Debora Cheney
Larry and Ellen Foster Communications
Librarian and head,
News and Microforms Library
Years Ago... The Historical Digital Collegian Database
The Historical Digital Collegian database, now covering 100 years (1887-1987), allows us to re-visit and re-remember Penn State history through the eyes of the student newspaper.
Poets and Poetry at Penn State
A string of poets' names sprinkled through the pages of the Daily Collegian (from 1887-1987)—Fred Lewis Pattee, Edgar A. Guest, Edwin Markham, James Stephens, W. H. Auden, Theodore Roethke, Carl Sandburg, Dylan Thomas, Richard Eberhart, Robert Frost, e.e. Cummings, Archibald MacLeish, Stephen Spender, John Brunner, John Balaban, Nikki Giovanni, Donald Justice, Denise Levertov, Gary Snyder, Stanley Kunitz, Gwendolyn Brooks, Maxine Kumin, W.S. Merwin, Carolyn Kizer, Lucille Clifton, Russell Edson.
Like pearls on a necklace, Penn State’s rich tradition of poets and poetry is revealed in the pages of the campus newspaper from 1887 to 1987. From the charming: “Paste Pot and Shears,” a discussion of poetry appearing in a variety of college magazines, (The Free Lance, 5/1898, p. 58) to reports of Professor Crockett’s “exceedingly interesting” lecture and reading of Edgar Alan Poe’s “The Raven” (“Markham Defines Poetry Essence,” Penn State Collegian, 4/28/1910, p. 3) and Edwin Markham’s reading of his own “The Man with the Hoe” (reported in the Penn State Collegian, 11/18/1932: p. 1) indicate the continuing interest in poetry and poets.
Penn State’s most famous resident poet, Theodore Roethke, a tennis coach and assistant professor in the English Department, offered poetry readings in a variety of locations during his years at Penn State, including the Library. His selection as the youngest poet to read in “Harvard’s famed Poetry Room in … Widener Library” is reported with much as much pride (“Roethke Featured at Harvard Today” Daily Collegian, 4/7/1942, p. 1) as Fred Lewis Pattee’s new book on The Poems of Philip Frenau, Poet of the American Revolution (Princeton, 1903) (The State Collegian, 10/26/1904, p.5).
Poets, such as Carl Sandburg (“Outstanding Folk Poet,” 1/12/1950, p. 1) reading at “72 years of age,” Dylan Thomas (1952), Robert Frost (1959), e.e. Cummings (1959), and Archibald MacLeish (1961), gave way to the “verbal pyrotechnics” of poets such as John Brunner [British poet and science fiction writer] (“God Appears on Campus,” 11/20/1972, p. 3), Nikki Giovanni (“Poet to Provide ‘Powerful Literary Drama” Daily Collegian 11/29/1979, p. 19), Lucille Clifton (“Poetry Readings Feature the Finest,” Daily Collegian, 2/10/1987, p. 13) and John Balaban (another Penn State English Department professor and poet). Balban also provided many readings at events across campus, including several from After Our War (University of Pittsburgh Press, 1974) (“Balaban Poetry Highlights Talk,” Daily Collegian 10/25/1974, p. 8) reflecting both his interest and our own in the Vietnam war.
Over the years, a number of literary magazines, including Kalliope (“Kalliope Publishes Students’ Poetry and Prose, Offers Open Readings” Daily Collegian, 2/15/1984, p. 14), PIVOT (“Poetry Magazine Beats the Odds” Daily Collegian, 12/10/1981, p. 6), Inkling, and The Lantern, to name a few, published student and faculty poetry (“Are Literary Efforts in Vain? Daily Collegian, 10/9/1956, p. 6). Names such as Katey Lehman (honored by the Katey Lehman Creative Writing Awards made annually in poetry, fiction and journalism) and Joseph Grucci (founder of PIVOT, who also taught the Poetry Workshop and honored by the Grucci Poetry Center housed in the English Department) are synonymus with Penn State student poetry (“Poetry, Sculpture, Magazines Created by Versatile Gruccis” Daily Collegian, 4/5/1956, p. 7). Their names and efforts in support of poetry writing and publishing appear regularly in the Daily Collegian from 1940-1987). Even a radio program, The College, heard Wednesdays on WDFM provided an outlet for The University Readers, a group devoted to the art of “reading aloud” gave voice to poetry readings by students (“University Readers Have Varied Activieties Including Workshops, Radio Program” Daily Collegian, 2/23/67, p. 1).
Perhaps student journalist, P.J. Platz said it best, “A poet is a magician. . . . A poet is a lover. . . . A poet is a painter. . . . ” (“Merwin: Poet, Translator and Playwright Too” Daily Collegian, 4/23/1980, p. 17). Penn State students and faculty have been witness and given witness to 100 years of some of the most notable poets and poetry of 20th century.