Former Poet Laureate and current Boston University professor Robert Pinsky enjoyed tea, finger sandwiches and other refreshments while reading poetry during the BU Women’s Guild’s Valentine’s Tea and Poetry Reading Monday night.
The event, which was open only to members of the guild, was aimed toward working women in the BU community and the guest list totaled about 60 people. The theme of the evening was Valentine’s Day and the room was decked out accordingly, with red carnations, white tablecloths and heart shaped candies on the tables.
“I was invited to read poems appropriate for the approach of Valentine’s Day,” Pinsky said, though at the podium he lightheartedly admitted, “I’d like to read all happy poems to you today about love and how it is sweet and gratifying, but there are almost no such poems.”
Pinsky read poems from Robert Frost’s “To Earthward” to William Butler Yeats’ “Adam’s Curse” and eventually worked in his own recent works, including “The Want Bone” and “Antique,” which was just recently published in The New Yorker.
The BU Women’s Guild occasionally holds holiday themed events like Pinsky’s, but President Jean Keith said the group “focuses mainly on gathering women faculty of BU for an enjoyable time.” The Women’s Guild also holds annual fundraisers in order to raise scholarship money for women over 30 years old who apply to BU’s graduate schools.
“Pinsky is a major name on campus and I love literature and poetry and enjoy the opportunity to hear him speak,” said Jennifer Becker, an alumna of the College of Communication’s graduate school, who was hearing Pinsky read for the first time.
The poet also had attracted returning fans.
“Robert Pinsky, who I’ve heard before, is a phenomenal reader,” said COM professor Midge Raymond. “I like to hear him any chance I get at events around campus.”
Joan Caldwell, treasurer of the BU Women’s Society, simply said she loved the event.
“I give it a 10,” she said.