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Contact: Kathie Dibell570-577-3260[email protected]
Poetry Tradition Honored at Inauguration of Bucknell's 15th President
LEWISBURG, Oct. 29 -- Poets and poetry have long been celebrated at Bucknell, so it was fitting that poems be part of the pomp in the inaugural ceremonies Sunday for the university's 15th president, Steffen H. Rogers.
Cynthia Hogue, poet and director of the Stadler Center for Poetry, wrote an original poem for the occasion, at the request of Rogers' wife, Athena. Hogue also selected poems by T.S. Eliot and Maya Angelou to be delivered by other faculty members.
"Concord Is More Piquant Than Attack" is the title of Hogue's poem and draws from poets Thomas Hardy and Marianne Moore while speaking of feelings and sights peculiar to Bucknell and Lewisburg.
"Thoreau would have seen a reason for living in a town like this," Hogue told Rogers. "… with the lambent air of Indian summer breezing through your own new house, and the river (the Susquehanna) etched with waves as formal as the scales on a dragon."
Hogue refers to free-roaming campus squirrels whose coats were bleached a couple of years ago for an animal behaviorist's research: "The dissident squirrels with white spots, so civil as to extend an experiment to study the social behavior of their species years past the allotted time."
She speaks of the beauty of Bucknell. "… the riverside wildflowers and trees entrust the mist at dawn, so that you have the northern bloom on hand: wisteria, foxglove, tonic Echinacea, treacly moonflowers Thoreau would have catalogued as precisely as the biologist." Rogers is a biologist.
Lewisburg "is a fit haven for children, students, staff, teachers, administrators: each in their way as at home as a hero whose father died before he was born," she wrote. Rogers' father was killed while hunting ducks during a freak freezing storm in Wisconsin.
Although original poetry readings may be unusual for college presidents' inaugurations nationwide, Hogue said, it is not unusual for Bucknell. Her predecessor as poetry center director, Jack Wheatcroft, composed poems for three previous inaugurations.
Other poems read at the inauguration were from Eliot's "Little Gidding," and Angelou's "On the Pulse of Morning" that she read at President Clinton's inauguration.
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Hogue said she chose the poems because they "addressed history, change and transition coming out of a time of struggle. Eliot's poem is almost a prayer and a looking beyond the current moment to the spirit's survival. Angelou's poem is very allegorical with its personification of rock, river and tree -- all of which seem apt for our region." Hogue also cited the Angelou poem for its "careful inclusion of all peoples, and its commitment to equity and ethical rectitude."
The Stadler Center for Poetry was established at Bucknell in 1981 with a gift from Jack Stadler, a 1940 graduate, and his late wife, Raylynn. The center is housed in Bucknell Hall, built in 1886.
Among the center's programs are:
o The Bucknell Seminar for Younger Poets, a four-week program for a dozen promising undergraduate poets from around the nation. The students write, attend workshops and give readings.
o Poet-in-Residence for a distinguished poet to carry on his or her own creative work, plus teach workshops, give poetry readings, work with students and visit area high school classes.
o Stadler Semester for Younger Poets for one or two gifted undergraduate poets from other colleges to spend four months at Bucknell writing and studying poetry.
o Philip Roth Residence in Creating Writing that provides a writer who has some accomplishments an opportunity to concentrate on writing for a semester. The residency is named for the Pulitzer Prize-winning author who is a 1954 graduate of Bucknell. In alternate years, the residency is awarded to a writer of fiction and a poet
o The Sandra and Gary Sojka Visiting Poet Series that brings in a distinguished poet during the fall semester for readings and visits with students. The series was established by a former Bucknell president and his wife.
o The Reading Series brings in poets from the area to read for special events.
o West Branch, a biannual literary magazine.
o The Annual Bucknell Poetry Festival invites 10-12 writers whose work has appeared in "West Branch" to participate in a weekend-long series of readings and workshops.
o A Poetry Series that publishes three poetry books each year in cooperation with the Bucknell University Press, the center and West Branch.
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(Hogue can be contacted at 570-577-1994, [email protected]. Her poem follows:)
Concord Is More Piquant Than Attack(written after a line by Thomas Hardy and Marianne Moore's "The Steeple-Jack"
On the occasion of the inauguration of Steffen H. Rogersas the 15th President of Bucknell University, 29 October, 2000)
Thoreau would have seen a reason for living
in a town like this, with ten stranded housesof worship like beached whales;with the lambent air of Indian summer breezing through your own new house, and the river etched with waves as formal as the scales on a dragon.
One by one in twos and threes, the doves keep
flying back and forth around the clocktower,or swooping like bats on All Hallow's Eve--their wings rising steadily with the fading light.
The whirlwind of fife-and-drum
arrival has not disturbedthe stars in the sky. It is a privilege to seeso much confusion.
Let us call it profusion. Disguised by what mightseem the opposite, the riverside wild-flowers and trees entrust the mist at dawn, so thatyou have the northern bloom on hand: wisteria,
foxglove, tonic echinacea, treacly moon-flowers Thoreau would have catalogued as preciselyas the biologist.
In Concord, where a battle was fought,
Thoreau found a life of peace. The dissidentsquirrels with white spots, so civil as to extendan experiment to study the social behavior of their species years past the allotted time, the fire barricade before Bucknell Hall when there was no fire,
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and the prophet named Good LuckJohn standing on the hillthat now leads down to your house:these the distinguishing featuresof the place are a source of inquiry and candor more than bravado or danger.The pitch of the library
tower is true; the town is a fit havenfor children, students, staff, teachers, ad-ministrators: each in their way as at home as a hero whose father diedbefore he was born. It could not be dangerous to be living in a town like this, of complex people who place virtual "under construction" signs all over, which on a campus could stand for real renewal.
-- By Cynthia Hogue
Director, Stadler Center for Poetry
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