Jones is jailed after reaching Harvard Square
Poet involved
What happened
After arriving in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Jones was arrested as a vagrant instead of being admitted to Harvard. He was held in East Cambridge Jail. On 26 July 1910, while in Cell No. 40, he wrote about the experience in the poem Harvard Square.
Literary impact
The arrest transformed personal humiliation into poetry and gave Jones one of his most powerful autobiographical subjects. Harvard Square became a symbolic site where aspiration, race, poverty, and institutional exclusion met in a single poetic drama.
Source: Wikipedia
