October 22, 2001

Contact:

Sarah Ray

802-443-5794

sray@middlebury.edu

Posted: October 22, 2001

MIDDLEBURY,

VT - Described by W.H. Auden as “exactly the kind of

critic every poet dreams of finding,” Christopher Ricks will

examine the poetry of Bob Dylan at Middlebury College’s

Robert A. Jones House on Monday, Nov. 5, at 7:30 p.m. The

Jones House is located on Hillcrest Road, off College Street

(Route 125) on the College campus. The talk, titled “Dylan

the Rhyme-Schemer,” is free and open to the public.

Ricks,

professor in the core curriculum at Boston University, is

editor of “The Oxford Book of English Verse” (1999) and has

published monographs on the works of John Milton, Alfred

Tennyson, T.S. Eliot, A.E. Housman and Samuel Beckett. His

reviews in “The New York Review of Books” and the

London-based “Times Literary Supplement” have examined

authors from William Shakespeare and John Milton to Emily

Dickinson and John Updike. In addition to editing and

interpreting literary works, Ricks has written studies of

such topics as “Keats and Embarrassment,” and “T.S. Eliot

and Prejudice.” Presented with an honorary doctorate of

letters by Balliol and Worcester Colleges of Oxford

University - two of the institutions where he has taught -

Ricks was hailed as “a critic of great candor, a man

admirable for learning, unsurpassed in judgment, and

unmatched in acuteness,” and cited as “one who opens up

paths for us into our own literature.”

His

talk “Dylan the Rhyme-Schemer” will be illustrated with

selected verses and melodic snatches from the works of Bob

Dylan, the 60-year-old singer-songwriter who some have

credited with “writing the sound track to the ’60s.”

Ricks’

talk is sponsored by two Middlebury College organizations -

Atwater Commons and the department of American literature

and civilization. For further information, call

802-443-3310.