Written by Abbey Williams // Graphic by Makayla McDonald
Students, faculty and visitors enjoyed Robert Frost’s poetry during a poetry walk Sept. 25. The walk was the second event of the 1924 Experience, a year-long series of events focusing on the year 1924 as a part of the Centennial celebration.
Director of the 1924 Experience Kimberly Laing said the event focused on Frost’s poetry because in 1924 Frost won the first of four Pulitzer Prizes for his poetry collection “New Hampshire.” The poetry walk brought together the English and history departments, Laing said. During the walk, students and faculty from both departments sat around a path and would read poems from “New Hampshire” to people who approached them.
“It was really great getting to partner with the English department,” Laing said. “They were amazing; they were so supportive. As a history teacher, I don’t always get to meet the English students, so I got to meet really great students and work with the faculty over there.”
Freshman Ella Fox said the walk was a good way to connect with people.
“[It was] a good way to touch base with people at Harding,” Fox said. “You can just like go through some poetry and meet some people who are passionate about it and get to hear a little bit from someone you’ve probably never associated with before.”
Fox said she saw people of all ages at the walk, from little kids to older couples.
“It was cool to see how different people enjoyed the poems in their own ways,” Fox said.
Sophomore Emma Field said the poems had a connection to the area they were read in.
“The event curator picked poems and places that went along with those poems,” Field said. “For example, there are two different paths to follow. One starts in the women’s garden and takes you down a path, and one by the clock tower has a poem read about a clock tower. Same thing where that tree has fallen down. A poem that was read there had to do with a fallen tree. So, the event curator had to pick locations that correspond with the poems.”
Field said the poems were read outside as an ode to Frost’s love for nature.
“The main meaning [of the walk was] the 1924 tieback,” Field said. “And then Robert Frost just loved nature and wrote a lot in nature about nature, so it’s kind of an ode to him as well.”
