University Daily Kansan
1
Monday, Feb. 19. 1962
Page 5
A Poet's Own Spirit Is Enough For Writing, Snodgrass Says
By Pam Christiansen
How can a poet write about the spiritual and the abstract without believing in God?
He also writes criticisms for the Hudson Review and his works have been published all over Europe. Currently, he is working on a play in between lectures which take him throughout the country.
W. D. Snodgrass, 1980 Pulitzer Prize winning poet, answers, "because I have a spirit." Mr. Snodgrass became a Quaker while attending Iowa State University. Occasionally, he said, he will pray, but not to anyone or anything.
There are competent poets "under every tree and bush" all over the world, Mr. Snodgrass said. People, he feels, are "ravenously interested" in poetry today. What is happening to poetry today, he said, is what happened to music 20 years ago.
Besides writing and lecturing, Snodgrass translates French and German poetry. He is also an assistant professor of creative writing at Wayne State University in Detroit.
MR. SNODGRASS is considered a traditional poet. He always writes about his own life and his own feelings of guilt, he said. He is one of the youngest persons ever to receive the Pulitzer award.
Politically, Mr. Snodgrass says he leans to the left. "You have to realize that half the good people are on the other side," he said. "Some of the finest governments have been quite conservative and some of the worst have been liberal."
POETS TODAY, said Mr. Snodgrass, are looking for new areas of experience. They still are concerned with life, love, and death, he said, "because people don't care about anything else."
Worth to London For Sabbatical
George J. Worth, assistant professor of English, will take sabbatical leave beginning this month to do research in England on James Hannay, a 19th century literary figure.
Prof. Worth will do most of his research in London, but will visit other places in England and travel to Barcelona, Spain, to complete his investigation of Hannay.
Worth's work will be financed in part by a grant from the American Philosophical Society. He will return in September.
"It looks like a breakthrough on the grass roots basis," said Bruce Whisler, Topeka junior and P-T-P forum committee chairman, as he watched American and foreign students dancing in the Pi Beta Phi sorority house.
'Happy Hour' Draws Crowd
"Based on the success of this 'happy hour,' we will definitely continue them through the semester." Whisler added.
Marilyn Miller, Larned sophomore, said, "I would like to see People-To-Feople blossom out on the KU campus."
The first "happy hour" was held as an open house, sponsored by P-T-P, to give foreign and American students a chance to meet on an informal basis. The "happy hour" leased from 3 until 5 Friday, entertained no less than 50 students at any one time.
"This is the best chance we have had to really meet the people," said Vinay Valia, freshman from Bombav. India.
Plans are being made to hold other "happy hours" during the semester in other organized houses and in scholarship halls. Their goal is to encourage better cultural and intellectual understanding between foreign and American students.
"I think this is wonderful," said Mrs. Mildred Dunivent, Pi Beta housemother. "I've really looked forward to it."
"Only once every 150 or 300 years does anyone come up with a completely new idea." Mr. Snodgrass said. Poets and writers have to look for new ways to say the same things, he said.
In his lecture Saturday, Snodgrass spoke of this new way to say old things as "poetic tact." "Poems," he said, "are colored or controlled by crucial words and phrases that aren't even written in prose.
One criticism of poets, he mentioned, is their failure to say what they mean. "Unfortunately," he continued, "people don't want to stop and take interest in anything new." Today, he said, writing is made purposely dull to dominate the reader's spirit and ability to use intelligence. He cited all the communications media as examples.
POETS HAVE to be interesting, he said, and interesting people are always considered different. People deny the existence of anyone that can not be stereotyped, he said. They fear freedom of choice and the possibilities of new ideas.
Poets, therefore, have to use suggestion and tact in order to get ideas across to the reader. Mr. Snodgrass said. It is not very often he said, that a poet comes up with a new idea or that a new idea emerges from a poem itself. A poet must use tact in expressing old ideas because
people are not interested in something they already know, he said.
Poets must also use tact in expressing new facts about old ideas, he said. Poets must restrain themselves from saying the obvious and from appearing intellectually or morally superior, he said. Poets must employ a kind of "imaginative truth" as compared with the truth of a propagandist, he added.
They do believe the person who implies certainty, he said. Therefore, poets must use suggestion and atmosphere rather than blatant expression of ideas, he said.
TACT IN LANGUAGE and tone is also necessary to a poet, Mr. Snodgrass said. People do not believe the person who shouts about his beliefs, he continued.
The job of a poet, Mr. Snodgrass said, is the revelation of the chief patterns of our lives. A poet, he concluded, imitates life and therefore must "repress ideas from conscious assertion."
JIM'S CAFE
838 Mass.
GOOD FOOD
DAY and NIGHT
Graduate Student's Art Exhibit Draws 300
Around the Campus
More than 300 persons attended the opening of the art exhibit yesterday by William H. Wright, museum assistant at the Art Museum.
The exhibit, consisting of water colors and oils, is shown at the Kaw Valley State Bank in Eudora. The paintings will remain on display during banking hours until March 1.
Wright, Lawrence graduate student, received his bachelor's degree in 1961 and is studying toward his master's degree in painting and drawing.
Roger and out.—F. Zankowicz
Man is capable of all things. — Michel de Montaigne
Trip to Nelson Art Gallery Scheduled for Thursday
Student Union Activities will sponsor a bus trip to the Nelson Art Gallery Thursday to see the special display of primitive art.
The bus will leave the Union at 1 p.m. and return to KU at 5 p.m. Twenty-nine seats are available at a cost of $1. Students may sign up for the trip at the information center in the Union today. There will be no charge for the trip through the Gallery.
Students in America
Y. C. Wang, visiting associate professor of history, will speak at Faculty Forum tomorrow noon in the English Room of the Kansas Union on "Chinese Students in America."
Career Cues:
BIRD TV - RADIO
VI 3-8855
908 Mass.
"The broader your knowledge, the greater your chance of success!"
- Quality Parts
- Guaranteed
- Expert Service
"As I look back, graduating from college in the depth of the depression was a blessing in disguise. It was difficult to get a job, and even more difficult to hold it. It proved to me early in life that to succeed in business requires constant struggle.
"I found that the truly successful individual never stops learning, that a formal college education is the foundation on which we continue to build the knowledge and experience required to get ahead.
"Even in today's age of specialization, a man eventually reaches a point where breadth of knowledge is necessary. The engineer must understand accounting and marketing. The marketing man must know his product. The financial man must be sympathetic to engineering development and sales programs. Management must have a working knowledge of all phases of the complex and highly competitive business world.
Therefore, even though specializing, a student should make his college curriculum as broad as possible, and diversify his outside activities. Authoritative surveys have shown that only a small percentage of individuals end up in the field in which they specialized in college.
"Widen your world. Broaden your interests right now. Since graduation from college I've discovered that those who are really succeeding today are the ones who do more and keep on learning from what they do. The broader your college interests are now-the steadier your ladder of success tomorrow!"
Smoking more now but enjoying it less?...change to Camell!
Have a real cigarette-Camel
THE BEST TOBACCO MAKES THE BEST SMOKE
R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company Winston-Salem North Carolina