Nobel Laureate Seamus J. Heaney recited his own poetry and read excerpts from his new best-selling translation of the Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf yesterday evening in Lowell Lecture Hall.
The reading was the first annual Stratis Haviaris Lecture, in honor of the long-time curator of the Woodberry Poetry Room.
The hall filled early with eager students, writers and professors--some with new copies of Beowulf in hand and awaiting autographs, others re-reading their dog-eared copies of his collected works.
Porter University Professor Helen H. Vendler introduced Heaney with high praise.
"Heaney's words haunt his readers...long after they close the book," Vendler said.
She joked about Beowulf's current success, but called Heaney's work "a treasure horde of poetry more valuable than any treasure horde of Anglo-Saxon gold he has made us see," before calling Heaney forward.
Heaney, who spends six weeks every two years in residence at Harvard as a visiting poet, made his way slowly through the crowd, pausing frequently to stoop and embrace his friends and colleagues along the way.
Explaining the source of the reading's title, "Room to Rhyme," Heaney sang a spirited Irish children's song for the crowd.
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