Summer Poetry with Judson Scruton: Thames River Poems (In-Person and Zoom)

Please join us as Judson Scruton - live from North Carolina! - leads lively discussions exploring Thames River-inspired poems and excerpts from familiar poets such as Pope, Wordsworth, Tennyson and Blake as well as poets you probably have never heard mentioned. Our informal discussions and reflections will be enlivened by short videos and looking in some detail at the marvelous paintings of the Thames by J.M.W. Turner.  Come join us for a journey up and down this time stream.

“Sweet Thames run softly till I [we] end my [our] song” 

Rivers are the blood stream of countries and cultures.  Certainly, one of the most storied is the River Thames in England, running from its source in the Cotswold countryside, up to Oxford, and down to commercial London and eventually to the North Sea. We will consider and discuss poets and painters who have responded to this river and its pastoral, royal, industrial, imperial and tourist-filled history.  Running for 215 miles with the last 95 miles being subject to tides, the Thames is frequently explored as a metaphor for time and tides in the affairs of a nation and individuals.   

A seminar outline and schedule with links to the relevant poems will be sent out in advance of the series; please enter your email address during registration to receive the packet (and Zoom link if attending remotely). Please note: this program will be in a hybrid format meaning that we will have in-person attendees together in the Rimer Room as well as Zoom accessibility for Judson and other remote attendees.

Advance registration is required. Register online or call 203-762-6334.  There is no charge for this program. By registering for the first session you will automatically be registered for all four sessions. This lecture series is made possible with the support of the Literary Series in Memory of Amy Quigley.  Please email Andrea Sato with any questions at asato@wiltonlibrary.org.  

Judson Scruton M.A. (The Johns Hopkins University, The Writing Seminars, specializing in poetry) has taught creative writing and literature at prep schools and universities. In his career as an educator Judson has also directed publications, communications, public relations, and development at a variety of educational institutions in the U.S. and U.K. including the Newberry Library in Chicago.

Painting: Joseph Mallord William Turner, The River Thames and Kew Bridge, with Brentford Eyot in the Foreground and Strand-on-Green Seen through the Arches: Low Tide (1805), Tate Britain, London