SOURCE: “The Poet as Theme Reader: William Vaughn Moody, a Student, and Louisa May Alcott,” in Toward a New American Literary History: Essays in Honor of Arlin Turner, edited by Louis J. Budd, Edwin H. Cady, and Carl H. Anderson, Duke University Press, 1980, pp. 140-53.

In the following essay, Arms examines Moody's comments on student papers he corrected while teaching English at Harvard.

For English 22 at Radcliffe, William Vaughn Moody wrote this comment on a first fortnightly theme, a reminiscence by a student who had read Little Women and later met its author:

A charming theme, both in spirit and treatment. It has the unmistakable note of sincerity, and has at times an imaginative and pathetic quality which touches and convinces the reader. On the other hand the phrasing is often weakly conventional, giving a note of false sentiment which is in sharp contrast with the pervading atmosphere...