Founder of Dead Poets Society kicks off 1st remembrance day for fallen bards in Maine

Remembrance day for dead poets kicks off in Maine

HARPSWELL, Maine — The founder of the Dead Poets Society of America is kicking off a day to remember fallen bards in Maine.

Walter Skold is marking the first Dead Poets Remembrance Day on Thursday in Bailey Island, where a director of the Edna St. Vincent Millay Society will read her poem “Ragged Island.” There will be readings from 36 poets in six towns by sunset.

Skold has documented the final resting places of hundreds of American poets since he launched the Dead Poets Society in 2008. The society’s name was partly inspired by the 1989 Robin Williams movie “Dead Poets Society,” about a teacher who inspires students to love poetry.

Skold says the day of remembrance was inspired by his discovery that many of the nation’s literary forebears have been neglected. He chose Oct. 7 because it’s the day master of the macabre Edgar Allan Poe died.