MacLeish Will Discontinue Humanities 130, 'Approach to Poetry', After Lecture Today

Archibald MacLeish, Boylston Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory, will deliver the final lecture of Humanities 130 at noon in Harvard Hall today. The course, in its present form, will not be offered again by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, MacLeish said.

Entitled "An Approach to Poetry," Humanities 130 was an inquiry into the nature of the poetic art. The aim of the course "was to encourage students to re-create, rather than merely appreciate, poetry." MacLeish emphasized that 12 minutes of re-creation are worth 12 weeks of appreciation.

Originally offered ten years ago by the English Department, the course was later relocated in the General Education field as an upper level Humanities course. It was presented in an effort to attract the non-concentrator as well as the English major.

The course is conducted like a large section meeting, since MacLeish's lectures are composed to a great extent of excerpts from his students' weekly papers. This technique of student-to-student communication in a large lecture course is unique here.

Commenting on the termination of Humanities 130, MacLeish said, "This is the course I have cared most about. I've loved every minute of it, but a course reaches a point when it is exhausted and a change is in order."

Professor MacLeish will continue to teach his creative writing course, English S, and will teach another course as yet unformulated by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.