Students gathered in the Penny’s coffee shop to read and discuss haunted fall poems with Associate Professor of English Elizabeth Fredricks Oct. 13.
Fredericks and junior Alydia Ullman, the event organizer, said the inspiration behind the event was a desire to enjoy more modern poetry.
“I know a lot of what we do here at Hillsdale is older material,” Fredericks said. “Sometimes students go, ‘I love poetry, but I don’t feel like I necessarily know a lot of what’s current,’ and this is a great way to bring some recent poetry and remind people that great books are still being written, which is delightful.”
Ullman said she wanted to apply the classical curriculum of Hillsdale College to modern works.
“It’s important to know what people in our day and age are writing and saying and thinking and then asking, ‘How can we add to that with our liberal arts backgrounds?’” Ullman said.
Fredericks assembled the poems read during the event, and said she wanted to add a dash of intrigue to the fall theme.
“We wanted something that felt like, ‘What would hit people in the moment that we’re in?’” Fredricks said. “It’s starting to actually feel like fall so we all want to start taking it all in. Yes, we want hot cider and delicious soup. And we want spooky poems that make us shiver, or at least things that bring autumn even more vividly to mind.”
The selection of poems ranged from reminiscences of autumn beauty to stories of otherworldly monsters, and Fredericks led the discussions from “lighter” to “deeper” works. She said she wanted the event to inspire delight in poetry on its own, using the word “hedonistic” to describe her approach.
“Poetry can just be for pleasure as well,” she told the attendees at the beginning of the event.
After the reading of each poem, attendees took turns expressing their opinions before Fredericks added to their analysis.
Some of the poems read include “Low Barometer” by Robert Bridges, “November Guest” by Robert Frost, and “At Roane Head” by Robin Robertson.
Ullman said she loved the turnout for the event.
“I was so excited to see so many people I didn’t know there,” she said.
Fredericks said she enjoyed the participation of the attendees, which led to a fruitful discussion of each poem.
“There was a lot of conversation to pass around, and the people were really interested and engaged,” Fredericks said. “I was very happy with it — people coming on a Friday afternoon, when they’re tired, for poetry.”
Freshman Alessia Sandala said she was looking forward to this kind of casual setting coming into the event.
“I never really liked poetry prior to my senior year in high school, when one of my teachers led us to do a lot of different activities with poetry and really changed my view on it,” Sandala said. “So I wanted to explore poetry more just for fun rather than inside the classroom.”
Junior attendee Olivia Finch said she especially enjoys Fredericks’s style of poetry analysis.
“Before class, Dr. Fredricks often does a little poem that she puts on the slide,” Finch said. “She’s really, really good at explaining poetry. I wanted to go to the event, partially for spooky poems and partially for Dr. Fredericks. I like when I can just feel lowkey with my professors.”
Ullman and Fredericks said when they first started talking about Profs and Poetry, they discussed wanting to make it a series, with more events this semester and next semester.
Sandala said she liked that the event made her feel more appreciative of the season she was in.
“When I walked out of Penny’s, I felt renewed in fall,” Sandala said. “Everything smelled like fall, and I could just see the leaves better. Instead of just a dreary, cloudy day, it felt like a beautiful autumn day.”
