Evening star., 1948-11-28
Reading and Writing
New Poet for Library of Congress;
New Book From Margaret London
By Mary McGroy

By Mary
Leonie Adams, the diminutive
new consultant in poetry at the
Library of Congress, is one of the
more reticent modern poets. Her
first volume, Those Not Elect" was
published in 1925, three years after
her graduation from Barnard Col
lege. Her second, High Falcon, u
appeared in 1929, while she was in
France on a Guggenheim travelling
fellowship. Since then both volumes
have gone out of print and she has
contributed only occasionally to
mag agazines.
This reserve is quite evident in
her conversation. She answers
questions freely and frankly, but
she is finally elusive. The other
day in an interview in her airy
spacious Office of the Library, she
declined to say wnat her message
has been, what she has wanted most
to say or to be remembered for
That would best come. from others
she explained in her sweet, rather
husky voice.
Hopes to Publish In Spring.
Her beautifully chiseled lyrics
have been compared in their meta
physical intensity" with those OF
the Elizabethans Vaughan and Web
ster. In the spring she hopes that
new collection of her poetry will
appear, although she says her
youthful certainty has deserted her
somewhat and she has had the
problem faced by every mature lyric
poet: That of retaining sense of
immediate immersion" in subject
or an experience while relating this
subjectivity to scale of permanent
Iintegrated values. Donne and
Gerard Manly Hopkins are two
poets, she feels. who achieved per
spective" without sacrificing sub
jective intensity.
At the Library since mid-Septem-
ber. Miss Adams is observing the
regular 8:30-to-5 routine OF any
Government employe and is deep in
the project begun by her prede-
cessor, Robert Lowell, who launched
a record collection of the chief mod
ern poets reading from their work.
Although this is the first time
that Miss Adams has lived in Wash
ington, she has sentimental ties" in
the region, since her family on
both sides came from Northern Vir-
ginia and Maryland. Brooklyn
born, she is, according to the rec
ords, nearing so, but she looks more
like a wise child, partly because
of her miniature size and partly
from her little-girl haircut. She
wears her black, slightly craving
hair parted in the middle, cut in a
straight bang, and falling loosely
around her pointed face. Her blue
eyes are slightly slanted, and she
has a wide, pleased smile.
Enjoys Teaching Career.
To support herself and gain lei
sure for the poetry she began writ
ing in her teens. she has rather
gladly taught, considering teaching
the most desirable 'gainful employ
ment" for a woman poet. She is
currently on leave from Columbia
and Rutgers.
Her husband. Critic William Troy,
comes down from New York to
spend part Of each week with her
at their Second street apartment
near the Library. She does not
expect that Washington will provide
her with any poetic inspiration (as
it did former congressional poet,
Karl Shapiro) because while she
is interested in politics "as human
being" political material is not her
meat.
The unique congress Of poets
which recently gathered at the
Library of Congress was extremely
pleasant and stimulating, she re-
ported. The annual meeting of the
Fellows in American Letters brought
T. S. Eliot from England, Robert
Penn Warren from Minnesota, Con-
rad Aiken, Allen Tate, Louise Began
and others from all over the coun-
Try. w. H. Auden, who left England
for America and can be regarded
as an exchange for T. S. Eliot, who
left America for England, was also
present. Miss Adams thinks. in
cidentally, that Mr.. Eliot was more
successfully transplanted, since he
now appears to her, externally at
least, the perfect English gentleman,
while Auden is more unmistakably
English than ever"
The poets during their stay. she