At a poetry reading, do you prefer to applaud each poem – or to wait in respectful silence until the poet has completed the reading? To put it another way, are you a whooper and hollerer – or a polite murmurer? And poets – which reception do you prefer? Is it all to do with the time you have to read, and the place where you are reading?  And even the kind of poem you are reading – or performing – as well? Write Out Loud is raising this topic for discussion after a difference of opinion on the subject has emerged between Write Out Loud’s Julian Jordon, and  poetry night organiser Andy Humphrey, of The Speakers’ Corner in York. Julian went to a Speakers Corner’ night in April last year, and wrote afterwards: “When poems are read here the protocol is that applause for individual poems is not encouraged until the end, if reading several. I know that's how it’s done at publishers' launches or many – though no longer all – established poets’ readings. I am really not keen on this as, for me, one of the strengths of the open-mic/live poetry movement is in creating an ambience to help nervous newcomers feel comfortable reading out loud, by giving them applause for their words. If the first poem I read out in public had been met with silence, I don’t think I’d have read another.”

After taking time to consider his response, Andy came back with this, in his Poet’s Soapbox blog:  “As the MC of a long-running open mic night, I’m well aware of the value of a good round of applause as a sign of affirmation. It’s particularly important for those who are new to writing poetry, or to performing it in public. It also matters a lot to those visiting a performance night for the first time, who may be seasoned performers but could well be strangers to the rest of the audience. The enthusiasm of an audience response can be the difference between that person coming back, and maybe becoming a regular, and them never darkening your door again.

“So I was rather disconcerted when, after a visitation from the good people at Write Out Loud last year, The Speakers’ Corner came in for criticism precisely because not all audience members clapped every single poem that was performed. The majority got applause, or at least that was my impression. But for other poems, the response was more along the lines of the considered ‘hmmm’ or the admiring ‘oh!’, and the poets for the most part took this as a sign of affirmation of their work just as they would have done had they been met with a round of applause. There was certainly nobody who performed that night who wasn’t roundly applauded at the end of their set, whether or not there were claps between poems.”

Write Out Loud is not trying to present this as a “row” between Julian in the “applaud every poem” camp, and Andy in the “let’s keep it a bit quieter on occasions” corner. We know that the type of audience reaction expected is very different at a performance poetry night, or a slam, than it is on some other occasions. But we think this is a very interesting question that many poets who visit this site may well have a view about, as readers or listeners, or both.

Scotland’s national poet, Liz Lochhead, who as a celebrity poet will invariably be reading for around 20 minutes or often much longer at each appearance, has been heard to gently advise the audience early on: “You mustn’t clap the individual poems, they all get very jealous of each other.” 

Poet and Write Out Loud’s chief executive Steve Pottinger said: “Every audience is different. I’m hugely in favour of the ones who laugh where I want them to laugh, applaud riotously where I’d hoped for that to happen, tell me endlessly how wonderful my work is, and force crumpled £20 notes into my hand. Failing that, I generally settle for them not throwing anything blunt, heavy, or likely to cause personal injury.

“In reality, learning to trust an audience (and your work) is part of the job. Silence may be unnerving if you didn’t expect it, but a ‘whoop’ halfway through a poem can throw you off-balance too. The first time I did a spoken word gig where people clicked their fingers to show appreciation, I hadn’t a clue what was going on. That really threw me. Applause is great, sure, but for me nothing beats a few words from someone who comes up at the end of the night to say they enjoyed your work."

Performance poet Laura Taylor said: “Personally, I much prefer applause – give me whooping and hollering any day over a polite murmur, and I’d like it after EVERY poem thanks!  Unless it’s a very sad poem that is, then I’ll happily accept some murmuring sniffles into a hanky and the odd catch in the throat. My performances tend to be quite intense and high-octane anyway, so they usually receive a similar response.  I put an awful lot of work into the writing of my poems and the stagecraft required for a good performance, and it would feel very strange indeed if there were no applause until the end of the set.  I think I’d feel more than a bit miffed. The same applies if I’m in the audience. If I like what a poet’s just delivered, you’d have to tie my hands together to stop me showing them my appreciation.”

Feel free to comment on all this at the bottom of this news item, or on the discussion thread that we’ve set up as well on the subject here.