Of course, Central doesn’t limit its celebration of poetry to April.  Every semester, our faculty teach courses that engage students in the joys and rigors of reading and writing poetry.  For instance, all English majors take a survey of British literature introducing them to the broad sweep of verse beginning with the majestic Beowulf and encompassing Chaucer’s witty verse tales, Shakespeare’s sonnets and plays, Donne’s complex lyrics of erotic and religious love, and Milton’s daunting Paradise Lost.  Other courses give students the opportunity to study intensively the complete works of later poets such as Walt Whitman, Gwendolyn Brooks and W. H. Auden.  Our poet-in-residence, Ravi Shankar, regularly offers a series of courses in writing poetry, and our teacher preparation includes segments on best practices for teaching poetry writing to elementary and secondary students.

In addition to offering poetry courses, CCSU faculty members publish their own poems and scholarly studies of poetry.  Recently, Ravi Shankar, David Cappella, and Steve Ostrowski have published collections of their work. Shankar also edits the online poetry and art quarterly DrunkenBoat.com, and Stuart Barnett co-edits the award-winning Connecticut Review, which publishes some of the finest contemporary American poetry. Gil Gigliotti edited Sinatra, a collection of verse about Frank Sinatra, and Shankar also co-edited a new Norton anthology of world poetry.  David Cappella’s A Surge of Words has introduced teachers across the nation to effective techniques for engaging students with poetry.  Our students, under the guidance of Jack Heitner, annually publish The Helix, the oldest running literary magazine on campus, founded in 1855 when Central was the New Britain Normal School. 

As the warm weather returns to our campus, it’s difficult to avoid all these poetic muses on campus.  Throughout the month, such noted poets as Sean Thomas Dougherty, Jerry Williams, and Jake York have visited our campus and read from their work.  We will also host a reading and discussion with ten international poets, from as far abroad as Vietnam and Malaysia, on May 2, still close enough to April to share in that month’s poetic glow. CCSU’s Theater Department produced The Tempest, an enigmatic play by English’s pre-eminent verse dramatist, Shakespeare.  Language was the focus of our annual writing conference, The Power of the Word, and will continue to be celebrated with the Great American Sidewalk Novel—not overtly verse but surely glimmering with poetic verve—featuring the contributions of many members of the CCSU community and taking shape on the walkway between Willard and Memorial Halls. We will close our April celebrations with our Annual Poetry Reading Marathon on Tuesday, April 29, between 10:45 a.m. and 2:45 p.m..  Our university president, provost, deans, faculty, staff, and students will gather outdoors at the Seven Centuries Courtyard (between Welte Auditorium and the Student Center) to read aloud the verse of favorite poets.  We hope you’ll join us. 

In fact, we hope you’ll consider attending our many events devoted to poetry and other literature every semester.  For current listings of these events, check www.ccsu.edu and click on “Arts Calendar.”