After I wrote that last blog post about Rita Dove’s poem for the Folger Shakespeare Library, I started thinking about the quote that I love on the main branch of the Brooklyn Public Library. Dove’s words about crafting a poem that would be inscribed on stone rather than read on the page made me see that BPL poem in a new light. It’s a perfect example of what she spoke about, how writing within constraints can produce something wonderful.
I first saw the poem when I was in high school and started visiting the main library to do research. The entrance to the building is so dramatic, taking charge of a busy corner on Grand Army Plaza. It’s still such a handsome building. There are several poems on the front–this one is on the right-hand side. When I read it, I had shivers, right from the first line. I was a voracious reader in my teens and it spoke to my love of literature. It made me feel that just by reading I was part of something important.
“Here are enshrined the longings of great hearts
And noble things that tower above the tide,
The magic word that winged wonder starts,
The garnered wisdom that has never died.”
—-by Roscoe C. Brown, a Trustee of the library
A Reader's Place 