LNU News Center: Recently, Ms. Rita Dove, a world-renowned poet, Pulitzer Prize winner and former Poet Laureate of the United States, together with her husband, visited Lingnan Normal University (LNU). She delivered a lecture and accepted the certificate of honorary professor awarded by Vice President Liu Zhoutang with pleasure.
Although it was late autumn, the campus in Lingnan was full of green. The poet and her companion were warmly received by Deng Fengguang, Director of the President’s Office, who showed her around the campus. They walked from Banyan Square to Ceramic Wall “Wen Qu”, and then took a car along the Yanling Avenue, passing through Boxue Garden, Chunhui Garden, Shidao Garden and Shuren Square. Director Deng introduced every attraction in detail, triggering great interest and praise from the poet with regard to the rich schooling history and philosophy carried by the campus landscape. She took pictures from time to time.
At 3:00 p.m., the Rita Dove Poetry Lecture hosted by Liu Huiqing, Dean of the School of Humanities, was held in the International Conference Hall. Rita Dove first shared her feelings about visiting the campus. She praised that the campus landscape “embodies the integration of nature and knowledge, life” and is “intimately connected with the essence of poetry”. Then she shared her experiences of reading and learning poetry from an early age. It was the family immersed in the atmosphere of reading that laid a foundation for her poetry creation. The curiosity about the world and the love for language act as stronger impetus for her to further explore the unknown field of poetry creation. She recalled her eleventh birthday and cited the famous speech by Martin Luther King, leader in the civil rights movement, to exemplify that the great role of poetry is to express the association and induction of personal momentary emotions with grand historical events. According to her, writing poetry is a kind of life, and her poetry is her singing of life in words.
In the interactive communication, the poet answered questions from poetry lovers inside and outside LNU sincerely. The atmosphere was very warm. Professor Zhang Deming of the School of Humanities pointed out in his comments that poetry is the language of the heart, and the university is a good place to write poetry and have dreams, encouraging students to learn from the poet, grasp the youth, and live a wonderful life.
That night, several students who love poetry gathered in the “Poetry Garden” - Chunhui Garden to pay tribute to the poet with a warm and simple “Rita Dove Poetry Recitation”. The poet was also involved in it, and she praised the students as “really poetic people as you hold a poetic activity in the poetic campus at an intoxicating night”. Sitting among the students, she listened carefully to the recitation of Chinese and Western contemporary poetry. All teachers and students were intoxicated by the beautiful melody and emotional recitation. Finally, the poet sang the song summer time, which drew a fruitful conclusion to the poetic day.
Rita Dove:
Born in Ohio in 1952, Rita Dove is one of the most celebrated poets both in the United States and in the world at large. She is the author of nine poetry collections. In 1987, she won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, and she served as Poet Laureate of the United States twice from 1993 to 1995. President Bill Clinton presented her with the 1996 National Humanities Medal and President Barack Obama honored her with the 2011 National Medal of Arts (for which she is the sole poet in the United States who has received two presidential awards).
