dumbfoundry

Stevens Walk in Hartford, Connecticut:

So, is there any place in Hartford devoted to Stevens? The answer is "Yes ... and no, not yet," according to Schnaidt. That place is in fact a set of places: the two-mile route the poet walked every workday between his home at 118 Westerly Terrace and his office on Asylum Avenue. The city of Hartford has officially named this route "The Wallace Stevens Walk," and the HFEWS have begun raising funds to place thirteen black granite markers along the Walk, each inscribed with a stanza from Stevens' poem "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird." These stones will constitute a fitting memorial for a poet who, like his great Romantic predecessor William Wordsworth, composed many of his poems while walking. Until the commemorative markers are erected, however, there will be no visible sign of Stevens' route for the visitor who wants to trace the poet's daily peregrinations.

Meanwhile, in Lowell, Massachusetts:

On working-class Lupine Street, where a plaque commemorates five neighborhood veterans, there is nothing to mark the apartment as the birthplace of Mill City's most famous son. But even as Kerouac's legacy remains unheralded in his hometown, his literary reputation is enjoying an international revival of unprecedented proportions.

This entry was posted by eeksypeeksy on Sunday, April 04, 2004 at 1:58 PM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.