A POET TEACHES POETRY

The announcement of the appointment of Robert Frost to the Charles Eliot Norton chair of poetry for the remainder of the year should be of especial interest to all members of the undergraduate body. Mr. Frost more than lives up to the requirements of the Professorship, which stipulate that the incumbent must be "a man of distinction and internationally famous." He is undoubtedly one of the outstanding leaders in the field of American poetry and his verses on New England have won him the Pulitzer prize for poetry in both 1924 and 1930. In less material form though by no means a tribute less important is the comparison often made, which places Frost in a category along with the outstanding English poet Housman.

The experience Mr. Frost has gained in the faculties of the University of Michigan, Amherst and Yale should make his contribution to Harvard doubly valuable. The recently inaugurated practice of calling upon working technicians to teach the arts cannot be too highly praised. Unless a man has an intimate and working knowledge of his subject he is no better fitted to teach it than a book. When men who write poetry, prose, the short-story or any other form of literature are called upon to teach it, then and not till then, will education assume its true function and meaning. Harvard has led the way in this respect by installing in its faculty men who are doing this sort of work. The appointment of Mr. Frost follows out this theory and the Corporation should be highly praised for calling to this valuable position so distinguished a figure in the world of modern verse.