English Department Hosts Dead Poets Reading

Story and photos by Aaron Thomas

The University of Alaska Fairbanks English department hosted a Dead Poets public reading in a collaboration with SoBear lounge at the Hess Auditorium on October 30. 

Samantha Botz and Jericho Williams making opening remarks.

Dozens of people gathered in the audience to enjoy complimentary coffee and mocktails while listening to students and faculty recite their favorite poetry. The first 25 attendees received a free copy of “The Selected Works of Edgar Allan Poe” courtesy of the English Department. 

Readings were centered around spooky themes and many attendees wore their Halloween costumes. Readings ranged from Edgar Allan Poe, Shakespeare, Sylvia Plath, several original poems, and even a candid performance of “Lose Yourself” by Eminem.

In years past, the English Department’s Dead Writers events have been held at the UAF Pub, but in an effort to make the event more accessible to students of all ages it was hosted at the SoBear lounge. The audience was a mix of graduate and undergraduate students, with a large proportion having participated in the reading. 

Samantha Botz and Jericho Williams gave the opening statements for the event and introduced the various participants. Botz and Williams are both English professors and share a love for 19th-century poetry and literature. Williams said the event was to give English students and creative writers a space to relax and enjoy poetry. 

Tim Ott Reciting “Incantation” by Anna Akhmatova in Russian.

Lorenzo Elias recited “The Lake” by Edgar Allan Poe, a poem about visiting a haunted lake in the dead of night. Historians speculate that the poem was inspired by Lake Drummond outside of Norfolk, Virginia, which was said to be haunted by the spirits of two lovers who died there.

“Everyone grows up with like, The Telltale Heart and The Fall of the House of Usher, and more common short stories like that,” said Elias. For Elias, the poem represented a balance between Poe’s famous macabre style and his lesser known more sensitive voice. 

Sophia Utterback recited Oscar Wilde's poem "Apologia," from “Poems for Tortured Souls”, a collection of poetry from various authors that highlights the darker elements of the human psyche. “Apologia” tells a story of tortured love and societal rejection in Wilde’s iconic style.

“I read an Oscar Wilde book, but I found a book called Poems for Tortured Souls at Fred Meyers the other day, and I figured it was fitting,” said Utterback. While Wilde is best known as a novelist and playwright, he was also a prolific poet. Drawing heavily on gothic imagery and romantic influences, Wilde’s poetry explores themes such as love and human mortality in his signature melancholic voice. 

Tim Ott recited an Anna Akhmatova poem in Russian, the title of which translates to “Incantation.” Akhmatova’s style features concise wording and sharp remarks that outlined her life and the censorship she experienced under Stalin’s regime. “Incantation” was written not long after her husband was detained and executed by the NKVD, the Soviet secret police. The poem follows wild animals roaming in fields, sneaking through the city, evading the police, and finally returning home to Akhmatova for dinner.

Mel Durrett recited “A Carcass” by Charles Baudelaire, a love poem so grotesque that it got Baudelaire sued by his own publisher. The expletive filled poem is from his collection of his works titled “Flowers of Evil”. A gothic writer at heart, Baudelaire was influenced by the writings of Edgar Allan Poe and represented a transition between the era of romanticism and the growing influence of modernism. Beyond his poetry, Baudelaire was a passionate art critic and essayist who was not afraid to court scandal. 

The ghost of Dylan Thomas reading “Hunchback in the Park.”

“A Carcass” describes love in juxtaposition with a bloated cadaver being eaten by vultures as it rots in the sun. While Baudelaire no doubt plays into the macabre imagery of the poem for shock value, it places love in the context of human mortality as a way of expressing fleeting nature of romance and life itself.

The event concluded with the two hosts reciting their choice poems. Samantha Botz recited “Porphyria's Lover” by Robert Browning. One of Browning’s most iconic poems, it features a monologue of tortured love and a desire for control.

Jericho Williams read the final poem of the night, an excerpt from “The Devil’s Dictionary” by Ambrose Bierce. The book is a satirical dictionary that produces a wide range of social commentary through mock definition of words. A civil war veteran, Bierce was famous for his disillusioned satire and vicious political criticism. To this day, Bierce’s death remains a source of much speculation and mystery. In 1913 at the age of 71, he sent a letter to a friend stating that he was departing for an unknown location. After that, he vanished without a trace and was never seen again. 

Several of Williams' choice definitions were: “Famous, Conspicuously miserable. Hostility, A sharp and specially applied sense of the earth's overpopulation. Neighbor. One who we are commanded to love as ourselves and who does all they know how to make us disobedient. Ocean. A body of water occupying about two-thirds of the world made for humans who have no gills. Self-evident,”.

Edgar Allan Poe was a favorite among participants, with numerous people reading his poetry. “The Lake”, “The Bells”, and “Alone” were among the audience's favorites. Though a majority of the pieces read at the event were gothic or romantic poetry, a few contemporary poets such as Lena Khalaf Tuffaha were also featured. 

The event came to a close at 7:30 p.m., but many attendees stuck around to further discuss their favorite literary works.