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WEDNESDAY
Poet W.S. Merwin makes a daring appearance at the Library of Congress tonight: Just last week he rejected every finalist in the Yale Series of Younger Poets competition, calling their work “too uneven.” Roving gangs of poets, blinded by rage and brimming with synonyms, might attack the Pulitzer Prize winner with stinging couplets as he calmly climbs onstage. But over shouts of “I’ll deliver a lament to the makerright upside his head!” that mock his 1996 memorial anthology, Merwin (a former Yale Series winner himself) will start reciting his variegated verse. And the grumblers will simply turn silent in deference to his mastery. At 6:45 p.m. at the Library of Congress’ James Madison Building, Montpelier Room, 1st & Independence Ave. SE. FREE. (202) 707-5394. (Christopher Porter)