10 Famous Poems Recited by Famous Actors

Recently, I stumbled across a video of Jake Gyllenhaal reading Wilfred Owen’s Dulce Et Decorum Est, a poem that is about how war is in no way glamorous.  He read the poem at a fundraiser to provide mental health services for soldiers suffering from PTSD. The event was called Words at War, and Gyllenhaal’s choice of words was more than fitting.

This got me to thinking about other actors who have leant their voices to poetry that is, sometimes, even more famous than they are. Here are a few of my favorites:

Bill Murray reads to Construction Workers at Poet’s House

Emma Thompson reads “Death Be Not Proud” by John Donne 

(As seen in the HBO adaptation of Margaret Edson’s play Wit). 

Anthony Hopkins reads “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night” by Dylan Thomas

Tom Hiddleston reads Sonnet 18 by William Shakespeare 

Patrick Stewart reads “To Autumn” by John Clare 

Glenn Close reads “I Like For You to be Still” by Pablo Neruda 

Bryan Cranston reads “Ozymandias” by Percy Bysshe Shelley

Sophie Okonedo reads “The Soldier” by Rupert Brooke 

And not a poem, exactly, but a relatively recent reading by an actor who can make the phone book sound good –

Benedict Cumberbatch reads a love letter.