HGA Poetry Cafe

On Tuesday I was delighted to be present for "The Poetry Cafe" hosted by the seventh grade class of HGA Regional School.  English teacher Marygrace Ewart has been fostering in her students an appreciation for poetry, and this event was the fruit of much labor--hers and the students'.  Each member of the class recited from memory a work of such poets as Shel Silverstein, Robert Frost, Edgar Allan Poe, Christina Rossetti, and others.  One student offered an original work.

The evening concluded with Daphne McMaster, a senior at Reading High, who recited three poems, including the one found in the link above.  This Reverend Blogger was particularly impressed by her choice of Gerard Manley Hopkins, a convert from Anglicanism-turned-Jesuit priest, whom McMaster named her favorite poet.

Nowadays it is precious to find a young person interested in the great poets.  We hope that this exercise, though perhaps obligatory for many of the students, will catalyze a lifelong love of this sublime form of human (and divine) expression.

UPDATE: For the Reading Eagle's coverage of the event, click here.