Emotions Flow Freely at Poetry Hour
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KU students welcomed an old friend back to the campus at the Poetry Hour yesterday.
University Daily Kansan
Allen Crafton, professor emeritus of speech and drama, and professor here for 30 years, delighted his listeners with his "Poetry of Many Moods."
Prof. Crafton chose several of his favorite poems to express his theory that there is a poem for every mood.
For a poem with more "punch" he recommended Francis Thompson's "Hound of Heaven."
IN A STRONG voice he soared to the heights of laughter with Ogden Nash's "Emily" and then plunged to the depths of sadness of T. S. Eliot's "The Hollow Men."
"Poetry is the language which tells through the emotions what can't be said in words," he said.
"It is so diverse it can satisfy almost any mood," he said, obviously pleased that others enjoyed his personal favorites.
THE SILVER-HAIRED man told his audience that poetry is many things to many people.
For an intellectual experience he suggested Shakespeare, Keats or Kipling. For those who prefer a whimsical ditty he gave Dorothy
Parker's "Little Old Lady in Purple" who exclaimed in her day, "There was nothing more fun than a man."
DIRECTOR OF KU's drama department from 1923 to 1956, Prof. Crafton lists among his most successful students William Inge, author of "Splender in the Grass" and "Picnic," Francis Feist who played in "Harvery," and Etta Moten, who portrayed Bess in "Porgy and Bess."
Friday, Nov. 9, 1962
Prof. Crafton was awarded the 1961 Honor for the Outstanding Progressive Educator (HOPE). He retired from the KU faculty in the spring of 1961.
Director to Discuss "Paint Your Wagon"
The director of "Paint Your Wagon." William L. Kuhlke, instructor of speech and drama, will discuss the play at 4:30 p.m. today in the University Theatre.
Mr. Kuhlke's talk, the second in a series of lectures by staff directors of the University Theatre, will be informal and designed to allow students, teachers and the public to ask the director questions about his play or its production and to allow the director to express himself more fully as to what he has tried to show.