Wednesday, December 7, 1960 THE COLLEGE —— Page Thre& W. S. Merwi 1 n Delineates Symbolism of His Poetry W. S. Merwin, reading his poet- ry for ‘the Theodore Spenser Mem-| orial Lecture November 21 in the Ely Room of Wyndham, traced the development of his poetry chron- ologically and explained his pre- occupation with certain themes. Through tle poems which he read, Mr. Merwin interspersed ex- planatory and amusing comments to clarify the meaning of his work and to give his listeners a moment to.recover from the emotional im- pact of his reading, Symbolic Respect The first theme which Mr. Mer- win discussed and _ illustrated through his reading was the sea. - “It is the only symbol which—I}« really respect,” he said and at- tributed this respeet—to -its- ability to surprise continually, Mr. Merwin disputed nis critics’ claims that he is impersonal in his poetry and stated that for him the sea is a very important sym- bol. ‘While themes are represen- tative of personal. history, he ad- mitted that his early treatment of his symbols, and consequently themes, was less personal tech- nically than it is in his more re- cent work. The sea is for Mr. Merwin not only a personal symbol, but also a tragic one. His titles imply this; Stadent Instructor! Of Russian Plans A Teaching Future “The Ship Wreck” and “The oves| WOUZECK, of....the--Drowned—-Wateh—-Keels Going Over” represent the cyni- cism and fear with which he re- gards the sea. For him this dom- inant theme is a negative force. i Love of Animals In two of the poems he read, “Burning Cat” and “The Sparrow Sheltering Under a Column of the British Museum,” Mr. Merwin ex- pressed a fondness for ’ animals ‘and for weak beings generally. (Mr. Merwin preceded the read- ing of poems. about his grandpar- ents with an explanation of fam- ily history — another dominant theme. He is a member of a weird” family from Wales which came to America just ten years after the Mayflower. “The respon- gible ones stayed in New England. The rest went went to Pennsylva- nia.” Of his grandfather, who drank a lot, he wrote “Grandfather in the Old Men’s Home.” Of his grandmother, who “drank not at all” but looked. out of the window at the not very beautiful Alle- gheny River and a mining town, and responded to the “sinister- ness of nature and the sinisterness of man”—the suburbs—he wrote “Grandmother. Watching Out of Her- Window.” Resurrection Theme Mr. Merwin feels that the most important theme in his recently published collection The Drunk in the Furnace is resurrection. He attributes his interest in this theme partly to the fact that his father was a minister. “Tt’s amazing how much a teach- er learns about the way people’s minds work,” said Karen Black, senior, Merion Hall President, Russian major and now part-time Russian teacher. ‘You have. to know what will catch a class’s in- ‘terest and how to communicate what you already know to your pupils.” Karen’s pupils consist of some fifteen adults who attend an eve- ning session omce a week at West Chester Adult Night School in West Chester, Pennsylvania. They have had no previous instruction in the language, but, by the time the ten week course ends, they should “be able to read elementary Russian and hold simple conver- , sations.” Asked whether she finds teach- ing adults difficult, Karen answer- ed, “It’s true that their minds don’t ' -adapt as quickly to new forms and can’t follow the grammar as eas- ily as a college student, who has been working with languages for several years, but, frankly, I’ve been astounded at how much they have learned and how eager they are to work.” She cited her pupils’ reasons for taking the course as “as numerous as there are students in the class.” Her approach, she said, has stress- ed grammar rather than conversa- tion, since the group seems more interested in reading Russian than in speaking it. Karen, who spent last summer traveling in Russia: with a student : group, remarked -that she? often wlases souvenirs of her trip as start- ing points for her lessons. ~ Describing how she got the teaching post, Karen, whose home town is West Chester, recalled making am offhand remark to one of the school board members to the effect that she would love to take an adult class in Russian. The member and the board took her seriously and persuaded her to acc the job. She plans to re- peat the course next semester. ren, “hag really elinched teaching for me. I’ve always thought of teaching as a ‘not bad and poss- ibly even enjoyable profession.’ Now I know that teaching and I poem for which the collection is named and again in “Noah’s Ra- ven,” a poem which has. not yet been published, this theme is par- ticularly apparent. A preoccupa- tion with death is clearly shown in “Route with No Number”, an- other recent and unpublished poem. Indeed, this preoccupation ‘with death became evident for the first time in the poems which Mr. Mer- win selected to read last. I sea poems the fear of death was obscured by a stronger and more direct fear of the sea, ‘Mr. ‘Merwin read last a series of as yet unpublished poems which he felt were more personal than his earlier work although they are no more autobiographical. These poems are about being alone. One particularly moving poem is called “Home for Thanksgiving” in which a conflict between body and intellect is exposed. ‘‘A Let- ter from Gussie” and “Lemuel’s Blessing’”—a wolf’s prayer—com- plete this trinity of loneliness. In_the| In_his|_ Broderick J udges Play Too Long and Empty, Not Very Amusing by J. H. Broderick It was wise programming to ofy fer The Dock Brief as the entr’- acte for Woyzeck and The Mar- riage by Force. In its mannered sentimentality The Dock Brief made Buchner’s trenchant pathos startling and honest; its tame par- adoxes lent Moliere’s characters further uproar and vigor. The pro- gramming for Goodhart on No- vember 18-19 was wise, that is, only if a production of The Dock Brief was somehow ' mandatory. For John Mortimer’s play is too long, too empty; and not very funny. The Dock Brief does have a spe- cious appeal, however; for it seems to unite two modes of modern com- edy. Its characters, dialogue and mise en scéne give it a resemblance to the “stripped stage” of Beckett and to Ionesco’s “anti-plays.” Its tidy plot seems to spring from Shaw’s arch one-acters and the glossy West End comedies of the Terence Rattigan die. Unfortun- ately, Mortimer’s play lacks .the hopeless ‘vaudeville vulgarity of ‘Beckett and the hearty nihilism of Ionesco. It also lacks Shaw’s in- terest in ideas. What it proffer's instead is an “interest in people” and a concern for form. Im the Shavian, Rattigan fashion, it pro- pounds a paradox: A jailed bird- lover accused of murder (he’s done interested in acquitting himself in order to assist his aging lawyer (this is the lawyer’s only case and it was assigned by the court, i.e. it’s a dock brief.) While the par- adox is fresh, the first scene is in- teresting enough, especially when Fowle (yes, the bird-lover) recalls his late unlamented spouse. There- after our interest wanes as the barrister pre-enacts possible for- _ Continued on Page 5, Col. oe PUBLISHING POETESS Susan Kenny, ’61, an English major, has been notified that her poem, “Window Scene,” will be published in this year’s An- nual Anthology of College Po- etry. .The Anthology, put out by the National Poetry Associ- ation, is described as “a com- pilation of the finest poetry written by the College men and women of America, represent- try.” on ‘Maurice Natanson, Professor of Philosophy at the University of North ‘Carolina, gave a Class of 1902 Lecture on “Existentialism and Literature,” Thursday evening, December 1, in the Common Room. (Mr. Natanson pointed out that, although the chief aim of philoso- phy is to illumimate individual life, its terms often become so com- plex and technical | as to divorce it from humanity. Existentialism has returned to a study of individ- ual involvement in the mundane world, and has adopted the thesis that the self and the world are separate, aside from their exis- tential unity. The exploration of subjectivity which is involved raises perplex- ing questions: How is the world given to me? How is it possible that someone else’s world is con- nected to mine? Thus, the line of -Hinquiry—has*-already~-shifted-from| a common-sense world of “us” to one of “me.” Im the effort to.clear up the apparent contradiction and return. to the. mifhdane, common- sense world, the most lucid render- were ‘meant for ‘each other.’ ” Natanson Clarifies Existential Concepts In Literature, Phenomenological Art erature, as a phenomenonological art. Philosophica] literature im gen- eral is marked by its asking-qual- ity, by its fusing of theme and events to make the reader search for meaning. Existential litera- ture is further characterized by a radical conception of self and world in terms of a central con- sciousness. Mr. Natanson emphasized the point that this use of literature is in no sense a diluted form of the inquiry, but rather makes possible a direct presentation and unme- diated vision of the problem. In describing Tolstoy’s Death of Ivan Illyich as existential. litera- ture, Mr. Natanson_ stressed Ex- istentialism’s view that the rela- tionship between self and world is problematic. Thus, we are shown individuals through the terrifying -eategories-of fear,.suffering, alone- ness, and death, and it is only at death that Ivan Illyich grasps the meaning of his life. In a short résumé of his argu- Pity for pom Claaoee, ing every section of—the—coun--H- ment, Mr. Natanson suggested ing of the problem ‘is given by lit- Continued on Page 4, Col. 1 Torment and Suffering Comprise Woyzeck by Katrin Taeger | Woyzeck seems so typical of the twentieth century that it is hard to believe that it could have been written as: early as 1836, by a young man of 22, Not edited and published until long after his death the play reflects the feelings of young German intellectuals at a time of many futile attempts at revolution. George Buchner, a young revolu- tionary himself, once wrote to his parents: “Hatred is just as per- missible as love, and I hate espec- ially ‘those who, in possession of a ridiculous outward matter, called education, or of a dead thing, call- ed learning, sacrifice the great group of their brothers to their contemptuous egotism.” And he set out against them, fighting, as We said, with “arrogance against arrogance, ridicule against ridi- cule,” Naturalism These words point to the heart and core of Woyzeck. This series of sometimes rather loosely con- nected episodes clearly divides into two levels of style: Buchner’s.com- passion for the lowest class finds ‘its expression in the naturalistic picture he draws of people and conditions in Woyzeck. The poet when he deals with men of higher social standing to whom he denies all sense of humane traits, The pathetic life of the masses is brought out sharply by the gro- tesque humor. Not always did the deep sadness and compassion come through this layer of wit and caricature in the performance given in Goodhart Hall on November 18 and 19. The problem of staging the short, rather expressionistic episodes with constantly changing places was solved well with a simple back- ground of bleak stockades. Musical Score David Hemingway wrote and played the ‘music which: especially in the inn and the final scenes very appropriately underlined the mood. The “Old Woman” made too much the impression of being a witch: Buchner himself has her tell the story as a grandmother to a group ‘of children, thereby re- maining on much more realistic ground. All the scenes of caricature were very pleasurable: the acting of Leighton Scott as Captain, Bernie Lederberg im a double role as Jew and Barker, and particularly of Linn Allen as Doctor deserves high praise. Both Betty Ferber and Andy Miller had the very difficult task of playing tragic characters next to these caricatures. Both handled their roles very capably indeed, even though not all. sides of the characters came out clear- ly. Betty Ferber persuasively por- trayed the girl Marie who is sway- ed by conflicting emotions. Andy Miller’s acting became more and more convincing as the play pro- gressed, growing into the rather primitive and passive “hero” Woy- zeck who falls prey to the selfish- ness and lack .of understanding of his superiors as well as to the in- comprehensible world around him which tortures him through demo- niac forces. Usually this play is the only one of an evening.