On Sept. 26, former Poet Laureate of Vermont Ellen Bryant Voigt — known for her poems evoking the rural South — read from her nine collections at Sanborn Library. Organized by English professors Matthew Olzmann and Vievee Francis as part of the Cleopatra Mathis Poetry & Prose Series run by the department, the event drew approximately 60 attendees.
Raised on a farm in rural Virginia, though currently based in Vermont, Voigt graduated from Converse College in South Carolina before earning an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. In addition to her poetry writing — and serving as the poet laureate of Vermont for four years — she has held teaching posts at Goddard College, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Warren Wilson College.
Her oeuvre includes a collection of craft essays and six poetry collections. Her poems “Shadow of Heaven” (2002) and “Kyrie” (1995) were finalists for the National Book Award and for the National Book Critics Circle Award, respectively. Her collection “Messenger: New and Selected Poems 1976-2006” (2008) was a 2008 finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.
In an introduction before the reading, Voigt said the selected poems often evoke autumnal themes that evoke the season’s “uncanny” atmosphere. Despite this thematic consistency, however, she thinks her poems span a greater range in tone.
“I hope [my poems] aren’t grim,” Voigt said. “I don’t think I have a lot of uplifting [poems], but I think I have some funnier poems, some lighter poems.”
Though many of the poems read were thematically similar, they were drawn from different parts of her nine collections and published across 47 years. When Voigt was asked about how her poetry has changed over the years, she said she has deliberately “wanted to change [and grow]” in her work.
“I was very determined each time to not repeat myself,” Voigt said. “I think that it’s boring to just do the same thing over and over. There’s a real danger of falling into mannerism. You need to challenge yourself somehow.”
The reading consisted of eight poems, including “Snakeskin” — part of her 2008 collection “Messenger” — as well as selections from her collections “The Forces of Plenty,” “2 Trees,” “High Winds Flare Up and The Old House Shudders” and “Year’s End.” Voigt described some of her poems as “lyrical,” such as “Snakeskin,” and others as “narrative,” such as “Year’s End.”
Voigt’s narrative poems not only recount events from her life, but also draw from history. For instance, Voigt shared selections from “Kyrie,” which chronicles the influenza epidemic of 1918.
“‘Kyrie’ [was] the closest I ever came to a novel or to a sustained narrative,” Voigt said. “I have a hard time writing prose, so that’s as close as I got.”
Audience members included older local residents as well as students who came with varying levels of experience with the art form.
“A comprehension of poetry does not come easy to me, but I could tell through [Voigt’s] reading and discussion that she is passionate about her craft,” attendee Lena Sealey-Nicotra ’28 said.
Matthew Olzmann, assistant professor of English & creative writing, received his MFA through the Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers — a prestigious four-semester graduate program with study tracks in fiction and poetry founded by Voigt in 1976, according to the program website. He praised Voigt for her influence on his own works.
“[Voigt’s] vision for that program, the program itself and the other writers I was in contact with there definitely shaped my development and trajectory as an artist,” Olzmann said.
After almost 45 minutes of poetry, a Q&A session and standing ovation, Voigt shared some insight into her writing process. When questioned by an audience member whether her approach to poetry was more like painting or sculpting, she said that it was like dancing.
Voigt also emphasized the importance of sound and rhythm in her writing process, which can be traced to her background in classical piano.
“I played for a lot of groups,” she said. “I was a rehearsal pianist for sacred music, and choral sacred music, which I really liked doing a lot. I was also a rehearsal pianist for musical theaters.”
Specifically, Voigt shared in an interview with The Dartmouth that her favorite Roman poet is Ovid and referenced a connection between the “strong vowel bounds” and “spondees” of Roman poets to her rhythmic approach to poetry.
Towards the end of the event, Voigt was asked by an audience member to comment on what people can expect next from her.
“That’s a very good question, but I have no idea what the answer might be,” Voigt said. “I would like to write some more poems. I don’t know if I will.”
The Cleopatra Mathis Poetry & Prose Series will continue on Oct. 31 in Sanborn Library with novelist and poet Lucy Ives.
