News
When Professors Speak Out, Some Students Stay Quiet. Can Harvard Keep Everyone Talking?
News
Allston Residents, Elected Officials Ask for More Benefits from Harvard’s 10-Year Plan
News
Nobel Laureate Claudia Goldin Warns of Federal Data Misuse at IOP Forum
News
Woman Rescued from Freezing Charles River, Transported to Hospital with Serious Injuries
News
Harvard Researchers Develop New Technology to Map Neural Connections
"Words are easy to push around, not like people," asserted Robert Frost, one of America's foremost poots, before a large audience in the New Lecture Hall Wednesday evening. In regard to the interpretation of his works, he said, "A reader ceases to be good when he becomes a student of my poems."
Frost mentioned a letter he had received, asking him to explain "his philosophical tenets in the field of cosmology and set forth ideas on abstract things such as: quality, quantity." "I am in favor of both," said Frost with a grin.
The poet went on to say that in poetry, "The story comes first." In regard to "philosopkked tenets," he stated, "It's strange what peculiar abstractions naive people read into many authors' writings. To determine the meaning of my writing," Frost declared, "a young man can read my stuff and find out for himself."
Frost, now a professor at Dartmouth, has visited Harvard many times to read his famous poems here.
Introduced by Dean Buck, New England's Poet Laureate spoke in an easy, friendly manner. He read, among others, "Mending Wall," "Birches," "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening," and Death of the Hired Man." At the end he was called back by the applause of the group, and read three more works, concluding with "Reluctance at Parting."
Want to keep up with breaking news? Subscribe to our email newsletter.