Infectious enthusiasm After four decades of teaching, Ogden has indeed created a legacy of lives that he has touched. It was Hugh's infectious enthusiasm for great writing that made me realize the impact possible in a work of art. In one recent poetry class, English major Stephen McFarland '00 shared a poem he had written about a psychiatric patient he had met while volunteering at Hartford Hospital. His latest book of poems bears the simple title Gift , but the true gift is the man whose spirit charges every encounter you have with him with a great love for life, who make you hope that your best, you too will rise above normal, and change people's lives. In a poem, the feelings are in the rhythms, the sounds, patterns of breathing units, the lineation of a line.
Poetry is the highest form in the art of language.
It always has been and always will be.