[New-Poetry] Re: Frost on the edge

[Jason Quackenbush]

yep, it's an uphill battle, i'm sure, and the tides of history and popular are so far against me. i'm too much of a romantic. i think the fact that 
it's a lost cause makes me want to keep fighting as much as my conviction that i'm right. thanks for the poem. i'll probably go to my grave wondering 
why people can read stuff like that and not come to the conclusion that frost was tone deaf.

David Graham wrote:
> 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 <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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