[New-Poetry] cruel and unusual punishment

[jforjames at aol.com]

http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2008/06/04/a-poetry-punishment-for-vermont-vandals/
June 4, 2008, 9:53 am
A Poetry Punishment for Vermont Vandals
Posted by Dan Slater 


So was I once myself a swinger of birches;
And so I dream of going back to be.
It’s when I’m weary of considerations,
And life is too much like a pathless wood — from “Birches,” by Robert Frost


Last December, two metaphorical roads diverged in the Vermont woods, and, teenagers being teenagers, they took the road long-traveled by teenagers — directly to the party. This party happened to be at the historic Vermont home of the late poet Robert Frost, where twenty-eight teenagers broke in, drank beer and trashed the place. 


For their transgressions, each was found guilty, mostly of trespassing, and sentenced to two sessions of study with the Frost biographer, poet, and professor Jay Parini — a “punishment,” notes The New Yorker, for which Middlebury students normally pay a hefty sum. The prosecutor, John Quinn, told the magazine, “I guess I was thinking that if these teens had a better understanding of who Robert Frost was and his contribution to our society, that they would be more respectful of other people’s property in the future.”


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