The Dead Poets of New England

Boston Marathon a Winner!

The Great Boston Poetry Marathon was a huge success! From 6:15 AM in Gloucester, to sunset on Author's Ridge, in Concord, the whole day was a remarkable time of celebration and remembrance.

We'll be posting pictures and videos here in future weeks, as well as a final report on the event. Thanks to all for such a fantastic day of history, poetry and fun!

Iconic Frost Farm Hosts Dead Poets Celebration

The beautiful and historic Frost Farm has joined with the Dead Poets Society of America to host the first New Hampshire Dead Poets Remembrance Day. The grand celebration will take place in the famous Frost barn at 3 PM, on Sunday, October 10th.

Come hear the poetry of Jane Kenyon, Odgen Nash, Robert Lowell, Celia Thaxter, Robert Frost, Scott Mowrer, May Sarton, Richard Eberhart, Phillip Booth, and more, in this National Historic Landmark.

All are welcome to attend the reading. There is a fee of $4 (NH resident) or $5 (non NH resident) to enter to Farm, which is truly one of the best-kept literary sites in the country.

Many thanks to S. Stephanie, poet and wife of NH Poet Laureate, Walter Butts, and Bill Gleed, manager of the Frost Farm and co-founder of the Hyla Brook Poets, for helping to put this event together.

The beautiful and historic Frost Farm has joined with the Dead Poets Society of America to host the first New Hampshire Dead Poets Remembrance Day. The grand celebration will take place in the famous Frost barn at 3 PM, on Sunday, October 10th.

Come hear the poetry of Jane Kenyon, Odgen Nash, Robert Lowell, Celia Thaxter, Robert Frost, Scott Mowrer, May Sarton, Richard Eberhart, Phillip Booth, and more, in this National Historic Landmark.

All are welcome to attend the reading. There is a fee of $4 (NH resident) or $5 (non NH resident) to enter to Farm, which is truly one of the best-kept literary sites in the country.

Many thanks to S. Stephanie, poet and wife of NH Poet Laureate, Walter Butts, and Bill Gleed, manager of the Frost Farm and co-founder of the Hyla Brook Poets, for helping to put this event together.

Historic Grand Tour Report Now Online

The initial report of the historic Dead Poets Grand Tour 2010 is now online.

It chronicles all the places visited and the names of the poets read. From the Report: 

"We started on Shakespeare’s birthday, in Portland, Maine, the 23^rd of April, and we ended with a bang 6,500 miles later at the first Boston Poetry Marathon, May 25th. During those 34 days, and with the cooperation of 13 current and former State Poets Laureate, we held a Dead Poets Bash in 19 different States and visited 43 cemeteries!

The Grand Tour map can be accessed at the top left corner of the Dead Poets Society of America blog:  http://deadpoets.typepad.com/dpsablog/  

The other readings and interviews we held at poets’ graves and houses were really great as well, including the Lorine Niedecker home, the Carl Sandburg home, the E.L. Masters home, the Sidney Lanier house, The Virginia Military Institute, The Poe Museum, the Longfellow House and the Woodberry Poetry Room, at Harvard.

All totaled we visited the graves of 75 American poets, and heard the amazing poetry of over 100 American poets read. Dedgar and the crew kept up a pace of just over 191.18 miles per day and 2 poets’ graves per day!

The initial report of the historic Dead Poets Grand Tour 2010 is now online.

It chronicles all the places visited and the names of the poets read. From the Report: 

"We started on Shakespeare’s birthday, in Portland, Maine, the 23^rd of April, and we ended with a bang 6,500 miles later at the first Boston Poetry Marathon, May 25th. During those 34 days, and with the cooperation of 13 current and former State Poets Laureate, we held a Dead Poets Bash in 19 different States and visited 43 cemeteries!

The Grand Tour map can be accessed at the top left corner of the Dead Poets Society of America blog:  http://deadpoets.typepad.com/dpsablog/  

The other readings and interviews we held at poets’ graves and houses were really great as well, including the Lorine Niedecker home, the Carl Sandburg home, the E.L. Masters home, the Sidney Lanier house, The Virginia Military Institute, The Poe Museum, the Longfellow House and the Woodberry Poetry Room, at Harvard.

All totaled we visited the graves of 75 American poets, and heard the amazing poetry of over 100 American poets read. Dedgar and the crew kept up a pace of just over 191.18 miles per day and 2 poets’ graves per day!

Updated Schedule for the Boston Poetry Marathon

The Map for the Boston Poetry Marathon has the updated schedule.

No more breakfast in Chinatown. Forest Hills is still 10:00  // Harvard Square is 12:30. // Mt. Auburn is 2:00. Will get going right away; no waiting. //  Concord's Author's Ridge is now at 7:00 to 7:45  //  We will no longer have the Midnight to Sunrise section of the journey.//  We will still meet at sunrise at Gloucester, MA.

Updated Schedule for The Great Boston Poetry Marathon

From sunrise, May 24^th, in Provincetown, to sunrise May 25^th, in Gloucester, the Great Boston Poetry Marathon will take place, during which we are hoping to visit 43 different gravesites, having some readings at some of them.

Nothing like this has been done in American literary history, and the Dead Poets Society of America is pleased to invite poets in the Boston area to participate in this 24-hour event.

Readers can meet up with Dedgar The Poemobile along the route at specific times, or join the caravan from the beginning or in Boston. Approximate times at cemeteries are below:

Those wishing to read a poem or ask about our progress traveling may phone : 207-449-8122

http://deadpoets.typepad.com/the_dead_poets_of_massach/

5:12 AM Sunrise.  Provincetown, MA

1 - 3. Start at the graves of Stanley Kunitz & Elise Asher. Also Norman Mailer

9:00 AM Chinatown

4. Near the plaque for Phyllis Wheatley.

9:15 AM Central Burial Ground (Boston Commons)

5. Meet at the grave of Charles Sprague, the Banker Poet of Boston.

10 AM to 10:45 Forrest Hills Cemetery
6. Anne Sexton; 7 E. E. Cummings; 8. James Freeman Clarke; 9. Eugene O'Neill

11:15 AM Hollyhood Cemetery, Brookline. 584 Heath Street, Chesnut Hill

10. John O'Reily

12:30 Harvard Square.

11. Washington Allston; 12. Richard Henry Dan

2:00 to 4:30 PM Mt. Auburn Cemetery (20 Poets!) (13-33)

Henry Longfellow; Buckminster Fuller; Margaret Fuller; Robert Creeley; Frances Sargent Osgood;

Thomas Gold Appleton; John Pierpont Sr.; Charles Eliot Norton; Fanny Parnell; Christopher Pease Cranch;

John Ciardi; Nathaniel Parker Willis; Maria White Lowell; Louise Chandler Moulton; Amy Lowell; Gamaliel Bradford; Julia Ward Howe; Oliver Wendell Holmes; Thomas Bailey Aldrich; David McCord;

7:00 to 7:45 Author's Ridge, Concord MA

35. Ralph Waldo Emerson; 36. Louisa May Alcott; 37 Nathaniel Hawthorne; 38. William Channing; 39. Henry Thoreau

8:30 PM Malden. (After Mt. Auburn)

40. Michael Wigglesworth

SALEM at 9:15 PM

41. .Jones Very (Salem)

5:12 AM, Tuesday the 25th. New Gloucester Beach.

42. Vincent Ferrini                                                                        Henry Ferrini

43. Charles Olson. New Gloucester Cemetery

 

Announcing The Great Boston Poetry Marathon!

At Sunrise, Monday, May 24, get ready for the biggest poets BASH of the new century!

Starting in Provincetown, at the grave of Stanley Kunitz, and ending at sunrise Tuesday, in Gloucester, we'll take a caravan to the graves of over Forty-Eight Poets in 1 DAY! That is 2 Poets' Graves per hour, which will smash the previous literary land speed record.

Along the way we'll have someone reading poetry at each grave. Mark your calenders NOW.

PS (not everyone has to start in Provincetown, you can meet up with the caravan in Chinatown, for breakfast, near where Phyllis Wheatley arrived as a slave child, before becoming the poetic wonder of Boston. Or, meet in Mt. Auburn, or Concord, for the middle and/or end of the marathon.)

Check out the map: We'll be going to Mt. Auburn,  Poets Ridge in Concord, Jack Kerouac, Harriet Stowe, Charles Olson, John Whittier, Anne Sexton, E E. Cummings, John O'Reilly, Charles Sprague, Michael Wigglesworth, Jones Very, Richard Henry Dana.

Anybody Got a Magic Bus?

I want it, I want it, I want it, sang the Who, about a magic bus. That's what we need: a Magick Bus to take a whole school of poets around on the Great Boston Poetry Marathon.

If you have a van or school bus, and can use it for 24 hours (need at least one shared driver), then please consider joining our historic Poetry Marathon through the graveyards and churchyards of Boston.

Historic Reading At Robert Lowell's Grave

Join the Dead Poets Grand Tour 2010 at a reading in the historic Stark Family cemetery, in Dunbarton, NH, on Saturday, April 24. This is where Robert Lowell is buried. (Directions from Concord on Google)

We'll be joined by NH poet laureate, Walter Butts, and other regional poets, at 4 PM.

Please contact Walter Skold, at info (at) deadpoes  [dot] org if you plan to attend. There is no rain location as of yet, and we plan to hold the event if there are gray skies or light rain.