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FROST ASSAILS DISSECTING OF POETS' THEMES

Story Comes First, Claims New England Poet Laureate

"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."

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