Dave Lucas, poet laureate of Ohio and full-time lecturer in Case Western Reserve’s Department of English, will celebrate the writings of Cleveland poet Hart Crane in Kelvin Smith Library’s Dampeer Room on March 25 from 4 to 5:30 p.m.
Known for his difficult and highly stylized modernist poetry, Crane has been widely recognized as one of the most influential poets of the early 20th century.
Born in Garrettsville, Ohio, Crane spent much of his life moving back and forth between New York and Cleveland. He died at the age of 32, just two years after finishing his most ambitious work, The Bridge, an epic poem meant as an optimistic and hopeful reply to T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land.
Lucas will read Crane’s works as well as the writings of other influential poets. The event will coincide with a pop-up exhibit in Kelvin Smith Library’s Dampeer Room featuring Crane’s books and manuscripts from the library’s special collections.