Chapel Art Center Welcomes Poet F.D. Reeve

On Thursday, Nov. 19, Saint Anselm College welcomed renowned poet, F.D. Reeve, to the Alva deMars Megan Chapel Art Center to read his newly composed poem, A Girl and Two Doves. Reeve was commissioned by the college to write and read his poem in conjunction with the current art exhibit, A Figural Presence.

It was an evening full of poetry as Reeve, a renowned writer, scholar and critic, began by reading a number of his other works of poetry, inspired by his father. Moving on to the main event, Reeve presented an explanation for his poem, A Girl and Two Doves.

A marble tombstone of a girl holding two doves inspired Reeve's poem. The tomb from mid-5th century BC in Paros, is currently featured in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. To make the connection between the poem and the Figural Presence exhibit, Reeve pointed out that the human body stays the same throughout life. A 12 year-old girl from the mid 5th century has the same figure as a 12 year old girl today.

Franklin Reeve has achieved honors for his fiction, poetry, and translations. A graduate of Princeton and Columbia, he taught in the Slavic Department at Columbia University and then the Russian department at Wesleyan University. He retired as a Professor of Letters from Wesleyan, following 50 years of academic service.

A Figural Presence is an interdisciplinary exhibition that seeks to combine learning with the experience of beauty through the study of contemporary American figural works of art in painting, drawing, and sculpture. The exhibition, at the Chapel Art Center, runs through Nov. 25. The gallery is open Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Thursday evenings until 8 p.m.

Check out the college's Flickr account to see more photos of this event.