The NYT has a piece that examines why poetry readings are so excruciating: It’s that ubiquitous poetry voice: “a sort of quivering, nasal incantation, in which the voice trails upward, uncertainly, at the end of a line … as if the poets were delivering dire prognostications or trying to awaken in the masses some sense of religious awe.” For some reason, British poets are less susceptible to this affectation than Americans.