Peoria Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle
Friday, November 7th, 2025 9:00 – 10:30 a.m.
Peoria Women's Club, 301 NE Madison Ave., Peoria

In collaboration with Bradley University's Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI), the PWC invites you to join the Peoria Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle, recognized as the oldest continuous book club in the United States. Lynette Steger, a professional educator and Peoria Women's Club board member, is the moderator.

Registration will be available through the OLLI website under Fall Semester: https://www.bradley.edu/academic/continue/olli/. A small fee includes membership in the national Chautauqua Institution, contributing toward CLSC graduation, and access to the discussion, snacks, and coffee.

What we are reading and discussing:

The Sounds of Poetry: A Brief Guide by Robert Pinsky

The Poet Laureate's clear and entertaining account of how poetry works.

"Poetry is a vocal, which is to say a bodily, art," Robert Pinsky declares in The Sounds of Poetry. "The medium of poetry is the human body: the column of air inside the chest, shaped into signifying sounds in the larynx and the mouth. In this sense, poetry is as physical or bodily an art as dancing."

As Poet Laureate, Pinsky is one of America's best spokesmen for poetry. In this fascinating book, he explains how poets use the "technology" of poetry--its sounds--to create works of art that are "performed" in us when we read them aloud.

He devotes brief, informative chapters to accent and duration, syntax and line, like and unlike sounds, blank and free verse. He cites examples from the work of fifty different poets--from Shakespeare, Donne, and Herbert to W. C. Williams, Frost, Elizabeth Bishop, C. K. Williams, Louise Glück, and Frank Bidart.

This ideal introductory volume belongs in the library of every poet and student of poetry.

Questions? Contact Lynette Steger at VicePres1@PeoriaWomensClub.com or (309) 642-2688