[New-Poetry] Re: Frost on the edge

[David Graham]

Wow. This is a battle I didn't even know I was fighting, against the  
notion that Frost is boring & overrated & (double wow) unmusical.

I've nothing more to say, except good luck fighting that one. . . .

And here's a Frost poem for your trouble.


TO EARTHWARD

Love at the lips was touch
As sweet as I could bear;
And once that seemed too much;
I lived on air

That crossed me from sweet things,
The flow of-- was it musk
 From hidden grapevine springs
Down hill at dusk?

I had the swirl and ache
 From sprays of honeysuckle
That when they're gathered shake
Dew on the knuckle.

I craved strong sweets, but those
Seemed strong when I was young;
The petal of the rose
It was that stung.

Now no joy but lacks salt
That is not dashed with pain
And weariness and fault;
I crave the stain

Of tears, the aftermark
Of almost too much love,
The sweet of bitter bark
And burning clove.

When stiff and sore and scarred
I take away my hand
 From leaning on it hard
In grass and sand,

The hurt is not enough:
I long for weight and strength
To feel the earth as rough
To all my length.


On Feb 4, 2007, at 9:41 PM, Jason Quackenbush wrote:

> i meant you're on the side that wants to shore up robert frost's  
> reputation as a great american poet. i think frost is dull and  
> highly overrated. I also think think if one is looking at a  
> overview of american poetry and it's geneaologies, his influence  
> has resulted in much more bad than good. This contrary to Billy  
> Collins and his ilk's assertion (see poetry 180 introduction and  
> elsewhere) that it is the fault of the post/avant camp that poetry  
> has declined in cultural currency over the last hundred years. If  
> that decline is anybody's fault, it's robert frost's, the  
> popularity of his boring poetry being a signal to the casual  
> observer--who may begin and end his or her encounter with american  
> poetry when he or she reads stopping by the woods on a snowy  
> evening in high school--that this is the nature of all poetry and  
> therefore that poetry itself is boring crap written by stentorian  
> dead white guys about nature, death, and other 'heady' topics in  
> vague and unmusical ways.
>
> David Graham wrote:
>> Jason:  Perhaps you'll help me out by letting me know which "side"  
>> I'm on, and which of the many possible binaries you're imagining  
>> as battle lines in this case.  Orr's point, as I understood it,  
>> was to question the usefulness and continuing relevance of the old  
>> battle lines.  I take it you disagree?  Say more?
>> On Feb 4, 2007, at 8:55 PM, Jason Quackenbush wrote:
>>> it's only pointless if you're on the side you're so obviously on.
>>>
>>> David Graham wrote:
>>>
>>>> In any case, like David Orr I tend to be far more interested in  
>>>> looking at ways in which Frost is a great poet than in choosing  
>>>> up sides in this old and pointless battle.
>> ========================================
>> David Graham
>> grahamd at ripon.edu <mailto:grahamd at ripon.edu>
>> Home Page:
>> http://www.ripon.edu/academics/faculty/GrahamD/index.html
>> Poetry Library:
>> http://www.ripon.edu/academics/faculty/GrahamD/poetrylib.html
>> ==========================================
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========================================
David Graham
grahamd at ripon.edu
Home Page:
http://www.ripon.edu/academics/faculty/GrahamD/index.html
Poetry Library:
http://www.ripon.edu/academics/faculty/GrahamD/poetrylib.html
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