“I Am Dying, Egypt, Dying!”: A Cincinnati College Soldier-Poet’s Embrace of the Battlefield

By:  Kevin Grace

William LytleOn September 20, 1863, in the midst of the Civil War, General William Haines Lytle of Cincinnati was shot and killed by a Confederate sniper’s bullet in the Battle of Chickamauga.  A few days later, his body was carried back to his hometown.  Lytle’s funeral was held at Christ Church Cathedral in downtown Cincinnati and the thousands of mourners followed his casket in the cortege to Spring Grove Cemetery, miles away from the church.  The slow procession took up most of the day, the general’s body not arriving at Spring Grove until dusk.  Sometime later, his grave marker – a broken column – would dominate the landscape of the garden cemetery.

William Lytle was more than another officer killed in battle.  He was a literary man, a soldier-poet whose verse in antebellum America was popular in both the North and the South, and whose lines reflected his experiences on the battlefield.  They showed a view of the bloody vista typical of the Romantic era and they embodied his view of duty as well, in his eyes, a terrible beauty of death and destruction.  Lytle was a part of the Romantic tradition in his poetry, incorporating his classical education as a boy with his notions of heroism and duty in life.  This is an excerpt from a poem he wrote in 1840 as a fourteen-year-old, “The Soldier’s Death”: Continue reading

Winners of the Clermont College Library’s 7th Annual Haiku Contest

Clermont College Library received 65 exceptional haiku entries from 26 students this year.

To quote Professor Reeves, one of our two judges, “What a great bunch—it was a very hard decision.”

Grand prize winner, David Fiora, won a $50 gift card and all winners will be published in the East Fork, Clermont’s online literary journal.

Dark was the long night
Cold was the spotted pavement
Beneath the gardens
-David Fiora

2nd Place

Light in the window
Smoke rolling from the chimney
I know I am home
-Brooklyn Parker

3rd Place

Life where none should be
Pushing through the concrete crack.
Blossoming flower.
-Amy Waugh

Honorable Mentions

cracked ice breaks beneath
my weight, i fall cold and near
the edge of my life
-Amy Elizabeth Monaco

The slow rising fire
Called out to me in the night
It knows my secrets
-Angelica Neal

 

Penny McGinnis
Technical Services Manager

Clermont College Library to Host Poetry Reading

In collaboration with the English, Literature and Fine Arts Department, Clermont College Library will be host to Matthew Guenette, author of Vasectomania.

Please join us Wednesday, April 4, for a reading and book signing with the poet at 1:25 pm in the library. Reception to follow.

A special thank you to Associate Professor Phoebe Reeves for inviting us to participate in the event.

 

Penny McGinnis
Technical Services Manager

Do you Haiku? 

In honor of National Poetry Month, the Clermont College Library is sponsoring its 7th Annual Haiku Contest beginning March 28.

You must be a Clermont College student to participate. Write up to 3 haiku and submit them for a chance to win a $50 gift card.  Professors Phoebe Reeves and Cassie Fetters will serve as our judges.

Read the complete contest guidelines: http://guides.libraries.uc.edu/clermont-poetry/haiku

Submit haiku here: Haiku submissions

The entry deadline is April 13th.

Go forth and haiku!

 

Penny McGinnis
Technical Services Manager

 

Clermont College Library to Host Poetry Reading

 

 

 

 

 

In collaboration with the English, Literature and Fine Arts Department, Clermont College Library will be host to Richard Hague, author of Studied Days: Poems Early and Late in Appalachia.

Please join us November 8 for a conversation with the poet at 1:25pm and a reading and book signing at 2:30pm. Reception to follow.

A special thank you to Associate Professor Phoebe Reeves for inviting us to participate in the event.

 

Penny McGinnis
Technical Services Manager

Rebecca Morgan Frank to Visit Clermont College

On Thursday, April 6, Rebecca Morgan Frank, our National Poetry Month guest, will share about her journey as a poet. Join her for a Q & A from 9:30am-10:30am in Snyder 142, followed by a poetry workshop from 11am-noon, also in Snyder 142.

Later in the afternoon from 2pm-3pm, Clermont College Library will host a reading, signing, and reception with Dr. Frank. Thanks to Professor Phoebe Reeves and the ELF Department for organizing this great event.

 

We’re excited to celebrate poetry month in April. Please join us for all of the activities.

Penny McGinnis
Technical Services Manager

Celebrating Poetry

Clermont College Library celebrated National Poetry Month with the fifth annual Haiku Contest. Sixty-five students submitted 155 haiku. The poets came from a variety of majors including IT, history, and of course English.

Each morning during the entry period, I opened the portal and collected the poems. Haiku is a poetic form that is dependent on the experiences of the person writing. As I read each one, I admired the uniqueness of each poem.

After I read the haiku, I collected them in a document (sans the authors’ names) and sent them to our wonderful judges, Professors Cassie Fetters and Mike Hampton, who determined the winners.

 

Grand prize went to Meranda Balkema for:

 

Merenda Balkema

 

Darkness cannot win

If I do not let it in

Spring’s sun, makes it run

 

 

 

 
Three honorable mentions were chosen:

 

Love, justice, freedom

Sometimes that which gives us life

Can tear us apart

– Tessa Moore

 

Serendipitous

One word with five syllables

That is pretty cool.

– Evan Tellep

 

I despise the foes

Who char marshmallows to ash

And say “edible”

– Julia Wahle

 

Thanks to all who entered. We look forward to the 2017 Haiku Contest.

 

Penny McGinnis
Technical Services Manager

 

 

Poetry at Clermont: A Guide to Writing Poetry

Did you know Clermont College Librarypoetry has a Poetry at Clermont research guide for students?

What’s on the guide?

  • links to poems
  • databases that connect to a variety of poetic information
  • a list of books available for check out
  • reference sources
  • websites that aid in writing and understanding poetry
  • information about the annual haiku contest
  • proper citations

The guide also gives the poet a source for inspiration from other writers’ work as well as links to poetry associations.

Happy Poetry Month!

Penny McGinnis
Technical Services Manager