This year marks the 150th anniversary of one of the world’s most beloved poets, William Butler Yeats. There are celebrations galore across the Atlantic, but right here in Damariscotta a reading will take place this Friday, March 20 at the Friends Meeting House from 2 to 4 p.m. The reading and commentary is presented by Coastal Senior College literature professor John Ward and is co-sponsored by CSC and the Maine Humanities Council.

“Yeats’ words, images and ideas have deeply affected readers over the last century, in many political, poetic and social contexts,” Ward says. “And as the years pass his hold on us grows stronger.”

Ward is a former chair of English Department at Kenyon College and has taught courses in 18th and 19th century British literature and the history of the British novel. He has also published on British works of that period, as well as those of some American poets, such as Robert Lowell. He has taught several popular classes for CSC and will be teaching a forthcoming class in Yeats’ poetry beginning in May.

The event is free to the public. The Friends Meeting House is located at 77 Belvedere Rd. in Damariscotta.