William Alfred 5G, teaching fellow in English, initiates the Morris Grey Poetry Foundation's series of readings by younger poets at 4 p.m. this afternoon in Harvard 6. The readings by the young poets mark a distinct policy change by the Foundation.

In previous years, such well-known poets as T. S. Eliot '10, Carl Sandburg, Robert Frost '01, E. E. Cummings '15, and William Carlos Williams have read selections from their works. This year for the first time younger poets are being invited to join the program.

Alfred, who got his M.A. from Harvard in 1949 and is now working for his Ph.D. here, will read several lyrics and parts of his own play, "Agamemnon," an adaptation of the Greek tragedy.

The young poet has served as editor of the American Poet and, while a student at Brooklyn College, won the Atlantic Monthly Poetry Prize.

Other young poets who will appear this year are Adrienne Rich, Radcliffe '51 and Kathleen Raine, a young English writer.