{"id":148172,"date":"2016-04-04T13:36:25","date_gmt":"2016-04-04T17:36:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/?p=148172"},"modified":"2025-04-24T15:36:52","modified_gmt":"2025-04-24T19:36:52","slug":"national-poetry-month-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/national-poetry-month-2016\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;To write one poem, you have to read a thousand&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Professor of English James Longenbach encourages the appreciation of poetry, and National Poetry Month was established 20 years ago to do the same: \u201cto highlight the extraordinary legacy and ongoing achievement of American poets, and encourage the reading of poems.\u201d We invite you to revisit this page and discover some of the poetic richness that can be found at the University of Rochester.<\/p>\n<h2>\u201cMy favorite poems\u201d<\/h2>\n<p>Members of the Rochester community read their favorite poems. More videos will be added throughout the month of April.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-embed\">\n<div class=\"wp-embed-wrap\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"National Poetry Month: &quot;When Did It Happen?&quot; by Regina A. Cerulli\" width=\"1062\" height=\"597\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/xfoajLF9dmA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cWhen Did It Happen?\u201d by Regina A. Cerulli, read by Kate Cerulli, Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Director of the Susan B. Anthony Center for Women\u2019s Leadership.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-embed\">\n<div class=\"wp-embed-wrap\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"National Poetry Month: &quot;A Magic Moment I Remember&quot; by Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin\" width=\"1062\" height=\"597\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/O2MlVOslgNI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cA Magic Moment I Remember\u201d by Alexander Segeyevich Pushkin, read by Tatyana Bakhmetyeva, lecturer in the Susan B. Anthony Institute for Gender, Sexuality, and Women\u2019s Studies.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-embed\">\n<div class=\"wp-embed-wrap\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"National Poetry Month: &quot;First Fig&quot; by Edna St. Vincent Millay\" width=\"1062\" height=\"597\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/lT0GSuXrgrc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cFirst Fig\u201d, by Edna St. Vincent Millay, read by Joan Saab, Associate Professor of Art History and Chair of the Department of Art and Art History.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-embed\">\n<div class=\"wp-embed-wrap\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"National Poetry Month: &quot;An Elegy for My Daughter&quot; by Muhammad Ibn al-Khiyami\" width=\"1062\" height=\"597\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/bPrGqeA_Yws?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cAn Elegy for My Daughter,\u201d by Muhammad Ibn al-Khiyami, as translated and read by Emil Homerin, Professor of Religion and Chair of the Department of Religion and Classics.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-embed\">\n<div class=\"wp-embed-wrap\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"National Poetry Month: &quot;Apricots&quot; by Jennifer Grotz\" width=\"1062\" height=\"597\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/U2xUVVE5xlk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cApricots,\u201d by Professor of English Jennifer Grotz, as read by the author.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-embed\">\n<div class=\"wp-embed-wrap\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"National Poetry Month: &quot;The Argument of His Book&quot; by Robert Herrick\" width=\"1062\" height=\"597\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/fuEzzRGkqZY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cThe Argument of His Book,\u201d by Robert Herrick, as read by Honey Meconi, Professor of Musicology, Chair and Professor of Music, College Music Department.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-embed\">\n<div class=\"wp-embed-wrap\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"National Poetry Month: &quot;You Who Never Arrived&quot; by Rainer Maria Rilke\" width=\"1062\" height=\"597\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/qAN9U4i_oFo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cYou Who Never Arrived,\u201d by Rainer Maria Rilke, as read by Nigel Maister, Russell and Ruth Peck Artistic Director of the International Theatre Program.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-embed\">\n<div class=\"wp-embed-wrap\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"National Poetry Month: &quot;De Profundis&quot; by Georg Trakl\" width=\"1062\" height=\"597\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/NPsNtu1JgZ8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cDe Profundis\u201d, by Georg Trakl, translated by James Wright and Robert Bly, read by Stephen Schottenfeld, associate professor of English.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-embed\">\n<div class=\"wp-embed-wrap\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"National Poetry Month: &quot;Be Not Defeated by the Rain&quot; by Kenji Miyazawa\" width=\"1062\" height=\"597\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/v-xKyaRG0kg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cBe Not Defeated by the Rain\u201d, by Kenji Miyazawa, translated by David Sulz, read by Mari Tsuchiya, Senior Library Assistant, Outreach, Learning, and Research Services. Translation used with permission.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-embed\">\n<div class=\"wp-embed-wrap\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"National Poetry Month: &quot;Idea 61: Since there&#039;s no help, come let us kiss and part&quot;\" width=\"1062\" height=\"597\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/u0HH4UxmTc0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cIdea 61: Since there\u2019s no help, come let us kiss and part\u201d, by Michael Drayton, read by Honey Meconi, Professor of Musicology, Chair and Professor of Music, College Music Department.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<div class=\"grid-container\" data-js=\"progress-content\">\n<div class=\"t-content grid-container__stagger-double post_content\">\n<h1>Poetic treasures<\/h1>\n<h3>A peek at a few choice pieces from the British literature collection held by Rare Books and Special Collections.\u00a0<em>(University photos \/ J. Adam Fenster)<\/em><\/h3>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_155892\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-155892\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-155892\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/poetry-month-tennyson1.jpg\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/poetry-month-tennyson1.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/poetry-month-tennyson1-630x420.jpg 630w, https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/poetry-month-tennyson1-768x512.jpg 768w\" alt=\"Cover of the book The May Queen\" width=\"1000\" height=\"667\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-155892\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tennyson\u2019s\u00a0<em>The May Queen.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_155902\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-155902\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-155902\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/poetry-month-tennyson2.jpg\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/poetry-month-tennyson2.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/poetry-month-tennyson2-630x420.jpg 630w, https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/poetry-month-tennyson2-768x512.jpg 768w\" alt=\"illustrated page from the poem The May Queen\" width=\"1000\" height=\"667\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-155902\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tennyson\u2019s\u00a0<em>The May Queen.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h1><em>The May Queen<\/em><\/h1>\n<p>First published in 1832, Alfred Lord Tennyson\u2019s poem \u201cThe May Queen\u201d 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.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_155942\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-155942\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-155942\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/poetry-month-virgil1.jpg\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/poetry-month-virgil1.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/poetry-month-virgil1-630x420.jpg 630w, https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/poetry-month-virgil1-768x512.jpg 768w\" alt=\"Open book The Works of Virgil\" width=\"1000\" height=\"667\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-155942\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dryden\u2019s\u00a0<em>The Works of Virgil.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_155952\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-155952\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-155952\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/poetry-month-virgil2.jpg\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/poetry-month-virgil2.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/poetry-month-virgil2-630x420.jpg 630w, https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/poetry-month-virgil2-768x512.jpg 768w\" alt=\"close-up of a page from The Works of Virgil\" width=\"1000\" height=\"667\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-155952\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dryden\u2019s\u00a0<em>The Works of Virgil.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h1><em>The Works of Virgil<\/em><\/h1>\n<p>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 \u201cAge of Dryden.\u201d This is a first edition of\u00a0<em>The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and \u00c6neis. Translated into English Verse by Mr. Dryden, Adorn\u2019d with a Hundred Sculptures<\/em>\u00a0(London: Jacob Tonson, 1697).<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_155992\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-155992\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-155992\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/poetry-month-voyage.jpg\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/poetry-month-voyage.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/poetry-month-voyage-630x420.jpg 630w, https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/poetry-month-voyage-768x512.jpg 768w\" alt=\"handwriting from Tennyson\" width=\"1000\" height=\"667\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-155992\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tennyson\u2019s\u00a0<em>The Voyage.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h1><em>The Voyage<\/em><\/h1>\n<p>These lines from Tennyson\u2019s poem \u201cThe Voyage\u201d are written in his own hand and describe the view from the deck of a ship: \u201cHow 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\u2019d light!\u201d<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-151422\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/burns-douglass.jpg\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 709px) 100vw, 709px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/burns-douglass.jpg 709w, https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/burns-douglass-630x533.jpg 630w\" alt=\"two images side by side, one showing Frederick Douglass's handwriting and the other the outside cover of the book of RObert Burns poetry\" width=\"709\" height=\"600\" \/><\/p>\n<h1><em>The Work of Robert Burns<\/em><\/h1>\n<p>In 1869 abolitionist Frederick Douglass presented this book to his son Lewis. Above you can see the inscription in Douglass\u2019s handwriting: \u201cThis 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.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-148942 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/UmarIbnalFarid.jpg\" alt=\" Arabic manuscript\" width=\"493\" height=\"614\" \/><\/p>\n<h1><em>Wine Ode<\/em><\/h1>\n<p>The Memorial Art Gallery\u2019s collection contains\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/magart.rochester.edu\/Obj7339\"><strong>this stunning 17th century Persian manuscript<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0in watercolor, ink, and gold. The large Arabic script and the Arabic in the \u201ccloud\u201d shapes are verses from the poet Umar Ibn al-Farid\u2019s\u00a0<em>Wine Ode<\/em>, 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.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_153822\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-153822\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-153822\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/fea_plutzik_001185-805x1024.jpg\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 805px) 100vw, 805px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/fea_plutzik_001185-805x1024.jpg 805w, https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/fea_plutzik_001185-495x630.jpg 495w, https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/fea_plutzik_001185-768x977.jpg 768w\" alt=\"In a posthumously published memoir, University poet Hyam Plutzik, describes early aspects of his efforts to become a poet.\" width=\"805\" height=\"1024\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-153822\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">In a posthumously published memoir, University poet Hyam Plutzik, describes early aspects of his efforts to become a poet.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h1>Thoughts on Hyam Plutzik,\u00a0<em>Letter from a Young Poet<\/em><\/h1>\n<p><em>by Edward Moran<\/em><br \/>Seventy-five years after it was written by a twenty-something college graduate\u2014and long before that graduate became a Rochester professor\u2014Hyam Plutzik\u2019s eloquent\u00a0<em>Letter from a Young Poet<\/em>\u00a0still resonates with today\u2019s millennials in their quest for life\u2019s calling. Addressed to Odell Shepard, Plutzik\u2019s mentor at Trinity College, the 72-page letter is a \u201csong of the self and the soul,\u201d in the words of poet Daniel Halpern, who wrote the Foreword to the book, published in 2015 by Trinity\u2019s Watkinson Library.<\/p>\n<p>With its title inspired by Rainer Maria Rilke\u2019s acclaimed\u00a0<em>Letters to a Young Poet, Letter from a Young Poet<\/em>\u00a0can be read as Plutzik\u2019s response to Rilke\u2019s mentorial admonition to his young poet friend to \u201chave patience with everything that remains unsolved in your heart . . . live in the question.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>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: \u201cWe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/thoughts-on-hyam-plutzik-letter-from-a-young-poet\/\">Read an excerpt from Hyam Plutzik\u2019s\u00a0<em>Letter from a Young Poet<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-151482\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/swinburne.jpg\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/swinburne.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/swinburne-514x630.jpg 514w\" alt=\"Thomas Swinburne\" width=\"600\" height=\"736\" \/><\/p>\n<h1>Thomas Thackeray Swinburne and \u201cThe Genesee\u201d<\/h1>\n<p>Every student\u2019s college experience begins and ends with these words\u2014\u201cFull many fair and famous streams\u2026\u201d Sung at Convocation and Commencement, and on many occasions in-between, these lines were written by Thomas Thackeray Swinburne, our University\u2019s \u201cPoet Laureate.\u201d (The music was written by another alumnus, Herve Dwight Wilkins, a member of the class of 1866.)<\/p>\n<p>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\u00a0<em>Democrat and Chronicle<\/em>\u00a0after his death notes, \u201cAlthough 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.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>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 \u201cconversation\u201d between the river and the well-known Statue of Mercury, then atop the Kimball Building.<\/p>\n<p>Swinburne published and printed books of his poems at his printing firm on Exchange Street. His 1907\u00a0<em>Rochester Rhymes<\/em>\u00a0is 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.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_151492\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-151492\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-151492\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/swinburne-rock.jpg\" alt=\"historic photo of men standing next to the Swinburn Rock\" width=\"432\" height=\"342\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-151492\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Herman LeRoy Fairchild, Edward Foreman, and Rush Rhees standing beside the Swinburne Rock.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Swinburne\u2019s 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\u00a0<em>Rochester Review<\/em>, \u201cthose who knew and loved him best did not obey him\u2026they kept his ashes until the time was right\u2026\u201d 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.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/urexhibits.lib.rochester.edu\/s\/ua-test-site-home\/page\/songs-UR\">Read the words of \u201cThe Genesee\u201d<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/urochester\/the-genesee-sung-by-the?in=urochester\/sets\/songs-of-the-university-of-rochester\">Listen to a recording of the song by the YellowJackets<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h1>\u201cThe best poems ever written constitute our future.\u201d<\/h1>\n<p><em>from Rochester Review, May 2013<\/em><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_149042\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-149042\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-149042\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/longenbach-rochester-review.jpg\" alt=\"James Longenbach\" width=\"600\" height=\"399\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-149042\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Poetic progress: \u201cTo write one poem, you have to read a thousand of them,\u201d says poet James Longenbach, the Joseph H. Gilmore Professor of English. (University photo \/ J. Adam Fenster)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cThe best poems ever written constitute our future,\u201d writes James Longenbach, the Joseph Henry Gilmore Professor of English, in opening his book,\u00a0<em>The Virtues of Poetry<\/em>\u00a0(Graywolf Press, 2013). \u201cThey refine our notions of excellence by continuing to elude them.\u201d 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.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>What prompted him to write the book? \u201cA contradiction,\u201d he says. \u201cI 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\u2019d be thinking about a different poem, and I\u2019d 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\u2019t legislate quality, or more perniciously, greatness\u2014that the very quality that makes one poem fascinating and gripping and lasting might be the very thing that ruins another poem.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Read more in\u00a0<em><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/pr\/Review\/V75N5\/0307_longenbach.html\">Rochester Review<\/a><\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-148302 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/BOA-1.jpg\" alt=\"BOA Limited 40 Years\" width=\"200\" height=\"242\" \/><\/p>\n<h1>Celebrating 40 years of BOA Editions<\/h1>\n<h3>BOA Editions, a not-for-profit publisher of poetry and other literary works, marks 40 years of cultivating and publishing new and established poets.<\/h3>\n<p>River Campus Libraries recently acquired the press\u2019 last decade of publishing archives.<strong>EXHIBIT | BOA Editions: 40 Years of Connecting Writers with Readers<\/strong><br \/><em>March 7 \u2013\u00a0 July 29, 2016, Rush Rhees Library\u2019s Friedlander Lobby<\/em><br \/>This retrospective will explore BOA\u2019s 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\u2014all drawn from the archives of BOA Editions acquired by the River Campus Libraries beginning in 2005\u2013will reveal the lifecycle through which poetry and literature move from submission to published work.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Throughout National Poetry Month, faculty and students will share their favorite poems as well as the poetic richness that can be found across the University, including this handwritten manuscript of Hyam Plutzik&#8217;s poem, &#8220;Bomber Base&#8221; from Rare Books and Special Collections. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1372,"featured_media":148332,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13092],"tags":[20542,22722,936,16072],"class_list":["post-148172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-arts","tag-department-of-english","tag-rare-books-special-collections-and-preservation","tag-memorial-art-gallery","tag-school-of-arts-and-sciences"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>&#039;To write one poem, you have to read a thousand&#039;<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/national-poetry-month-2016\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"&#039;To write one poem, you have to read a thousand&#039;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Throughout National Poetry Month, faculty and students will share their favorite poems as well as the poetic richness that can be found across the University, including this handwritten manuscript of Hyam Plutzik&#039;s poem, &quot;Bomber Base&quot; 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