Poetry reading for Millay’s 128th birthday

ROCKLAND — On Sunday, Feb. 23, the Farnsworth Art Museum hosts a gala poetry reading in honor of Edna St. Vincent Millay. The event will mark the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet’s 128th birthday and will feature poets Laura Bonazzoli, Ellen Goldsmith, Annaliese Jakimides, Gary Lawless, Bria Lamonica, Kristen Lindquist, Carl Little, Thomas Moore, Jefferson Navicky, Lisa Panepinto and Ellen Taylor. Poet Kathleen Ellis of Orono will host the annual event. The celebration, which is free to the public, will take place beginning at 1:30 p.m. in the Farnsworth’s auditorium.

Along with their own work, the poets will read favorite Millay poems on this year’s theme, “Naturally Millay: Millay as Eco-Poet.” Millay published her first poem, “Forest Trees,” at the age of 14. "Renascence," the long poem she wrote at age 19, won her fourth place in a national anthology contest and caught the interest of a patron who paid for her education at Vassar College. In 1923, her fourth volume of poems, "The Ballad of the Harp-Weaver," won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. While Millay was clearly influenced by the Romantic poets Shelley and Keats and their notion of the beauty of the sublime in nature, she can also be considered one of Maine’s earliest eco-poets.

The celebration will begin with an update on the Millay House Project, co-sponsor of the event. This program is free. For more information or to register, visit farnsworthmuseum.org.