POETRY AT MIAMI

1827-NOW

I. Old Miami and the Rising Storm, 1827-1861

Miami University’s first class met in 1824, gathering in Old Main, on a hilltop situated in the traditional homelands of the Myaamia and Shawnee people. The story of poetry at Miami begins in a period of settler colonialism, in an era when many Ohioans, such as Miami’s first president Robert Bishop, could remember a time before the American constitution.

In Miami’s early years, the Erodelphian and Union student-run literary societies were at the center of campus life, holding debates, inviting speakers, and acquiring a printing press to produce, in 1827, the Literary Focus, with Bishop’s encouragement and support.

In the pages of the Focus and its successors and in the chambers of Old Main, Miami students, a group that included only white men, debated and discussed the future of a changing country. Poems and literary essays were printed together with writings on political and social topics, such as women’s rights and the practice of enslavement. Discussions of slavery were especially divisive. In 1841 President Bishop, who had permitted the debates of the literary societies, was replaced with George Junkin, who labored to control such debate and to suppress abolitionism. However, Junkin was himself removed in 1844. The wind of change was in the air.

"Storms and Sunshine" Away with your faces that heaven has clad... — Storms and Sunshine
William Schenck, 1827

"Lament of an Ancient Alumnus" At the prospect of modern improvement... — Lament of an Ancient Alumnus (thumbnail)
“Aliquis,” 1867

REFERRING TO MISS WRIGHT'S LECTURE ON KNOWLEDGE When Eve the tempting fruit had tasted, That opened knowledge to her view, With prompt benevolence she hasted To bid her partner share it too. Thus woman from the world's creation, First found the spot where knowledge grew; And woman, (sages of our nation,) Now holds the tempting fruit to you. Had Adam pause before he tasted, To think who tempted first his bride, The fruit of knowledge might have wasted Upon the tree so long denied. The world in darkness long has slept, In spite of Eve, or school, or college; The sages of the Earth have crept To rest without the light of knowledge. But a new ADVENT greets us here; No more the 'OLD WORD' shall deride us; For in our western Hemisphere, A comet comes to light and guide us. Port Folio. — Refering to Miss Wright’s Lecture on Knowledge
Port Folio, 1829

Depend not on the vows of artful women! Oh! She can blast more joys in a smile, Disturb more peaceful bosoms with a look Than time can count on. Oh fatal hour that brought this fatal curse, And so connected it with human works That each must be partaken in these wiles, Which surely bring destruction in the end! Oh man! what art thou?– If by the single varying of a muscle, Tho’ only so much as will feed desire, Without the faintest shadow of a hope, Thou fetterest with thy very life thy poison. Gracious and just Omnipotent! for what end, For what purpose, was I created? To be the friend, the willing tool of ruthless woman To study her desires: To please her follies: To count each nod, and gratify each wish; And still to be detested, shun’d and mock’d– Why this would make an angel fret, And yet I live,–experience–pray to live, Still keeping in the wanton tracks of folly, But I will end it though non-existence follow. — Depend not on the Vows of Artful Women!
“Davy,” 1829

THE AFRICAN Wast thou by nature made a slave, Doom'd to traverse the Atlantic wave, And in a distant Northern clime, Wear out thy manhood's hearty prime? Or, wast, thou forc'd by lawless hands, From Ethiop's dry and burning sands, And here, like beast, in market sold, To work in heat, and stem the cold? Slave! thy misfortunes fairly prove That man for man has little love; And hem who cross'd the briny wave, Unjustly stole thee--negro slave. M.B.S. — The African
“M.B.S.,” 1828

II. New Miami and the Shackles of Love, 1885-1960

After the Civil War, financial troubles forced Miami to close between 1873 and 1885. The resumption of teaching in 1885 marked the beginning of “New Miami,” and a more flexible curriculum. Moreover, the student body began to diversify, as Miami granted degrees to women for the first time in 1900, and as Nellie Craig Walker became the first African American to graduate from Miami in 1905.

During this period the literary societies underwent a gradual but steady decline, as Greek organizations grew in popularity, and a succession of literary magazines came and went, often featuring collegiate humor and witty rhymes, rather than reflective poetry or political discussion.

Yet, although women won the right to vote and as some women gained access to new professional roles, Miami poetry from this era indicates that the power of traditional gender and social norms—”the shackles of love,” as Katherine Grantz called them—remained strong. During this period Miami also produced poets such as Ridgely Torrence (1874-1950), who worked with some of the first African American theater companies in New York, and Percy MacKaye, who became a “poet in residence” at Miami, living in the “Poet’s Shack” in Bishop Woods from 1920-1924.

My flower-hugged home is perched on a hill... — My Flower-hugged Home
Katherine Gantz, 1924

Freeman Shallstand, Kept the rule... — Ballad of a Free Thinker
Debby Cushing, 1956

Beauty calls and gives no warning... — Evensong
Ridgely Torrence, 1908/1959

Intoxicating creature, with your charms of form and feature... — To a Flapper
W.A.H., 1921

She wrote a poem; now she was a poet... — She was a Poet
Ruthethel Newell, 1941

III. Revolutionary Songs: The Black Experience, 1960-1980

The Black Student Action Association (BSAA) of Miami University met for the first time in 1968, close to sixty years after Miami’s first Black graduate, Nellie Craig Walker, received her teaching’s license.

Published from 1971-1980, The Black Opinion was a collaboration between the BSAA of Miami and Western College. In 1975 it became the official newsletter for the Black Student Action Association. In a testament to its progressiveness, one of its first Editor-in-Chiefs was a Black woman, Jackie Sanders, whose work is featured in this exhibit. The Black Opinion worked as a hub for news surrounding Black life at Miami and in Oxford.

It also served as a platform for Black creativity, publishing many works of fiction, personal essays, and poems. This creativity provided a space for Rita Dove to share her early work, before winning the Pulitzer Prize in 1986 and becoming the first Black Poet Laureate of the United States.

In a statement of purpose (vol. 2 no.1), the editors of the Black Opinion wrote, “This paper has been formed by the Black students at Miami University and Western College for Women in order to propagate Black representation for the purpose of bettering the conditions of Black people in our environment.”

I am a lonely black girl, Alone... — Help
Jackie Sanders, 1971

Full/golden-hippped She lies between his knees... — Performance
Rita Dove, 1970

NOW PEOPLE ONE THING/ I DEFINITELY DO NOT NEED IS... — Tell Me Mr Politician
Clifford Butler, 1975

The Guardians kill us, they kill us while we talk... — For Newly Murdered Black Men
Marian Musgrave, 1980

A movement behind the library shelf... — Warsaw, 1937
Jeff Abrams, 1974

IV. Orange Juice Posey: Sexuality and Identity, 1972-2000

The period of 1972 to the 2000s can be characterized as an era where Miami students challenged pre-existing frameworks of sexuality and identity through the careful crafting of poetry that not only strikes the reader as coherently up to the minute, but also invites those reading it to let go of their knowledge, senses, and expectations for a moment and feel the flow of what Catherine Craine called “orange juice poesy,” through poetry that is joyfully and sensually transgressive.

The very beginning of the 1970’s was deeply influenced by the sexual liberation movement, which challenged traditional codes and worked towards the normalization of contraception, queerness, and sexual pleasure and was followed by the legalization of abortion. The 1980’s saw the AIDS crisis, which had an enormous impact on the LGBTQ+ community. And finally, the period from the 1990s to the 2000s was considered a sort of a “sexual awakening” when pop culture started to take over and the world saw the expansion of identity and sexuality through a “rebellion” in art, music, and literature.

Fastened inside our fallen mechanized dream... — Auto Self; Auto Else
Ross Earnest, 1970

Tracy paints blue stripes... — Orange Juice Posey
Catherine Craine, 1997

don't come out yet, they aren't ready; wait; wait; wait... — A modern day sorority lesbian
Anonymous, 2018

You became a mannequin the night he left... — Following Rape Crisis
Bethany McFarland, 1995

i am union the bride/groom said look respectfully at my... — White Fabric Hope
Steven Blevens, 1972

She irons his shirt in the dark... — A Child’s Invitation
Kerry L. Recca, 1993

V. New Roots: The Millennium and After

The turn of the millennium introduced new student publications at Miami and allowed for increased student engagement in social change. The first of these new-emerged student literary magazines, Inklings Arts & Letters, was founded in 1991 as a bi-annual publication of visual art and creative writing that seeks to “publish work that pushes formal boundaries and reflects the diversity of this campus’ vibrant creative community.”

In 2014, Happy Captive Magazine joined Inklings and others as a student-run magazine with the goal “to provide a platform for eclectic and resonant undergraduate creative work.” Another student publication, the Femelletual, initially began as a newsletter for the Miami University Women’s Center in 2009 and published its first edition as a literary and arts publication in 2017. Along the lines of Inklings and Happy Captive, the magazine strives “to center, amplify, and uplift the voices of people who have been devalued because of who they are” and “create a safe and secure space in which every individual can share the most beautiful and raw versions of themselves.”

After a brief hiatus, the Femelletual returned in 2023. Following Miami’s history of poetry and creative work as a strong demonstration of student activism, these student-run literary publications of the twenty-first century strive to amplify marginalized voices and student perspectives.