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