Today on My Poetic Side we look at the poets who appeared on an exam paper, the grant to research Robert Louis Stevenson and the unveiling of a poet”s tomb.

Adrienne Rich Makes Exam Paper Appearance

For students in Ireland sitting their leaving certificate this year the appearance of questions about Adrienne Rich, the feminist poet was greeted with smiles. The poetry questions on any English Literature style paper can be a worry for students, and never more so than after the last couple of years with disrupted study and a lack of exams taking place.

Whilst changes have been made this year to many of the exams being taken, GCSEs, A-Levels and Leavers certs not knowing what type of poetry might be included is always a worry. As a poet, Rich writes on a number of different themes and is relatively simple to interpret. Other poets who featured on this year”s paper included W. B. Yeats, William Wordsworth, Emily Dickinson and Irish poet Brendan Kennelly.

There was some surprise that there were no questions on the paper relating to the work of D.H. Lawrence, particularly as he is the only poet on the list who has not been featured on an actual paper in the last few years.

£1 Million Grant Awarded for Studies into the Work of Robert Louis Stevenson

A team of researchers from the Universities of Edinburgh and Chester have been awarded a grant of just over £1 million to research the writer Robert Louis Stevenson. The research will take place in Scotland, Hawai’i and Samoa. They will also be producing new poetry and art inspired by three of Stevenson’s short stories – stories that are set in Samoa and Hawaii.

Referred to as the author”s Pacific work, these short stories are an incredibly valuable source of information and education regarding the indigenous sovereignty movement that existed at the time in both countries. It is hoped that the project will be able to produce a graphic adaptation of all three stories, a multi-lingual version that will be the first of its kind. Once this has been completed, they also hope to be able to work on some teaching resources to accompany it – all of this will hopefully make Stevenson’s work more accessible to a wider public audience.

A Tomb Belonging to the Family of Hungary’s Greatest Poet Unveiled

The tomb of the family of Sándor Petőfi, the 19th-century Hungarian revolutionary and poet, which has been recently renovated, was unveiled at the weekend at a special ceremony in the Fiumei Street Cemetery in Budapest.

The ceremony was attended by the head of the Office of the Prime Minister. In his speech, he told listeners that they must remember the past so that they can appreciate the freedom that they have.

The tomb, which was originally built in 1911, contains the ashes of the poet”s parents, his son, his widow and his brother. The poet’s own body is not in the tomb; he was killed in battle in 1849 near Segesvar (which is now called Sighisoara). The restoration project of the tomb was financed by the producer Philip Rakay.