Bunting chants Whitman. In 1977, at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Basil Bunting recorded Walt Whitman's “Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking.” Here is a link to that audio recording. Bunting’s PennSound page also includes recordings of Bunting reading Spenser, Zukofsky, Wyatt, and Pound. PennSound’s Bunting is used with permission of Bloodaxe Books, with thanks to Neil Astey. The opening lines of the Whitman:
Out of the cradle endlessly rocking,
Out of the mocking-bird's throat, the musical shuttle,
Out of the Ninth-month midnight,
Over the sterile sands and the fields beyond, where the child
leaving his bed wander'd alone, bareheaded, barefoot,
Down from the shower'd halo,
Up from the mystic play of shadows twining and twisting as if they
were alive,
Out from the patches of briers and blackberries,
From the memories of the bird that chanted to me,
From your memories sad brother, from the fitful risings and fallings I heard,
From under that yellow half-moon late-risen and swollen as if with tears...