Faster Than Light: Lamont Poet Marilyn Nelson Gives Evening Reading

By SAM ALTMAN, JINMIN LEE, and MARVIN SHIM

On Oct. 17, Exeter’s fall 2024 Lamont Poet, Marilyn Nelson, read her poetry to students in the Assembly Hall. After the recitation, Nelson signed students’ copies of her collections and returned the next day for a Q&A session during the Department Meeting block. 

Established in 1982, the Lamont Fund hosts two poets to visit campus every year. Selected to be this year’s fall poet, Nelson has written more than twenty poetry collections throughout her career and is the recipient of the 1990 Connecticut Arts Award, the J.S. Guggenheim Memorial Foundation fellowship, the Robert Frost Medal, among many others. Numerous English classes at Exeter have read her book Faster Than Light in preparation for her visit to campus.

Many students enjoyed her poetry reading, highlighting her rich delivery. “I thought she was a really impactful speaker. There was a clear difference between reading the poems for homework and actually hearing them aloud from their writer. Although she wasn’t very loud, there was a lot of intensity to specific words,” said senior Rishi Gurudevan.

“She gets into her characters,” senior Anders Toresjo added. “She feels each one differently, even in her facial expressions.”

“I think her delivery was great because she gave it a lighthearted tone, even when there was a stark contrast with some really harsh and horrible events that occurred in ‘Bones,’ for example,” lower Ian Lanning commented.

“I really liked the way she read the poem with flow and emotions, but I do wish she dove a little deeper into why she included certain elements in the poem as opposed to just the context, because that’s what we had questions about in class,” prep Ethan Dai said.

Students also found the topics Nelson confronted in her work intriguing. “I like how diverse her topics were while retaining the same theme and style throughout,” lower Ciara O’Neill said.

“I like the three successive poems about ‘Fortune,’” lower Adam Civitarese said. “I just thought the story was really interesting.”

Many noticed her extensive knowledge and inclusion of historical background. “One thing that stands out to me about her style is her use of research and diving into the persona of a historical character,” said senior Paco Sze. “We talked a little bit about her work in context of writing our senior meditation, and so my meditation is sort of related to that style of writing. I also liked how she used the sonnet to almost guide her train of thought.”

“I enjoyed how steeped in history this reading truly was—we discussed some of the figures, like George Washington Carver, but it was nice to get a refresher on the nuance of the history we were reading about. I didn’t know a lot about these stories before,” lower Holden Sage-Murillo reflected. “But knowing about them now, I can see that it’s incredible how she managed to bring light to it and also create art from this terrible historical event.” 

“I really liked how she incorporated elements and aspects of African-American culture in the United States and how she incorporated that so adequately and so beautifully into providing, which I really found to be very inspirational,” lower Ryan Wang echoed.

Others shared how her poems directly impacted them. “It was very inspiring, and I feel like I was able to have a new picture of what it was like for the people in the poem,” said prep James Travis. “Nelson dug deep into each person’s life. She made it appealing to become a poet because you can create something so impactful.” 

“Some people might get squeamish about the more graphic poems, but I think it’s still important to shed light onto the things that happened rather than be in denial,” Gurudevan reflected.

“I love poetry personally and she speaks to me because she takes conventional methods and sticks to rhyme schemes,” commented Toresjo. “For example, in ‘A Wreath For Emmett Till,’ there was a crown of sonnets where the last line becomes the first in some way.” 

“It definitely seems like she’s able to switch between, between different perspectives very easily and understand different perspectives. And I think that’s absolutely something quite impressive in poems,” senior Andrew Piercey said.

Overall, students enjoyed Nelson’s reading because of her stellar delivery, extensive historical knowledge, and fearless confrontation of perspectives and issues in society. Her work symbolizes the interdisciplinary and creative approach that defines Exeter and every day around the Harkness table.