Though Elizabeth Alexander is perhaps most well-known for authoring President Barack Obama's inaugural poem, Praise Song for the Day, she easily demonstrated Thursday night that her talent is much more inclusive.

The poet and chair of African American Studies Department at Yale University read multiple poems to a packed audience in the Palmer Museum of Art for the annual Emily Dickinson Lecture.

The auditorium was in fact so crowded a remote feed had to be set up elsewhere for additional attendees, due to fire regulations, said Robin Schulze, head of the Department of English.

"I got here ten after seven and it was full," she said. "It's great to see people come out; there's a real audience for poetry here. I love it."

Alexander's selections included poems inspired by dreams and historical perspectives.

"I'm very interested as a poet in historical voices," Alexander said, "and inspired by courage, by people who face something that seems impossible to face. That kind of stand-up voice inspires me -- it fills me with breath."

Afterwards, Alexander also answered the audience's questions, sharing her experience of writing Praise Song for the Day when one student asked how she had slept during the night before Obama's inauguration.

"I didn't sleep very much, didn't sleep very well," she said, and described waking up at four in the morning to the sound of many people walking to the event outside. "It was an amazing way to not sleep. It was beautiful. About 5 percent of it was about the poem. It was about all the tremendous lives, and lost lives, and sacrifices that brought us there."

Thursday night's reading was attended by a diverse audience, ranging from students to State College residents alike.

"I came because Alexander is a very solid poet. Her poetry is very approachable; you don't need to be a scholar to understand it," said Kyle Carrozza (senior-English).

"It's a sound not for the trained ear."