Dead Poets Society of America founder has bold vision for Oct. 7 holiday honoring fallen bards
By David Sharp, APFriday, April 23, 2010
Dead Poets founder wants holiday honoring bards
PORTLAND, Maine — A former Maine schoolteacher who traveled 15,000 miles last year documenting the graves of dead poets has a new mission — to create a national Dead Poets Remembrance Day.
Freeport amateur poet Walter Skold founded the Dead Poets Society of America, and launches his new endeavor Friday, beginning a 22-state tour of the graves of fallen bards.
State poets laureate are helping Skold drum up support for a national Dead Poets Remembrance Day on Oct. 7, the date master of the macabre Edgar Allan Poe died. Wisconsin poet laureate Marilyn L. Taylor calls it a wonderful idea.
The tour kicks off on what’s believed to be the anniversary of William Shakespeare’s birth in 1564. Skold plans a poetry reading at Portland’s Eastern Cemetery.
