Poetry Symposium

The Senior Symposia in cooperation with the Bicentennial Planning Committee last month sponsored a three-day symposium on poetry honoring Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Richard Eberhart '26, Class of 1925 Professor of English. The program was planned to coincide with the College's emphasis on the arts and humanities during the winter term as part of the Bicentennial celebration.

The Poetry Focus began Wednesday, January 21, with an evening lecture, "Robert Frost's Poetry: The Cryptic Side," given by Lawrance R. Thompson, Professor of English at Princeton University and the official biographer of Robert Frost. The following evening Stephen Spender, one of the major living British poets, delivered a lecture and read from his works.

An afternoon poetry reading on Thursday featured Alexander Laing '25, Professor of Belles Lettres Emeritus; Robert H. Siegel, Assistant Professor of English; Robert M. Pack '5l, Associate Professor of English at Middlebury College; and James Price '68, a graduate student at Yale University. Ten undergraduate poets read from their own works Friday afternoon.

Concluding the symposium was a reading of his own poetry by Professor Eberhart on Friday evening. He was introduced by Professor Daniel Hoffman of the University of Pennsylvania, a poet, critic, and author of The Poetryof Richard Eberhart.