Poet Shares New Work With Students

John L. Koethe, recently named winner of the 1998 Kingsley-Tufts Award, read selections Tuesday night from his latest book of poetry, Falling Water, in a reading at the Adams House Lower Common Room.

Koethe was also a guest of Briggs-Copland Lecturer Henri Cole yesterday in his class, English Cqr, "Poetry Writing II."

Koethe, who received a Ph.D. in philosophy from Harvard in 1973, will receive his prize, worth $15,000, in April. He is the recipient of numerous other awards, including a Guggenheim fellowship and a National Endowment for the Arts award.

Koethe's first book of poetry, Blue Vents, was published in 1968.

Koethe is a professor of philosophy at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee. He explained yesterday that while he considers himself a "philosopher by profession," he uses the summer to work on his poetry.

The Grolier Poetry Bookshop, along with Adams House, co-sponsored the reading Tuesday night.

According to Louisa Solano of Grolier, Koethe is a prolific poet whose latest work has won high praise. "It's been compared to Wallace Stevens," she said yesterday.

In addition to selections from Falling Water, Koethe also read a new poem recently published in The New Republic.

"He read for about a half-hour," said Jessica A. Nordell '99, who attended the reading Tuesday, and is in Cole's class.

"I was really impressed by his work," Nordell said, "I think it's great."

About 30-40 people attended the reading.

In Cole's class yesterday, Koethe cited T.S. Eliot '10 and Stevens as major influences, as well as Elizabeth Bishop, John Ashbery '49 and William Wordsworth.

Koethe read more poems from Falling Water in the class. "I really liked hearing him reading the poem "The Secret Amplitude," Nordell said.

Koethe also discussed his abstract style of poetry, explaining that he strives to write poems "on the verge of making sense, yet still elusive in meaning."