Four Leading Poets to Reunite for Reading

You can go home again, and after 11 years, four prominent American poets plan to prove it.

In March, 1959, in a free-admission program at the Poets' Theater in Boston, Arthur Freeman '59, Maxine Kumin, Anne Sexton, and George Starbuck gave their first public readings. They were introduced by William Alfred, professor of English, and according to Freeman, "We were all very scared."

The four poets, along with Alfred, will reassemble Feb. 28 at Boston University. This time admission will cost $1, and the proceeds will be sent to the Biafran Relief Fund.

The charity commitment indicates the increased social and political emphasis in modern poetry, Alfred said. Discussing the change in Star-buck's work, he commented, "Eleven years ago you could afford to be funny about social issues. Today, the satire is tougher and more savage."

In the past decade, all four poets have published books. Mrs. Sexton has won the Pulitzer Prize, and Starbuck has received the Yale Younger Poets' Prize and the Prix de Rome. The four have also taught: Freeman and Mrs. Sexton at Boston University. Mrs. Kumin at Tufts, and Starbuck at the University of Iowa.

"We started our careers at that moment in the Poets' Theater." Mrs. Sexton said, recalling that with the exception of some magazine printings, none of the poets had yet published.

Alfred has gone on since then to write the Broadway play, Hogan's Goat. He is now assisting in the production of the play's musical version.

After Robert Lowell. Ralph Waldo Emerson Lecturer on English Literature, spoke on television to raise money for Biafran relief. Freeman and Mrs. Sexton, who had already discussed a reunion reading, decided to present one as a benefit for Biafra.

An overflow crowd of 75, including Lowell, heard the 1959 reading. The program Feb. 18 will be held in Hayden Hall, which seats 950 people.

"The audience likes to hear poetry to learn more about it." Alfred said. "In the early '50's, it was considered insane to bring Dylan Thomas over here. They thought the halls would be empty."

Alfred attributed the widespread popularity of poetry readings today to Thomas's tour and to the coffeehouse movement.

The reading will begin at 8:30 p.m. Tickets will be sold at the door.