Mending Wall (Robert Frost)

This poem by Robert Frost is another friend's favorite. Thanks Michael W. for reintroducing me to this great one.

It's a quiet, solid poem - the diction and even the lack of line breaks reflect that. The lack of line breaks also serves to make the poem a long line, a wall (if you will) between reader and poet. And just as it's so for the neighbors, perhaps the distance that text puts between you and the poet is best. Boundaries are good. They allow interaction (reading/thinking about the poem & chatting with your neighbor), but also allow for defined distance (there is little doubt of who is the reader vs writer & each man's plot of land is clearly demarcated).

 
Okay, so that's really just a half-thought out idea, but that's why this poem is so great. In all my previous readings, I'd never made that connection about reader/writer/and the boundaries between them. This poem is easy to read and understand and yet so dense. It contains so much wisdom.

Good find, Michael.

Favorite line: "Spring is the mischief in me"

Spring is the mischief in me,

Nothing Gold Can Stay (Robert Frost)

Today's is my husband's favorite poem (by Robert Frost) - Nothing Gold Can Stay.

He (like me) first read it in S. E. Hinton's The Outsiders. He says that he loves the poem because of that connection. It's just so interwoven with that book - which was such an excellent read.

It was the first poem for him that he really liked, that made him think. It's definitely philosophical. I like the rhymed couplets - the simpleness of the poem belies its tragic subject - that nothing can remain good or perfect for long. 

It also made me think. I would like to read others' favorite poems. I would like to explore those poems that have meant something to you. Leave a comment with one of your favs. I'd love to read and 'talk' about it.

Favorite line: "So Eden sank to grief"

Mowing (Robert Frost)

Happy Easter! And I'm sure there must be Easter poems out there, but I couldn't find any that were literary (at least with my brief search). But then my eye caught on this poem by Robert Frost because my husband mowed the lawn for the first time this year today. Mowing the lawn, like Easter, is kind of a marker for the season.

In this sonnet, there is a lot of rhyming, but it's not standard so I couldn't identify a scheme. Maybe just a ton of slant rhyme?

Besides the fact that this poem made me think what mowing the lawn would be like without a lawn mower (hard!), I like through sweat/hard work he uncovers the honest truth of nature. It's all so related in this nutshell of a poem.

Favorite line: "There was never a sound beside the wood but one"

There was never a sound beside the wood but one,

Meeting and Passing (Robert Frost)

A quick look at this sonnet by Robert Frost.

It's got simple, direct language. It's got a smirk of humor and a twist at the end. I think all 3 of those things can be said about most Robert Frost poems. It's not one of my favorite Frost poems, but then again it's hard to be amazing all of the time.

Favorite line: "There was a gate I had leaned at for the view"

There was a gate I had leaned at for the viewT

Out, Out -- (Robert Frost)

Out, Out-- by Robert Frost is the poem for today. Oops about not posting for days. I do mean for this to be a daily blog, but ya know, daily. And every day sure is one tall order.

So this poem is about the tragic death of a young boy. It reads like prose, only prettified into poetry. I think it's pretty clear about how the boy died. It's also pretty direct and unflinching as to how other people who are touched initially by his death will soon leave and forget him.

The title, I remember from HS, is from Hamlet, though I forget where and by whom the line was spoken. I'm sure it adds a neat level to this poem, though. Anybody wanna leave a comment and fill me in?

Favorite line: "Leaped out at the boy's hand, or seemed to leap—/He must have given the hand."

Nothing Gold Can Stay (Robert Frost)

Haha. This poem. I first heard of it from reading The Outsiders. I really thought that HS Hinton had composed the thing. It doesn't smack of Robert Frost. I get no sense of New England from this poem.

It's also very understandable. It's very middle school. Frost wrote better poems, I think. But I do like this poem, merely because my fiance loves to quote it. And that is a definite plus for the poem. It IS really easy to remember.

Favorite line: "Nothing gold can stay."

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening (Robert Frost)

Hmm, I remember writing a blog posting referencing this poem by Frost back in day when I had an 'online journal' and not a blog. Let's see if I can find it:

Wednesday, July 28, 2004

Summer passes on in lazy slow circles.

I was watching my first Oprah show the other day. She had a series of guests who had achieved incredible success from dire circumstances. Parents died, homeless, night classes, on to Harvard, and writing a best selling book on the subject kind of life stories. She had each guest tell about their struggle. She then showered them with praise and gave them a plaque.

The common thread through all of the stories was that they had no immediate family to depend on. They cited this as a source of pride--"And I had to do it alone. . ." But I think that their lack of family made it possible for them to achieve more than they could have if they had had a family.

I'm sure everyone has seen the movie It's a Wonderful Life. In the movie the main character continually gives up his aspirations to support his family at home. By giving up his dreams he is able to assure the dreams of his brother, father, and children.

Like in Frost's poem Stopping in the Woods on a Snowy Evening I think the major issue is the conflict between serving others or serving yourself.

While not discounting the terrific struggles the women on Oprah's show went through to achieve what they did, I do think that their struggle was made easier because they only had to worry about themselves. They could spend all day studying because they didn't have a baby at home or a sick parent to take care of. Their energies could be intensely directed at their one goal. It wasn't split among a variety of causes or responsibilities. Their cause and responsibility were united.

The main character in It's a Wonderful Life (and let's just call him Jim because I've forgotten what he is called) sacrificed his wants for others. Is he nobler? At the end, we are to think that he is because he has friends and family and a wonderful life. But since it was not the life he had imagined for himself who is to say how things might have turned out if he had managed to pursue his own goals that he had at the start of the picture.

Is it better to chase down your own goals or to let them lie dormant if it means that others will be able to achieve theirs'?

Frost seemed to think so. The woods are lovely, dark and deep./But I have promises to keep,/And miles to go before I sleep,/And miles to go before I sleep.

The speaker in Frost's poem gives up his own desire to stay in the wood and watch the snow in order to fulfill his obligations, his promises to others.

I don't know which is the better path to take. But it seems to me that this issue is at the heart of so many unresolved issues today. The individual or the community? It's visible in homeland security. Personal freedoms or omnipresent surveillance? Medicine: Assisted suicides or no? It's at the bottom of soleada42's argument against the subservient position a woman is supposed to have in some wedding vows. It is the conflict between our valedictorian and salutatorian’s speeches
It is a matter of who deserves the priority: the individual or the community.

And right now at least, I think that this is the unresolvable issue. I don't see a way to compromise between the two.

Et tu?


Favorite line: "The woods are lovely, dark and deep./But I have promises to keep,/ And miles to go before I sleep"

The Road Not Taken (Robert Frost)

I once had to memorize and then recite The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost for the stage. Ha! And doesn't that sound dramatic. And yes, if I were to be (un)fair, I would say that the most common reading of this poem is also pretty dramatic.

The pop reading is to say that the less-trodden path is the better one. That to be the odd kid out is the best way to go because you see more and see differently than most.

However, that is not at all what this poem is saying. I find that this line is forgotten in many people's analysis: "the passing there/Had worn them really about the same". The two paths are the same. They both take you far from your starting point and you know what they say about roads, they "go ever on and on". You'll be a different person whether you take one path or another and who can say what difference would have been made if you had selected the un-taken one.

Favorite line: "And sorry I could not travel both/And be one traveler, long I stood"

Fire and Ice (Robert Frost)

Ah right, poetry. This thing is manual! Okay, so today's poem/poet is (drum roll please) Fire and Ice by Robert Frost.

Who doesn't love this poem. It's short. It's clever. It's truth-making. And it rhymes. What a clever, talented fellow Frost was.

And how staid, how New-England! The poem talks about the end of the world and yet it ends, not with a bang or a crash, but with the modest assessment: "ice/Is also great/ And would suffice."

Favorite line: "But if it had to perish twice,/I think I know enough of hate/To say that for destruction ice/Is also great"

Departmental (Robert Frost)

This poem is great in comparison to other Frost poems. So, I should have, perhaps, talked about other, more famous Frost poems first, but I just adore this poem. It's such a story and then it ends in the delightful quip "It couldn't be called ungentle/But how thoroughly departmental."

This poem is gleeful. I bet Frost wrote it quickly when he was in a happy, light mood. This is an example of what I consider to be appropriate use of rhyme. It's not a skill of mine and it's so painfully awful when it's done poorly, which is pretty common. But here, the rhymes are AABBCC. They are so close together, which is so appropriate for humor.

This poem almost mislead me. I saw "Robert Frost" and thought it would be serious and snow-filled. But then, right away, the rhyme and the meter become apparent and set the stage for the delight that quickly comes. Without meaning it in a trite way, this poem is so cute!

Favorite line: "Go bring him home to his people./Lay him in state on a sepal./Wrap him for shroud in a petal./Embalm him with ichor of nettle./This is the word of your Queen."

Acquainted with the Night (Robert Frost)

I love this poem by Robert Frost because of how it feels. It moves slowly with most lines being full, complete sentences. That slow gentleness is descriptive of how night itself feels. The wind drops. The day is done. Sleep is eminent.

Also, looking at the Wikipedia page where the poem is posted in its entirety, I learned that this poem is written in a particular form. From just reading I could tell that it was in iambs and that there was a rhyme pattern. But not only that, he wrote "Acquainted with the Night" in terza rima. Terza rima requires iambic pentameter and the rhyme scheme aba bcb cdc dad aa. It's very difficult and so I am in awe now that I have learned he wrote a poem I love for its content and feel in one of the most difficult forms there is. Wow.

Favorite line: "I have passed by the watchman on his beat/and dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain."

Aside: I will be attending an orientation for my job for the rest of this week, so I don't believe I will be able to post again until Saturday. See you later!