Whatever works you imagine you'd encounter in a museum exhibition dedicated to poetry, a life-size recreation of a dentist's waiting room probably isn't the first thing that comes to mind.
But considering the poem it illustrates, Elizabeth Bishop's "In the Waiting Room," in which the speaker recounts a childhood visit to a Worcester dentist's office, it strikes just the right tone, say Susan Elizabeth Sweeney, Distinguished Professor of Arts and Humanities, and Vanessa Bumpus, exhibit coordinator at the Museum of Worcester.
The Museum of Worcester's "The Poem Next Door — Worcester in Poetry," the latest installment in the ongoing project Mapping Worcester in Poetry, showcases the work of six renowned poets with connections to Worcester, including Bishop, Stanley Kunitz and Frank O'Hara. Mapping Worcester in Poetry is supported by the College's Scholarship in Action program, in which Holy Cross faculty and students engage in research with Worcester-based community partners, in this case, the Worcester County Poetry Association. Holy Cross students Madeline (Tessa) Zafón-Whalen ’26, Anna Claire Pritchett '26, Anahi Paulino Rumaldo '27 and Amanda Sopchockchai '27 also have played significant roles in various iterations of the Mapping Worcester in Poetry project, Sweeney said.
The exhibition's guest curator and a poet herself, Sweeney worked closely with Bumpus and local poetry organizations in the development of the exhibition, which is supported by Holy Cross, the Mellon Foundation, and a grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council.
In imagining how the work of six poets might be presented, Sweeney and Bumpus knew what they didn't want: walls of words. Instead, they chose items that encourage interaction and function as talismans, inviting visitors into an immersive and uniquely Worcester experience.
"Viewers discover major poets who found inspiration in Worcester's streets, buildings, parks or neighborhoods and learn how the city still nurtures new poems today," Sweeney said.
Full-size street signs and Kelly-green doors bearing poets' names open to reveal poems of place. Life-size images illustrate the poems; QR codes link to readings of the works. Above a typewriter, an invitation beckons: "Take a minute to type or write a poem."
Another display features a collection of vintage toys taken from the museum's collection that O'Hara would've loathed, the curators contend. Evidence is found in O'Hara's accompanying poem: "Autobiographia Literaria."
An excerpt:
When I was a child
I played by myself in a
corner of the schoolyard
all alone.
I hated dolls and I
hated games, animals were
not friendly and birds
flew away.
Universal experience, personal connection
On the one hand, the staging and framing of the Worcester poets' work in such a way elevates the familiar to the mythic. Captured in verse, Newton Square, Elm Park, Doherty Memorial High School and St. Paul's Grammar School read like Dickens' London, Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio, or Rowling's Platform 9¾. Yet the overall effect is an invitation to viewers to reflect on common experiences, such as the joy of swinging on the parallel bars of your neighborhood playground or sweating it out in a dentist's waiting room.
"They're all relatable experiences, which is nice, but the thing I would add is that it's really about the city. I think that's important," Sweeney said. "The poems — they take place somewhere. I feel like almost every poem does take place somewhere. They're in physical space.
"And I've started to think that many poems move through that space," Sweeney continued. "It's like the poem almost has to move the reader through the space to give the reader something physical and concrete to imagine as they read these thoughts."
Rumaldo is one of several student research assistants who worked on the exhibition: "Poems I first encountered on the page soon felt like personal memories, and by the end of the project, I carried them as if they were my own. This project showed me how literature can highlight history while tethering together communities with nuanced and varied upbringings that are rooted in the same city. Working with Professor Sweeney encouraged me to think critically and creatively, and it gave me a model for how academic work can extend beyond the classroom."
As part of "The Poem Next Door," Sweeney organized, hosted or emceed a dozen events, including a reading by winners of Mapping Worcester in Poetry's Poems In and Out of Places contest; a panel of Kunitz biographers; "Tales From Poetry Town," a celebration of 50 years of local poetry venues and publications; and a reading of new poems about the city's parks, held in Elm Park.
Sweeney also guest-edited for the latest issue of the literary journal "The Worcester Review," which features poetry written by students in her spring 2024 course "Writing In and Out of Places, as well as Sarah Luria, professor and chair of the environmental studies department, and Daniela Kukrechtova, visiting assistant professor of English, Quinn McCracken '13, Katie Knippler '22 and Amanda Sopchockchai '27.
