Professor of English James Longenbach encourages the appreciation of poetry, and National Poetry Month was established 20 years ago to do the same: 鈥渢o highlight the extraordinary legacy and ongoing achievement of American poets, and encourage the reading of poems.鈥� We invite you to revisit this page and discover some of the poetic richness that can be found at the 人妻少妇专区.
鈥淢y favorite poems鈥�
Members of the Rochester community read their favorite poems. More videos will be added throughout the month of April.
鈥淲hen Did It Happen?鈥� by Regina A. Cerulli, read by Kate Cerulli, Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Director of the Susan B. Anthony Center for Women鈥檚 Leadership.
鈥淎 Magic Moment I Remember鈥� by Alexander Segeyevich Pushkin, read by Tatyana Bakhmetyeva, lecturer in the Susan B. Anthony Institute for Gender, Sexuality, and Women鈥檚 Studies.
鈥淔irst Fig鈥�, by Edna St. Vincent Millay, read by Joan Saab, Associate Professor of Art History and Chair of the Department of Art and Art History.
鈥淎n Elegy for My Daughter,鈥� by Muhammad Ibn al-Khiyami, as translated and read by Emil Homerin, Professor of Religion and Chair of the Department of Religion and Classics.
鈥淎pricots,鈥� by Professor of English Jennifer Grotz, as read by the author.
鈥淭he Argument of His Book,鈥� by Robert Herrick, as read by Honey Meconi, Professor of Musicology, Chair and Professor of Music, College Music Department.
鈥淵ou Who Never Arrived,鈥� by Rainer Maria Rilke, as read by Nigel Maister, Russell and Ruth Peck Artistic Director of the International Theatre Program.
鈥淒e Profundis鈥�, by Georg Trakl, translated by James Wright and Robert Bly, read by Stephen Schottenfeld, associate professor of English.
鈥淏e Not Defeated by the Rain鈥�, by Kenji Miyazawa, translated by David Sulz, read by Mari Tsuchiya, Senior Library Assistant, Outreach, Learning, and Research Services. Translation used with permission.
鈥淚dea 61: Since there鈥檚 no help, come let us kiss and part鈥�, by Michael Drayton, read by Honey Meconi, Professor of Musicology, Chair and Professor of Music, College Music Department.
Poetic treasures
A peek at a few choice pieces from the British literature collection held by Rare Books and Special Collections.听(University photos / J. Adam Fenster)
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The May Queen
First published in 1832, Alfred Lord Tennyson鈥檚 poem 鈥淭he May Queen鈥� is brilliantly set off in this illuminated edition designed by L. Summerbell (London: Frederick Warne, 1870s). The enormously popular Victorian poet succeeded William Wordsworth as poet laureate of Great Britain and Ireland, and held the post for 42 years.
The Works of Virgil
The library holds about 200 first and early editions of works by 17th-century poet, playwright, critic, and translator John Dryden. Also the first official English poet laureate, he was so influential that his era is sometimes referred to as the 鈥淎ge of Dryden.鈥� This is a first edition of听The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and 脝neis. Translated into English Verse by Mr. Dryden, Adorn鈥檇 with a Hundred Sculptures听(London: Jacob Tonson, 1697).
The Voyage
These lines from Tennyson鈥檚 poem 鈥淭he Voyage鈥� are written in his own hand and describe the view from the deck of a ship: 鈥淗ow oft we saw the Sun retire / And burn the threshold of the night / Fall from his ocean-wake of fire / And sleep beneath his pillar鈥檇 light!鈥�
The Work of Robert Burns
In 1869 abolitionist Frederick Douglass presented this book to his son Lewis. Above you can see the inscription in Douglass鈥檚 handwriting: 鈥淭his book was the first bought by me after my escape from slavery. I have owned it nearly thirty one years and now give it to my oldest son as a keep sake. F.D.鈥�
Wine Ode
The Memorial Art Gallery鈥檚 collection contains听听in watercolor, ink, and gold. The large Arabic script and the Arabic in the 鈥渃loud鈥� shapes are verses from the poet Umar Ibn al-Farid鈥檚听Wine Ode, the most famous mystical poem on wine in Arabic. Ibn al-Farid (1181-1235), who studied Islamic mysticism and Arabic literature in Cairo and Mecca, composed poems that generally embrace a view of existence in which creation is lovingly intimate with its divine creator.
Thoughts on Hyam Plutzik,听Letter from a Young Poet
by Edward Moran
Seventy-five years after it was written by a twenty-something college graduate鈥攁nd long before that graduate became a Rochester professor鈥擧yam Plutzik鈥檚 eloquent听Letter from a Young Poet听still resonates with today鈥檚 millennials in their quest for life鈥檚 calling. Addressed to Odell Shepard, Plutzik鈥檚 mentor at Trinity College, the 72-page letter is a 鈥渟ong of the self and the soul,鈥� in the words of poet Daniel Halpern, who wrote the Foreword to the book, published in 2015 by Trinity鈥檚 Watkinson Library.
With its title inspired by Rainer Maria Rilke鈥檚 acclaimed听Letters to a Young Poet, Letter from a Young Poet听can be read as Plutzik鈥檚 response to Rilke鈥檚 mentorial admonition to his young poet friend to 鈥渉ave patience with everything that remains unsolved in your heart . . . live in the question.鈥�
Plutzik would continue to ask ever deeper questions for the rest of his life. Early in his career at the University, Plutzik committed himself wholeheartedly to following his poetic muse. In a 1950 article for the Poetry Society of Rochester, speaking on behalf of poets everywhere, he wrote: 鈥淲e must stay alive, must write then, write as excellently as we can. And if out of our labors and agonies there appears, along with our more moderate triumphs, even one speck of the final distillate, the eternal stuff pure and radiant as a drop of uranium, we are justified.鈥�
Thomas Thackeray Swinburne and 鈥淭he Genesee鈥�
Every student鈥檚 college experience begins and ends with these words鈥斺�淔ull many fair and famous streams鈥︹�� Sung at Convocation and Commencement, and on many occasions in-between, these lines were written by Thomas Thackeray Swinburne, our University鈥檚 鈥淧oet Laureate.鈥� (The music was written by another alumnus, Herve Dwight Wilkins, a member of the class of 1866.)
Swinburne was born in Rochester, probably in 1862. A member of the class of 1892, he attended classes into his senior year but did not complete his degree. He was an associate editor of the student newspaper, contributed a poem to the 1894 yearbook, and not surprisingly, was chosen as Class Poet. An article in the听Democrat and Chronicle听after his death notes, 鈥淎lthough he had made no attempt to trace the ancestry, Swinburne believed himself to be a direct descendant of [the famed Victorian poet] Algernon Charles Swinburne.鈥�
During the 1912 Rochester Centennial, Swinburne was named City Poet. As part of the celebratory proceedings he read a 30-stanza poem that includes a 鈥渃onversation鈥� between the river and the well-known Statue of Mercury, then atop the Kimball Building.
Swinburne published and printed books of his poems at his printing firm on Exchange Street. His 1907听Rochester Rhymes听is dedicated to his sister Rose, whose death in 1926 would cause him to take his own life on December 17 of that year by jumping into the Genesee. It took another six months before his body was found and identified.
Swinburne鈥檚 will directed that his ashes be scattered in the Genesee, but as Professor of English John R. Slater wrote in the November 1951 issues of听Rochester Review, 鈥渢hose who knew and loved him best did not obey him鈥hey kept his ashes until the time was right鈥︹�� Purportedly, a box with the ashes was buried four feet beneath the memorial boulder which stands near the Interfaith Chapel. But when the boulder was moved in 1968 and the area beneath it was searched, no box was found.
鈥淭he best poems ever written constitute our future.鈥�
from Rochester Review, May 2013
鈥淭he best poems ever written constitute our future,鈥� writes James Longenbach, the Joseph Henry Gilmore Professor of English, in opening his book,听The Virtues of Poetry听(Graywolf Press, 2013). 鈥淭hey refine our notions of excellence by continuing to elude them.鈥� In interlaced chapters, Longenbach considers the almost magical powers, or virtues, that poems can enact through the most ordinary means: among them, compression, dilation, intimacy, and otherness.
He leads readers, with attention to the smallest inflections of language, through works by such poets as Shakespeare, Yeats, Dickinson, Marvell, Whitman, Blake, and Ashbery, and finds within them examples of the endlessly diverse powers of language.
What prompted him to write the book? 鈥淎 contradiction,鈥� he says. 鈥淚 found that when I was thinking about one particular poem, I would be talking about what made it interesting, worthy of attention, and so on; but then I鈥檇 be thinking about a different poem, and I鈥檇 realize that I would be talking about qualities that were inimical to the qualities that made the other poem interesting. This conflict seemed important and true to me: that you can鈥檛 legislate quality, or more perniciously, greatness鈥攖hat the very quality that makes one poem fascinating and gripping and lasting might be the very thing that ruins another poem.鈥�
Read more in听.
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Celebrating 40 years of BOA Editions
BOA Editions, a not-for-profit publisher of poetry and other literary works, marks 40 years of cultivating and publishing new and established poets.
River 人妻少妇专区 Libraries recently acquired the press鈥� last decade of publishing archives.EXHIBIT | BOA Editions: 40 Years of Connecting Writers with Readers
March 7 鈥撎� July 29, 2016, Rush Rhees Library鈥檚 Friedlander Lobby
This retrospective will explore BOA鈥檚 evolution over the years through an extensive display of BOA volumes published between 1977 and 2015. Selected typescripts, book and cover designs, correspondence between authors and editors, and BOA publicity samples鈥攁ll drawn from the archives of BOA Editions acquired by the River 人妻少妇专区 Libraries beginning in 2005鈥搘ill reveal the lifecycle through which poetry and literature move from submission to published work.
