Gesundheight, Jack. Thanks, Ann.

Voyage
 

Deleted February 20

Thank you so much for deleting your next most recent post. I presume you will delete the one just above when you tire of it. Good. There’s no connection between it and the rest of the thread. Bah!

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Allen: "Ever since I first read Frost’s famous poem I have smelled something about it that to me suggests that he was thinking about some other living poet (possibly e.e. cummings) who lived in Greenwich Village."


Frost had no quarrel with or envy of cummings that I can find. Famously, the only one Frost had quarreled with was the world. I think you're wildly stretching it to join the two. Unless, of course, you're just having fun.

Other than the sonic similarities of "woods" and "words" and the mention of "village", your poetic hypothesis falls face first in the snow. Your attempt to tie the two titans of modern American poetry falls flat after the first stanza's "village" reference. I don't think Frost had it in him. And besides, he was a naturalist at heart and lived many years in snowy Vermont (where he wrote the poem) and New Hampshire. He wrote the poem because he lived the poem.

Oddly, cummings died in the land of Frost (New Hampshire) and Frost died in the land of cummings (Cambridge, MA). They died within four months of each other. They were both poets. Other than that, the two were Macintosh and Macoun. Sweet and tart. Respectively.


Maybe your final stanza could read:

The *words* are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have punctuation to keep,
And commas to go before I sleep,
And commas to go before I sleep.

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This is an idealized picture of Frost, who was a great poet but apparently a real shit. He seems to have borrowed money from people who were less well off than he was and never paid them back. At at least one poet's reading, his nasty comments had to be shushed.

Actually he had quite a famous quarrel with Stevens.

Jim, I rather like your stanza. Otherwise, I am willing to agree to disagree. Frost very frequently leaves me cold, and no pun is intended. If I’m FM radio, Robert Frost is AM. I’m totally aware that just gobs and gobs of people shiver with pleasure at the mention of his name and praise his prosody. Not I, said the third little pig—but, my my, what big eyes you have heartless Frosty, and not by the hair on my chinny-chinny-chin-chin (frequently shaven) will I love you ever so much as JFK did.

Thanks, Max and Cameron.

Accidental duplicate post.

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Max, Allen, I'm more familiar with Frost the poet than I am the man. I didn't mean to infer he got along with everyone; I was more referring to his Frost's tombstone epitaph.

Frost's bungled appearance at the JFK inauguration was a tough break (though it was viewed sympathetically at the time). The sun was blinding. He did have a swagger to him that was Twain-like at times — minus the great satirical wit of Twain. He was much beloved by those who loved him : )


Max: "This is an idealized picture of Frost, who was a great poet but apparently a real shit. He seems to have borrowed money from people who were less well off than he was and never paid them back. At at least one poet's reading, his nasty comments had to be shushed."

I didn't know about those things. Much of my impression of him as a man/poet was gleaned from this interview. I do like his poetry very much. Of course he could have signed a book for those he owed at the time and that would have paid back the debt. I heard Picasso (?) would sometimes dash off a sketch on a napkin in payment for a meal in a restaurant.

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Jim et al., absolutely the last thing I want to is to turn this thread into a Robert Frost demolition derby, nor do I want to throw ugly paint on Robert Frost’s reputation as a great poet. I’ve just never felt a kinship with him. I’ve already said more than enough about that. However, here are two links which are certainly not very well edited, being repetitious and otherwise wordy. I do think that they both repay a complete reading however. Maybe after that, we can all let Robert Frost and my failure to thrill at most of his efforts rest a bit. When I was really introduced to his poetry in college, I thought, Wow, here’s a famous writer I don’t “get” — or truly don’t want to “get”. There are a few other poets that aren’t high on my list, that better people than I rate highly. Enough. Here are the links:

https://wydaily.com/story/2017/03/26...rofessor-says/

https://medium.com/invisible-illness...n-54a5b73f66b5