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October 2007
Songs for the Soul
– Robert Frost
by Harry Furness
 Introduction
Greetings. American poetry has
often fallen prey to and been captured by public relations and
sales. It’s not always about who is best, but who sells
the best. Our, and I mean America’s (and please don’t
mistake me as some xenophobic fool, this column focuses on American
poets), “best” authors are often defined by book sales.
This is a shame. As readers we should demand quality over quantity
and look to the verse and its meaning and relevancy. It’s
time to sing the praises of one of America’s premier New
England poets, Robert Frost.
Opening Salvo
Mr. Frost’s vision of poetry was extremely
influential on 20th century poetry. His status as an elder statesman,
poet, and teacher opened doors for others to follow. However,
there is much more to his story than just being the poet who
read at President John Kennedy’s inauguration
.
Portrait of Frost c.1910-1920
Song For Robert Frost
I sing for the dichotomy of Robert Frost
The New Englander born in San Francisco
Hard pressed as a young man to make more
Than a grade. He walked the snowy woods
Listening to apple blossoms bloom.
His fame yet gained o'er sea first made.
His stony stoicism tilled the hard ground
Of cold fields lined by rock walls
Making good neighbors laud his praise.
Tempered by his grace and wit
He sown his children before his time
On a road taken with success in learning.
Great teacher of our souls to sing,
What attics hide our worse fears of bones?
What button boxes keep our stories?
He tried to stay the course and point ourselves
And talk of how man does to women
With dirt to flower stains each their own.
He left his talking in his words,
Can't we hear what each is saying?
When others went west to find the answers
Robert saw the truth beneath the rocky soil
Of his beloved northeastern roots
Shine on this glint of understanding what
We are to each. Reach past the path and live a life
For though life is both toil and trouble
Celebrate not just its passing
But your time that comes as it does pass.
Eating life whole, working with his hands in the dirt of our
existence.
Robert Frost
Robert Frost was born of New England parents
in San Francisco in 1874. His father who was a teacher and a
newspaper editor died when young Robert was 11. After his father’s
death Robert and his mother returned to New England and lived
with her husband’s father. Robert Frost excelled in school
and graduated from high school a co-valedictorian with his future
wife.
“One by one he subdued his father's
trees
By riding them down over and over again
Until he took the stiffness out of them,...” (“Birches”)
He rarely refers to anytime spent in California,
but his early selections for employment seem to reflect both
his father’s and his grandfather’s influence. Robert
Frost’s early jobs included: teacher, factory laborer, newspaper
deliverer, farmer, and editor. After marrying his high school
sweetheart and starting a family, he decided that England was
the place for poets. Like T. S. Elliot, Ezra Pound, and others,
Mr. Frost met with his first real success in England. However
unlike his fellow ex-patriots, he decided that his place was
in America particularly in New England. Just prior to WWI the
Frost’s returned to New Hampshire.
“ ‘YOU ought to have seen what
I saw on my way
To the village, through Mortenson's pasture to-day:
Blueberries as big as the end of your thumb,...’ ”
(Blueberries”)
Back in the US Mr. Frost began teaching
English at Amherst College. Teaching, lecturing, and writing
took up his time. He was published and winning awards. He was
famous in his own land and doing what he loved. Life, however,
dealt the Frosts quite a few blows.
“He said twice over before he knew
himself:
‘Can’t a man speak of his own child he’s lost?’...”
(“Home Burial”)
Besides losing his father early in life,
Robert Frost lost a daughter and a son as infants; a son and
a daughter early adulthood; a favorite sister; and his wife.
These deaths always seemed to be on the heels of some of his
greatest publishing successes. Among numerous awards and honors,
Mr. Frost won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry four times.
“Make yourself up a cheering song
of how
Someone’s road home from work this once was,
Who may be just ahead of you on foot...” (“Directive”)
Mr. Frost is most recognized and remembered
as the white haired teacher from New England. His verse is most
commonly associated with working farmers who deal with earthly
decisions about which road to take and when to harvest the apples.
His realistic view on the world is brought to the reader in hard
images.
“Out walking in the frozen swamp one
grey day
I paused and said, "I will turn back from here.
No, I will go on farther--and we shall see."
The hard snow held me, save where now and then
One foot went down. ...” (“The Woodpile”)
However, there is much more to his poetry
than this. Mr. Frost does deal with the metaphysical and his
verse does reflect the spiritual as well as the physical aspects
of life.
“Folks think a witch who has familiar
spirits
She could call up to pass a winter evening,
...
Summing spirits isn’t ‘Button, button,’...”
(“The Witch Of Coos”)
Bibliography:
A Boy's Will (David Nutt, 1913; Holt, 1915).
North of Boston (David Nutt, 1914; Holt, 1914).
Mountain Interval (Holt, 1916).
Selected Poems (Holt, 1923)
New Hampshire (Holt, 1923; Grant Richards, 1924).
Several Short Poems (Holt, 1924).
Selected Poems (Holt, 1928).
West-Running Brook (Holt, 1929).
The Lovely Shall Be Choosers (Random House, 1929).
Collected Poems of Robert Frost (Holt, 1930; Longmans, Green,
1930).
The Lone Striker (Knopf, 1933).
Selected Poems: Third Edition (Holt, 1934).
Three Poems (Baker Library, 1935).
The Gold Hesperidee (Bibliophile Press, 1935).
From Snow to Snow (Holt, 1936).
A Further Range (Holt, 1936; Cape, 1937).
Collected Poems of Robert Frost (Holt, 1939; Longmans, Green,
1939)
A Witness Tree (Holt, 1942; Cape, 1943).
Steeple Bush (Holt, 1947).
Complete Poems of Robert Frost, 1949 (Holt, 1949; Cape, 1951).
Hard Not To Be King (House of Books, 1951).
Aforesaid (Holt, 1954).
A Remembrance Collection of New Poems (Holt, 1959).
You Come Too (Holt, 1959; Bodley Head, 1964)
In the Clearing (Holt Rinehart & Winston, 1962)
The Poetry of Robert Frost, (New York, 1969).
Now, please don’t mistake this article
as an academic paper on all of the qualities of the poet at hand.
I could here start quoting experts who believe such and so about
Robert Frost, but I ask you to participate. Go and explore. Don’t
let me tell you all that I know, which is only but a twinkling
of his star. I hope that I’ve opened a door. Now, it is
up to you to enter. Thanks.
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