Poet: Kahlil Gilbran - Boston, MA

Kahlil Gilbran

Copley Square

Boston, MA

GPS: N 42° 20.982 W 071° 04.613

Short Description: 

A memorial to Lebanese-American poet, writer, and artist, Kahlil Gilbran, is located on Dartmouth Street on the west side of Copley Square in Boston.

Long Description:

Kahlil Gibran (January 6, 1883 – April 10, 1931) was a Lebanese-American artist, poet, and writer. he was born in Besharri Lebanon. He and his immigrated to the United States when he was a young man. He studied art and began to write.

His most famous work, The Prophet, was written in poetic prose in 1923. His writings became popular in the 1930s. The 1960s brought a resurgence in popularity especially among members of the counterculture.

Wikipedia list his following works, written in English.

The Madman (1918)
Twenty Drawings (1919)
The Forerunner (1920)
The Prophet, (1923)
Sand and Foam (1926)
Kingdom of the Imagination (1927)
Jesus, The Son of Man (1928)
The Earth Gods (1931)
The Wanderer (1932)
The Garden of the Prophet (1933, Completed by Barbara Young)
Lazarus and his Beloved (Play, 1933)
Prose Poems (1934)
Secrets of the Heart (1947)
A Treasury of Kahlil Gibran (1951)
A Self-Portrait (1959)
Thoughts and Meditations (1960)
A Second Treasury of Kahlil Gibran (1962)
Spiritual Sayings (1962)
Voice of the Master (1963)
Mirrors of the Soul (1965)
Between Night & Morn (1972)
A Third Treasury of Kahlil Gibran (1975)
The Storm (1994)
The Beloved (1994)
The Vision (1994)
Eye of the Prophet (1995)
The Treasured Writings of Kahlil Gibran (1995)
Beloved Prophet, The love letters of Khalil Gibran and
Mary Haskell,and her private journal (1972, edited by Virginia Hilu)

At the west end of Copley Square there is a memorial to Kahlil Gibran. A granite table has a bronze plaque with a portrait of the poet. He is shown with his left hand holding a copy of his most famous work - The Prophet. To his right are the words poet/painter and the year of his birth and death 1883/1931.

The front of the granite table is inscribed:

"IT WAS IN MY HEART TO HELP A LITTLE BECAUSE I WAS HELPED MUCH"

Next to the bronze plaque is the inscription:

KAHLIL GILBRAN A NATIVE OF BESHARRI

LEBANON - FOUND LITERARY AND

ARISTIC SUSTENANCE IN THE DENISON

SETTLEMENT HOUSE - THE BOSTON 

PUBLIC SCHOOLS AND THE BOSTON

PUBLIC LIBRARY - A GRATEFUL CITY

ACKNOWLEDGES THE GREATER HARMONY

AMONG MEN AND STRENGTHENED

UNIVERSALITY OF SPIRIT GIVEN BY

KAHLIL GILBRAN TO THE PEOPLE OF

THE WORLD IN RETURN.