The life of a Harvard president is an unpoetic one, it seems.

This year, President Neil L. Rudenstine was unable to teach a poetry class to first-year students during the week preceding Freshman Week as he did last year.

The course was a victim of the planning for the Harvard fund drive, according to Rudenstine.

"I was trying to write this megadocument, which has to go to the overseers at the October 4th meeting," he said in an interview Friday. "It's a sort of summary of the planning process. It's just too difficult to get my words and thoughts together and it's too long and has to be shortened now and then has to be refined."

Rudenstine said he regretted not having been able to teach the course.

"I'd like to get back into a rhythm where I can do that but not when I have quite this kind of a major piece overhanging," he said. "This is the one major summary of the campaign goals. I hope I will not have to write another summary as they turn out to be wrong."

He added that it was too early to tell whether he would try to resume teaching the course next year. "But my sense is that I will try to teach it but I'll just have to judge it," Rudenstine said.