“I did not know what [it] meant. I knew I liked it,” he said.
Pinsky said his appreciation for the poem increased tremendously when he analyzed it several years later.
The Favorite Poems Project began with about 18,000 letters and e-mails from people offering to read, but only 50 made the final cut.
Pinsky credited his “graduate student slaves” at Boston University with helping him wade through the massive amount of material.
Though Pinsky has been travelling across the country presenting the project since its completion in 2000, this is its first showing at Harvard.
A poetry reading of Pinsky’s own work that was originally slated to follow the talk has been postponed to April 15.
Pinsky praised the discussion following his presentation.
“The audience was extremely lively, extremely engaged. I took a lot of pleasure in their enthusiastic response,” he said.
Pinsky said he does not plan to repeat the project in the future.
“I’m awfully busy writing poems,” he said. “But if someone else wants to do it, I commend them.”