In the fall semester of 2010, our son and his fiancée met in a college English class, and they’ve been writing a sweet love story ever since. Soon, they’ll speak their wedding vows; later, in a storybook mansion, they’ll glide across the floor in their first dance together as newlyweds. With a sentimental glance back to that fateful English classroom where our two lovebirds first met, their reception will be literary-themed, the tables stacked with vintage books, flowers, pearls, lace.
The day before Easter, my husband, our daughters, and I hosted a Poets’ Tea bridal shower for our darling bride-to-be. Since April happens to be National Poetry Month, I thought I’d share a few photos from our special day.
As we brainstormed on ways to decorate our home for our guest of honor and assembled family, my husband came up with an idea to fill each of our existing picture frames with portraits of the great poets. Here’s the result of this marvelous idea:
A few of the teacups I’ve collected over the years sit in front of four of the nine poetry vases we created with pages from an old book of garden poetry. From left to right are Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Robert Frost, Louisa May Alcott, William Butler Yeats, and Carl Sandburg.
On the wall from left to right are Ralph Waldo Emerson, e.e. cummings, Robert Browning, and Elizabeth Barrett Browning; on the table, Henry David Thoreau.
Edna St. Vincent Millay
Maya Angelou
My mother’s college poetry professor often compared her poems to those of A.E. Housman, pictured here.
Lewis Carroll strikes a thoughtful pose as Sara Teasdale’s sad eyes seem to search for a silver lining.
Poets’ Corner: on the wall are Robert Burns and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow; on the table, Langston Hughes and Jane Kenyon. (Other poets on display but not pictured here are Oscar Wilde, Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, Kahlil Gibran, the Brontë sisters, William Shakespeare, John Keats, and Lucy Maud Montgomery.)
Because I wanted to create a poetic keepsake to give our guests before they departed, my husband helped me decoupage stanzas from e. e. cummings’ “i carry your heart with me” to papier-mâché eggs. I framed the words with palest pink flowers (to reflect the color the bridesmaids will wear) and finished each egg with delicate ribbons.
Our Poets’ Tea, which was great fun, is a treasured memory now, the teacups washed and put away. But the marvelous faces of the poets still grace our home.
All my life, I’ve papered the walls of my innermost heart with poetry. What a joy it is for me now to sit here in our quiet home with my beloved friends, the poets, and to feel, with Robert Browning, that “all’s right with the world.” Soon, we’ll gain a lovely daughter-in-law, and our dear son will be a married man. There is so much to look forward to, so much to be grateful for.
In honor of our precious, soon-to-be bride and groom, I’ll close with one of the most exquisite love poems ever penned.
i carry your heart with me
i carry your heart with me (i carry it in
my heart) i am never without it (anywhere
i go you go, my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing, my darling)
i fear
no fate (for you are my fate, my sweet) i want
no world (for beautiful you are my world, my true)
and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you
here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart
i carry your heart (i carry it in my heart)
~e. e. cummings
My Path with Stars Bestrewn 