English (Irish), English (Scottish), English (Australian), English (South African), Other, Welsh"

First, I love how Welsh comes after Other. A real win here. But, also, I assumed all the different Englishes had to do with his ability to perform that accent. But no, he has an accent section too!

British, Celtic, England - East (East Anglia, Cambridge, Hertfordshire), England - East Midlands (Leicester), England - London (Cockney, Estuary, East End), England - North East (Tyneside, Geordie), England - North West (Liverpool, Manchester, Lancashire, Cheshire), England - Received Pronunciation (RP, BBC), England - South East (Oxford, Sussex), England - South West (Cornwall, Devon, West Country), England - West Midlands (Shropshire, Birmingham, Brummie), England - Yorkshire & Humber, Irish, North American, Scottish, Scottish (Aberdeen, Dundee), Scottish (Edinburgh), Scottish (Glaswegian), Scottish (Highland, Inverness), Scottish (Lowland, Broad Scots), Scottish (Standard Scottish English), South African, Trans-Atlantic, US South (Deep South, Dixie, Delta), Welsh

This has made my day so much better.

[Julie Steiner]

Mmmmm, Christian manliness! The surest sign of poetic genius.

If they weren't so sincere, his testimonials would remind me of the reviewer who said, "I have no hesitation in declaring that Shakespeare never wrote poetry like Mr McGonagall's."

[R. S. Gwynn]

http://video.startribune.com/minneap...ion/411132145/

I've heard worse.

[R. S. Gwynn]

http://www.newyorker.com/contributor...-dennis-browne

[R. S. Gwynn]

http://www.the-standard.org/news/fin...b9f2c9c07.html

[William A. Baurle]

no wing no song
no cry no comfort ye
no wound ever mine
close up the gates of night

From one of his poems. Must be a typo? No cry to comfort ye?

http://michaeldennisbrowne.com/