La prosodia di Seamus Heaney: un approccio fonetico alle sue letture

This paper aims to consider the prosody of Seamus Heaney’s poetry reading, and the corresponding Italian reading by his main translator Marco Sonzogni. The comparison has been carried out through an innovative phonetic approach. The main analysis is based on seven original recordings from three collections performed by the poet, whereas a second part of the research considered two readings in both languages. The study employs the VIP-Voices of Italian Poets methodology, aimed at the qualitative, quantitative and comparative phonetic study of poetry readings. The relationship between the textual and prosodic axes is crucial in this analysis, since it helps highlight the main stylistic features of the poet’s prosody. By considering a selection of acoustic, stylistic and organization indexes, it has been possible to identify the main distinctive common elements which connect different textual types and to find divergent features contributing to the variation in the reading style. The study is intended as a point of departure for further studies on the Irish poet’s readings and the way in which other poets read his original poems or their translations in other languages.