The Dead Poets of New England

May 14th: Emily Dickinson Poetry Walk

This year's Emily Dickinson Poetry Walk will focus on her poetry in translation. The 1 PM Community reading on Saturday, May 14th will move from place to place in town, finishing at HER GRAVE. Should be a very informative and fun event.

There will be an open house at her homestead museum from 3 to PM.

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!

Happy Birthday (Aug. 29th) Stanley Kunitz

If you are near Worcester, MA, the Worcester County Poetry Association is having a birthday bash:

Thursday, July 29 - Happy Birthday Stanley Kunitz 

A birthday celebration with poetry and discussion. Catch up on the latest Kunitz news and join us for a pear treat in the poet's honor.

Thursday, July 29 - 7:00pm to 9:00pm

WCPA, 1 Ekman Street, Worcester

Emily Dickinson Marathon Sept 25th

(News from the Emily Dickinson Musuem) Emily Dickinson lovers of all ages are invited to join the Emily Dickinson Poetry Marathon, a daylong marathon reading of all 1,789 poems by Emily Dickinson. The event, which is sponsored annually by the Emily Dickinson Museum, will take place from 7 a.m. to approximately 11 p.m. at the Dickinson Homestead. All are welcome to participate in the free event as a reader, a listener, or both! Stay for just a single poem or join us for the entire day.

A Visit with Anne Sexton and E.E. Cummings

(From Forest Hills Cemetery) Join us for a pilgrimage to the gravesites of two of the most famous American poets of the 20th century – Anne Sexton and E.E. Cummings. Along the way, we will read their poetry and see contemporary art inspired by their work, decode Victorian symbolism and view elegant 19th-century sculpture, and hear the stories of some of the other notables buried at Forest Hills during a walk led by the Trust’s Director Cecily Miller and Program Coordinator Jonathan Clark. $9

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

 

Poetry Marathon About to Begin

In two hours, at sunrise, here in Provincetown, the Great Boston Poetry Marathon is about to begin.

We can't visit 26.2 graves, but either 25 or 26 would break the land speed record for poets' graves visited within a 24 hour period.

Dead Poets of Vermont & New Hampshire Online

The Dead Poets of Vermont & New Hampshire Map is now online. You can find out the grave location of your favorite past poet from Vermont or New Hampshire, as well as help find the location of some not known. (We know this is quite incomplete. You can always send in more names and locations in the comments.)

Dead Poets of Massachusetts is Online

Check out the Dead Poets of Massachusetts Map. Perhaps more dead poets per capita than any State in the Union!