"London, it seemed to me, was always going to be the perfect city for such an unprecedented coming together, " Armitage has said in a book accompanying the Parnassus.

BBC: A festival of Olympic wordsmiths

The event is called "Poetry Parnassus" -- named after Mount Parnassus, known in Greek mythology as the spiritual home of poetry, the stamping ground of the lyricist Orpheus and the hang-out for the Muses.

CNN: A deluge in London, but this time it's raining poems

Sligo got so excited after following to Mount Parnassus and its oracle the opium-loving Lord Byron that he started building his own temple of dreams in these wilds in 1815.

FORBES: Salmon Or Cognac, The Temptations of An Idyllic Refuge in Connemara

Poetry Parnassus is part of the South Bank Centre's "Festival of the World, " in turn part of the Cultural Olympiad, designed to spread the Olympic fervor beyond sport to the arts.

CNN: A deluge in London, but this time it's raining poems

Britain's largest-ever poetry festival, Poetry Parnassus, will take place on the South Bank and feature 205 poets, one from each of the Olympic nations.

ECONOMIST: Culture

The 1, 000-year-old Doctor Parnassus (played by veteran actor Christopher Plummer), finds himself on a journey to undo a deal he has made with the devil.

CNN: The making of 'The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus'