Drury University - Souwester Yearbook (Springfield, MO)

Page 16 text:

SOU'WES'l ER NINETEEN TEN Department of Modern Languages. FREDERICK Aucusrus GRANT COWPER, A.B. NDER the able administration of Pro- fessor Cowper, the Department of Modern Languages is assuming more and more importance. At present the languages offered are French, Spanish, and German, though Italian will be given when there is a demand for it. The aim of the Department, first, is to get the student well grounded in the principles of grammar. This is acdomplished by prose composition, by dictation, and by the read- ing of modern fiction and plays. As much conversation is given as possible. When the student has acquired a good knowledge of N the language, he begins to read the master- pieces of the literature. Four years' work may be had in the French language, two years in the Spanish, and two years in the German language. IfAdvanced German belongs to the Department of History and German.1 Graduate work may now be done in French literature, consisting of the reading of Old French and the study of the philology of the French language. A French Club has been organized, to meet once or twice a month in private homes. Those eligible for membership are Sophomores, Juniors, and Seniors in French, grad- uate students of French, and desirable persons in town acquainted with the language. Conversation is to be carried on in French, and there will be practice in giving French songs, poems, and plays. It is believed that such a club will be a great advantage as well as pleasure to students ambitious to leam to speak French. This years plans are being made to give a French play at the end of the year, which will exhibit to some extent the progress of the Department. 14

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SOU'WESTER Q NINETEEN TEN Department of Greek. Fmrz SAGE DARROW, A.M.. Ph.D. THE Department of Greek at Drury has . always done very excellent work, and the high standard of the Department is still k9Pf UP by Dr. Darrow, whose enthusiasm for Greek is equalled only by his knowledge of it He does not confine the work of the Depart- ment to the reading of the classics, but offers courses in Biblical Creek, Philology, and Greek Art. And next year, for the benefit of students not familiar withithe language. two new courses will be offered: a Study of Greek Myths in the Poetry of the Nine- teenth Century, and a Study of Greek Trag- edy in English Translations, both of which will be of great value to those specializing ' in English Literature. For four years the student may live in the ancient world of Greece-that wonderfull world of myths, of heroes. and of wise men-seeing with Homer the mighty combats be- tween the Creek and Trojan heroes, the destruction of Priam's city, and the long wan- :lerings of the crafty Odysseus: and with Xenophon, Athens fighting her battle in .her long struggle for supremacy. He may sit at the feet of the philosophers, Plato and Aris- totle, and leam from them the wisdom of the Greeks. He may listen to the sweet songs of the lyric poets and to the words of the silver-tongued orator, Demosthenes. And last he may view in some amphitheater the comedies of Aristophanes and the tragedies of tmschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. After four years spent in this way, the student is familiar with the Greek civilization and the Creek language and literature, which, for beauty of fonn and wealth of thought, has probably never been surpassed. 13

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SOUWVESTER NINETEEN TEN a Department of Rhetoric and Public Speaking. EMMANUEL Dao SCHUNBERGER, A.B.. M.O. ' THIS Department realizes that one of the most essential parts of the student's edu- cation is the acquiring of the ability to express himself orally as well as in writing, and that without this power of expression the knowl- edge that he gains will be of little value. The Department is closely afhliated With the others, and its work is essentially college work. Its aim primarily is not to prepa.e students for the platform or the stage, but for life in all its manifold relations, and the courses are arranged with this end in view. Rhetoric and Expression, which are re- quired in the Freshman year, form, as it were, 3 a foundation for the other work of the De- x parlment, and also for all the courses 'in English Literature. The other courses offered are Argumentation, Oratory, Dramatic Reading, Methods of Teaching Public Speaking, and a s'udy of the Poets, in which course the representative works of Browning, Tennyson. and other poets are studied, for the purpose of developing the aesthetic in the s2udent's nature, and of giving him pow- er to feel and express the qualities of beauty and imagination. The high-grade work of this Department is shown in the inter-society debates, the inter-collegiate debates, the State oratorical contest, the Edgell contest, and the College plays. Heretofore the plays have been given by the literary societies, and have compared very favorably with those given by professional companies: but this year the College play will be given by the Class in Dramatic Reading. I5