BY KATHY HALL
Correspondent
According to scholars, Whitman’s favorite photo of himself with a paper butterfly on his finger was taken in Ocean Grove. Walt Whitman may have spent only three weeks in Ocean Grove, but for Kevin Chambers there are enough connections to justify naming a poetry festival in his honor.
“All over the country there are places that are famous because someone slept there,” said Chambers, who is president of the Historical Society of Ocean Grove. “Walt Whitman actually wrote a poem here.”
Whitman included the poem titled “With Husky-Haughty Lips, O Sea!” in the so-called “death bed” edition of “Leaves of Grass,” which was published after his death and considered by many critics the greatest book of American poetry ever written.
On Saturday, Sept. 24, 43 poets will participate in Ocean Grove’s third annual Walt Whitman Poetry Festival, co-founded by Chambers and Shrewsbury poet Gloria Rovder Healy.
Healy, author of “Out of My Mind” and editor of two best-selling poetry books about Monmouth County, will emcee the event.
The festival will take place from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in and around Auditorium Square Park at the corner of Pilgrim Pathway and Pittman Avenue, next to the Great Auditorium.
All events are free and open to the public. Activities include readings, workshops and individual 10-minute tutorials with working poets as well as an open reading, where writers can read their own poems. Participation in workshops and tutorials requires preregistration either by e-mailing [email protected] no later than Friday, Sept. 23, at midnight, or at the festival bookstore in the park on the morning of the event. One-on-one tutorials with Jim Whelden, R.G. Evans, Michelle Cameron, Deborah LaVeglia or Alice Johansen will take place throughout the day. Participants must bring two copies of the poem they wish to have critiqued.
Those who attend can also take a walking tour of spots that inspired Whitman, view a Whitman exhibit at the Historical Society of Ocean Grove and tour the Centennial Cottage, a Swiss-style cottage and garden built in 1879.
Whitman came to Ocean Grove in September 1883 to visit his friend, essayist John Burroughs.
“That’s why we chose September to hold the festival,” Chambers explained.
Both stayed at the Sheldon House. Located on Central Avenue, it was the most exclusive hotel in town and possessed modern amenities such as elevators and hot water. It was destroyed in a fire in the early 1900s.
After Burroughs left, Whitman stayed on for an additional two weeks, spending the majority of his time on the beach.
Two sections of the poem written on Sheldon House letterhead are still in existence, one at the Library of Congress and the other at the University of North Carolina.
According to several Whitman scholars, the poet’s favorite photo of himself, a three-quarter view with a paper butterfly on his finger, was also taken in Ocean Grove. The butterfly, which had a poem by a Methodist minister written on the underside of its wings, was found in one of Whitman’s diaries.
This year’s festival celebrates the 150th anniversary of “Leaves of Grass.” Whitman self-published the first edition of 12 poems and a preface in 1855, and continued to add poems to subsequent versions throughout his life. The final version, published in 1892, contained 383 poems in 14 sections. The work was quite controversial at the time for its celebration of sensuality and use of free verse. An 1882 edition was withdrawn on complaint of the Boston district attorney. The book was reprinted in Philadelphia and sold quite well despite being “banned in Boston.”
A number of items relating to “With Husky-Haughty Lips, O Sea!” and Whitman’s visit to Ocean Grove will be on display at the historical society, including a bound edition of Harper’s New Monthly magazine from 1883-84, in which the poem was first published; a first edition of Burrough’s “Signs and Seasons,” published in 1886 and containing the poem with the notation “Written upon the beach at Ocean Grove in 1883”; and a first edition of the “deathbed edition” of “Leaves of Grass,” published in 1892.
A one-hour film on the poet’s life, print ads and other ephemera from the Sheldon Hotel, and an 1883 Pennsylvania train ticket (not Whitman’s) and schedule showing the stops Whitman would have passed on his way from his home in Camden to Ocean Grove are also part of the exhibit.
The Historical Society of Ocean Grove is located at 50 Pittman Ave., and is open Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday from noon to 4 p.m., and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The exhibit will be on view through February.
Beginning at 9 a.m., festival attendees can pick up a schedule of events, register for workshops and tutorials or drop off information about upcoming poetry events throughout the state at the festival bookstore.
Books by participating poets will be on sale, along with the new anthology, “Voices Rising From the Grove,” by Healy featuring poems by all the poets participating in the festival. The book is dedicated to Walt Whitman and poets inspired by his work.
Festival activities will begin at 9:45 a.m. The first poetry reading will involve Carol MacAllister, Cheryl Moore, Chris Bogard, Nancy Drake and Vince Larkin reading their own work, and “heritage” poems written by Whitman’s contemporaries who also are part of Ocean Grove’s history, like Elwood Stokes, who wrote a book of religious poetry titled “Blossoms” in the 1870s, and H.B. Beegle, who wrote “Ocean Spray” in 1876.
Other morning readings will feature “Poetic Reflections of Monmouth County” and spiritual poetry led by Sander Zulauf, poet laureate of the Episcopal Diocese of Newark. There will be two morning workshops: “Let There Be Light” led by Charles H. Johnson will demonstrate how similes and metaphors can broaden a poem’s appeal, and “When Poetry and Honor Begin To Stink” led by Joe Weil will help participants avoid clichés when writing about war and peace. Michelle Cameron will present “In the Shadow of the Globe,” a reading/lecture on intimate secrets of Shakespeare’s life that combines fact, conjecture and poetry.
Following a lunch break and open reading, Chambers will lead a walking tour of sites that inspired Whitman, including the Bible Bookstore where scholars speculate he bought the paper butterfly, the former location of the Sheldon House and the beach.
Afternoon workshops are “Song of Oneself,” led by Paula Newcomer, who will provide guided writing exercises to help participants use all their senses for image-making, and “The New Science of Mirror Neurons,” led by Laura McCullough that will reflect on the confluence of science and the humanities. Afternoon readings will include “A Poetic Potpourri,” selections from poems inspired by war, peace, politics, humor and Ocean Grove. A reading of Walt Whitman’s poetry by Ocean Grove resident John Bonk will precede the tour of Centennial Cottage.
The afternoon will also include a panel discussion on a wide range of poetic matters, including teaching poetry to children, forming or joining a writing group and publishing your poetry with Chris Bogart, Madeline Tiger, Alice Johansen, Karen Haefelein and Deborah LaVeglia.
“There will be something for all poets and poetry lovers to enjoy,” promised Healy.