Can any members advise on this:

Do you need to seek permission from the relevant publisher for any recent poetry from the canon to be spoken in a public performance?

Am I right in thinking if the poet has been dead for 70 plus years that no longer applies?

If less than 70 years, is it your experience that you have to pay a fee?

Is there a central ‘clearing house’ for writers’ works (a bit like the MCPS for music) or does one need to ask on a publisher by publisher basis?

Any help much appreciated. Graham Buchan.

If it's just one poem, I doubt anyone will mind as long as it's acknowledged. There isn't a central clearing house (though perhaps there should be...)

It's different if you're going to publish it though; there, rules of 'fair use' apply. I'm not sure whether that applies to individual poems or whole collections though...

Thanks for the info.

One area to be very careful around is the poetry of Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath. I have coordinated events celebrating their work, but was glad to have been advised that apparently their respective estates have been known to take action against people quoting and reading without prior permission.