Mount Holyoke College - Llamarada Yearbook (South Hadley, MA)

Page 16 text:

English Department as T is evident that good English was almost as solid a part of the foundation of Mount Holyoke as good morals. In the first cat- alogue, as for fifty years afterward, English Grammar headed tl1e list of entrance requirements, and much-stress seems to have been put upon the subject in general. Students were advised to come so well prepared to enter that they might spend more time in composition. The text books in Rhetoric during those first years show that the work done must have been of a high order. The formation of a separate department for this study was, how- ever, a very gradual process. For years the English consisted main- ly of composition work, shared alike by teachers of Chemistry or Algebra, of Latin or History. Hours of chewing pencil ends made Saturday a memorable and fateful word to the students of those days, Along in the sixties and seventies there was apparently little instruc- tion aside from this, but in the years immediately preceding the in- troduction ofthe College curriculum, English began to be given a more important place. Miss Stevens, fortunately for us, turned frgm IO '

Page 15 text:

The Board of Trustees J REV. JUDSON SMITH, D.D., of Boston, PRESIDENT. IREV. WILLIAM S. TYLER, D.D., LL.D., of Amherst. SIDNEY E. BRIDGMAN, of Northampton. A. LYMAN WILLISTON, A.M., of Northampton. EDWARD HITCHCOCK, A.M., M.D., of Amherst. REV. JOHN L. R. TRASK, D.D., of Springfield. CHARLES A. YOUNG, Pu.D., LL.D., of Princeton, G. HENRY WHITCOMB, A.M., of NVorcester. MRS. A. LYMAN WILLISTON, of Northampton. 'KALONZO S. KIM BALL, P1I.D., of Worcester. CHARLES E. GARMAN, A.M., ofAn1l1erst. Pkias. MERRILL E. GATES, LL.D., of Amherst. WILLIAM SKINNER, of Holyoke. REV. HENRY STIMSON, D.D., of New York City. HON. WILLIAM WHITING, of Holyoke. HON. W. MURRAY CRANE, of Dalton. JOHN F. ANDERSON, IR., of New York City. Miss SARAH P. EASTMAN, of Wellesley. N, J. MISS CHARLO'I 1'E MORRILL, of Brooklyn, N. Y. Chfffffl 1'-5' me MISS ELIZABETH DAVIS, of Pittsfield. MRS. ELIZABETH STORRS MEAD, EX-OFFICIO. Ruv. JOHN L. R. TRASK, D.D., SECRETARY. A. LYMAN wILL1sToN, A.M., TREASURER. Hleceused. 9 A lumfm'

Page 17 text:

Mathematics to a needier cause, and with far-seeing, thoughtful care, planned the enlarged courses of the College Rhetoric department, wl1icl1 have steadily grown under her direction ever since. The de- velopment of the subject as arranged for the three years showed characteristic thoroughness and method. In carrying out these plans she has been ably helped by her sis- ter, Miss Alice Stevens, who entered into the work with sympathetic earnestness and made her own personality a power in the classroom. The seeming drudgery to Freshmen and Sophomores, of story and argument, of reviews and pleas, is varied by peeps through the loopholesofexainple and illustration at the beautiful and the strong in the realm of books. The Junior course in the technique of the drama and tl1e novel was planned by Miss Stevens with special reference to several coursesin lit- erature, the aim be- ing to have the stu- dents so thoroughly grounded in the prin- ciples of structure that they might not find it necessary to devote a large portion ofthe ti111e give11 to liter- ature tothe mastery of form. The principles of style, both prose and poetic, which before have been given in part in connection with tl1e study of structure, and in part with tl1e development of rhetorical theory, now form a separate elective. The Rhetoric of the Senior year, now to be elective, takes the form of literary criticism, and has been in the charge, of Miss Wood since the establishing of the College courses. Interpretation of beauty in literature must come from the heart of one who loves tl1e beautiful and believes in it. Many a one has received a new vision rr