Dead Poets Grand Tour 2010
Initial Report
We
started on Shakespeare’s birthday, in Portland, Maine, the 23rd 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/ (A picture of the map is at the end)
In
the process of this fantastic journey we made many new friends and met so many
remarkable poets and singers, and just plain folk. I’d personally like to thank
everyone who helped make this trip such a success, especially those poets
laureate who worked hard to organize truly memorable events.
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. With the help of Hunter Wentworth and Alice
McGown, filmmakers from Savannah, we captured it all on film. They were real
troopers as this nutty Dead Poet Guy kept up a pace of just over 191.18 miles
per day and 2 poets’ graves per day! (Of course, Mt. Auburn cemetery, where we
visited 16 poets’ graves in 3 hours, bumps that daily average up to a more
impressive-sounding level.)
And
we musn’t forget Dedgar The Poemobile. He was most happy to get to visit the 3
graves of Poe – two times, once at Midnight! – the graves of several of Poe’s
friends, the Poe Cottage, in the Bronx, the Poe Museum, in Richmond, and the
grave of the original “Helen”. Dedgar’s two big disappointments was when his
crew left him behind when they went to eat at the Poe Tavern, on Sullivan’s
Island, SC., and when the trip to the grave of Helen Whitman, a former fiancé
of Poe’s, in Providence, RI., had to be postponed.
This
report of the Dead Poets Grand Tour 2010 is just an initial one**. If any readers notice mistakes please let me
know. I am in the process of adding hyperlinks to the locations we visited, as
well as the title, and name of the reader, of each specific poem that was read.
I’d
also like to thank my sons, Charles and Simon, who helped design the website
logo and the Grand Tour T-shirt, and my three other children, Racquel, Wesley,
and Sam, for their interest and encouragement. And my mother, Mrs. Robert
Skold, for her consulting work.
Poeward! Towards the 1st Dead Poets
Remembrance Day, October 7th, 2010
Sincerely,
Walter
Stauffer Skold
“The
Dead Poet Guy”
Friday,
April 23rd : Day One Maine BASH.
Portland.
Betsy
Sholl, Maine Poet Laureate
Shakespeare
Henry Longfellow
Edwin Arlington Robinson
Philip Booth
Elizabeth Bishop
Edna St. Vincent Millay
Robert Creeley
Robert Lowell
May Sarton
Louise Bogan
David Walker
Saturday,
April 24th. New Hampshire
BASH. Dumbarton, NH. Stark Family Cemetery.
Walter
Butts, N.H. Poet Laureate
Former
laureate, Patricia Fargnoli, also helped to promote this project.
Robert Lowell
Elizabeth Bishop
Visit to Ft.
McHenry. Baltimore, MD.
Visit to Green Mount
Cemetery, Baltimore, MD
Sidney Lanier
Edward Coote Pinkney
Visit to the
grave of John Wilkes Booth. Green Mount Cemetery, Baltimore.
Visit
to 2nd and 3rd graves of Francis Scott Key. Frederick, MD
Frances Scott Key
Visit to Harper’s
Ferry
Visit to Antietam
National Battlefield and National Cemetery.
Theodore O’Hara
Thursday, April 29th.
Michigan BASH. Detroit, MI.
Naomi
Long Madgett, Detroit Poet Laureate
Dudley Randall
Robert Hayden
Visit
to the grave of John Trumbull.
Visit
to the grave of Robert Hayden. Ann Arbor, MI.
Visit
to the grave of Eugene Fields. Kenilworth, IL.
Saturday, May 1st. Wisconsin
BASH. Ft. Atkinson, WI.
Marilyn
Taylor, Wisconsin Poet Laureate
Lorine Niedecker
Carl Sandburg
Sunday, May 2nd Iowa
BASH. Iowa City
Mary
Swander, Iowa Poet Laureate
Donald Justice
Visit
to Carl Sandburg Birth & Burial Place. Galesburg, IL.
Carl Sandburg
Visit to Oak Hill
Cemetery, Lewiston, IL.
(Many
characters from Spoon River Anthology are buried here)
Edgar Lee Masters
Visit to the
boyhood home of Edgar Lee Masters
Visit
to the grave of Edgar Lee Masters.
Petersburg, IL.
Visit to the
grave of Ann Rutledge, Petersburg, IL
(Master’s
poem about Rutledge is on her memorial marker)
Monday, May 3rd. Illinois
BASH. Lincoln Tomb, Springfield.
Abraham Lincoln
Vachel Lindsay
Shel Silverstein
Gwendolyn Brooks
Visit
to the grave of Vachel Lindsay. Oak Ridge cemetery
Tuesday, May 4th.
Indiana BASH. Crown Hill Cemetery, Indianapolis
Joyce
Brinkman, former Indiana Poet Laureate
James Whitcomb Riley
Etheridge Knight
Meredith Nicholson
Sarah Bolton
Ruth Lilly
Visit to
Frankfort, KY. Historical Museum
Visit
to the grave of Theodore O’Hara. Frankfort Cemetery, Frankfort, KY.
Visit
to the grave of Robert Burns Wilson. Frankfort Cemetery, Frankfort, KY.
Wednesday, May 5th.
Kentucky BASH. Lexington, KY.
Father Abram Ryan
Paul Dunbar
Thursday, May 6th.
Tennessee BASH. Murfreesboro, TN
Maggi
Vaughn, Tennessee Poet Laureate
Will Allen Dromgoole
Theodore O’Hara
Visit to Stones
River National Battlefield & Cemetery Murfreesboro, TN.
Visit
to the grave of Virgina Boyle, Memphis, TN.
Virginia Boyle
Saturday, May 8th.
Alabama BASH. Mobile
Sue
Walker, Alabama Poet Laureate
Father Abram Ryan
Caroline
McCall
Mary McNeil Fenollosa,
Eugene Walter,
Vivian Smallwood
Visit
to the Grave of Francis Orray Ticknor, Columbus GA.
Francis Orray Ticknor, MD.
Visit to
Andersonville Prison National Historic Site & National Cemetery
Visit to Sidney
Lanier Birthplace. Macon, GA.
Sidney Lanier
Wednesday, May 12th.
Georgia BASH. Decatur Cemetery
Thomas Holley Chivers, MD.
John Stone, MD
Thursday, May 13th.
Reading at Magnolia Cemetery. Charleston, SC.
Marjory
Wentworth, S.C. Poet Laureate
John Bennett
William Gilmore Simms
Henry Timrod
Penina Moise
Beatrice Witte Ravenel
Josephine Pinkney
Archibald
Rutledge
Bennie
Lee Sinclair
Helen
von Kolintz Hyer
Louisa
Cheves Stoney
Louisa
McCord Josephine Pinckney
Thursday, May 13th.
South Carolina BASH. Charleston, SC. East Bay Meetinghouse
Visit
to the grave of Penina Moise. Coming St. Cemetery, Charleston, SC.
Visit
to the grave of Conrad Aiken. Savannah, GA.
Visit to the Lanier
Oak. Marshes of the Glynn, Brunswick,
GA.
Visit to Poe
Tavern. Sullivan’s Island, SC.
Visit to
Sullivan’s Island. Site of thousands upon thousands of unmarked graves of
African slaves whose lives and deaths have never been documented.
Visit
to Augusta, GA., to the graves of: James Ryder Randall; Paul Hamilton Hayne;
and
Richard Henry Wilde
Visit
to the grave of Henry Timrod. Columbia, SC.
Bob Dylan
Henry Timrod
Tuesday, May 18th.
North Carolina BASH. Fountain General Store, Fountain, NC.
Sam
Ragan
Paul Green
Byron Herbert Reece
Randall Jarrell
A. R. Ammons
Jonathan
Williams
Randall Jarrell
George Moses Horton
Blind Boy Fuller
Visit to sites
around Chapel Hill, NC. related to the life of George Moses Horton.
George
Moses Horton
Visit
to grave of Margaret Junkin Preston. Lexington, VA
Margaret Junkin Preston
Visit to grave of
Stonewall Jackson. Lexington, VA.
Visit to Virginia
Military Institute Museum. Lexington, VA.
Thursday, May 20th.
Virginia BASH. Poe Museum, Richmond, VA.
Carolyn
Kreiter-Foronda, former VA Poet Laureate
Edgar Allan Poe
Anne Spencer
Margaret Junkin Preston
Andrew Jackson Andrews
George Palmer Garrett
Joseph F. Awad
Bess Gresham
Larry Levis
Visit to the Poe
Museum. Richmond, VA.
Visit to grave of
“Helen”, Jane Stedman. Richmond, VA.
Friday, May 21st.
Washington, DC. BASH. Oak Hill Cemetery, Washington, DC.
John Howard Payne
John Joyce
Visit to
Arlington National Cemetery. Arlington, VA.
Theodore
O’Hara poem “Bivouac of the Dead”
J.F.K.
Unknown
Confederate Memorial
Visit to Vietnam
War Memorial. Washington, DC.
Nicholas
Virgilio’s brother’s name is on the wall.
Friday, May 21st.
Maryland BASH. Midnight. Poe’s Tomb, Baltimore, MD
Josephine Jacobsen
Lizette Woodworth Reese
Lucile Clifton
Karl Shapiro
Saturday, May 22nd.
Pennsylvania BASH. Mt. Eden Cemetery, Philadelphia, PA.
Frances Watkins Harper
Jessie Redman Fauset
H.D. Doolittle
Marianne Moore
Loren Eiseley
Sarah Hale
Visit to Joyce
Kilmer Service Area. New Jersey Turnpike.
Saturday, May 22nd.
New York BASH. Roslyn, NY
William Cullen Bryant
Christopher Morley
Visit
to the grave of Henry Dumas. Long Island National Cemetery.
Visit
to the grave of Joseph Rodman Drake. Bronx, NY.
Visit to Poe
Cottage, Bronx, NY.
Visit
to the grave of Fitz-Greene Halleck. Guilford, CT. 47+28= 75
Monday, May 24th. The Great Boston
Poetry Marathon. Eastern Massachusetts.
From
sunrise in Provincetown, at the grave of Stanley Kunitz, to 5:30 PM, at the
grave of James Russell and Maria Lowell, we visited 26 poets’ graves. This set
a new literary land speed record.
Provincetown:
1. Stanley Kuntiz
2. Elise Asher
3. Norman Mailer
Forrest
Hills Cemetery, Boston, MA:
4. Edward Estlin Cummings
5. Eugene O’Neil
6. James Freedman Clarke
7. Anne Sexton
First
Parish Church, Cambridge MA
8. Washington Allston
9. Richard Henry Dana
Visit to
Woodberry Poetry Room. Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
Visit to
Longfellow House. Cambridge, MA
Mt.
Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, MA:
(Numbers
17 through 26)
John Ciardi
Frances Osgood
Fanny Parnell
Amy Lowell
Robert Creeley
Buckminster Fuller
Margaret Fuller
Julia Ward Howe
James Thomas Fields
Louise Chandler Moulton
Christopher Pearse Cranch
Nathaniel Willis
Thomas Gold Appleton
Gamaliel Bradford
Rev. John Pierpont, Sr.
James Russell Lowell
Maria Lowell
Tuesday, May 25th.
Visit
to Niles Beach, MA, where some of the ashes of Vincent Ferrini were scattered.
Visit
to the grave of Charles Olson. Gloucester, MA.