April 18, 1958

American poet Richard Wilbur read from and commented on his poems. Wilbur’s Things of This World (1956) won both the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry and the National Book Award for poetry in 1957.

A student wrote home, “He is of the new up-and-coming LUCID as a reaction to-the-last generation’s esotericism, which means that his poetry is very understandable, but still has mystery to it…. He was introduced by Miss [Barbara] Swain [’20, professor of English], who is of course quite equal to him in matters of charm and verbal eptitude.”

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