lxxxii
2.7.08
published on 11/09/06
Acclaimed poet Harrison to read
Rachel Pittenger 
Staff Writer
On Tuesday, Nov. 14, the English Department will sponsor an on-campus lecture and reading by acclaimed poet Jeffrey Harrison. Harrison is the author of several books of poetry: The Singing Underneath (1988), Signs of Arrival (1996), Feeding the Fire (2001), The Names of Things; New and Selected Poems (2006), and An Undertaking (2005).
Harrison’s poetry is not abstract or inaccessible. Instead, it is often prose-like and written in free-verse, and ranges in subject from his brother’s death to baseball. The poems are lyrical and personal, and invite the reader’s emotional involvement in the action.
Harrison’s diction is simple and careful, complementing the scarcity of punctuation and run-on quality of the verse.
“Postmortem Series” is an aleatoric poem Harrison generated using an algorithm called the Markov chain. Through a computer program, the mathematical probability principles of a Markov chain can be applied to form a randomized collection of words.
In “Postmortem Series,” Harrison writes, “Civilization rolls on/when heart shall be in this lean religion, humiliation would/have amours, promises before you part, win a thousand/contradictions to pass.”
Harrison’s poems afford a dynamism to the everyday, and elucidate loftier concepts like death and grief in a crisp, moving style. Harrison’s close, vivid images are memorable and achieve a certain elegance that keeps them from feeling overly sentimental.
Harrison’s poetry has been published in a wide array of sources, among them The New Yorker and The Yale Review. He has also been the recipient of many awards and fellowships, including a fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation and the Amy Lowell Traveling Poetry Scholarship. In addition to writing poetry, Harrison has served on the faculty of several colleges, and is currently teaching at the University of Southern Maine.
His reading at Vassar is part of a larger tour that will take him to various cities throughout the northeast. Harrison’s reading will take place on Nov. 14 in the Class of 1951 Reading Room in the Library at 5:30 p.m.
Additional reporting by Mally Anderson, Arts Editor.
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Alumnae/i posters are strongly encouraged to include their class year with their name. The maximum length for comments is approximately 100 words; longer responses should be submitted as letters to the editor to misc@vassar.edu. More information about our letters policy can be found on our Policies page.
