 Poetry: December 18, 2013 Issue [#6048] |
  Poetry
This week: Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening Edited by: Crys-not really here  
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Frost's Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
The first poem I ever memorized was Robert Frost's "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening." I was in third grade. We recited it together every day for at least a month, right before our daily singing of "Jingle Bells" with the lights off and the small, tabletop Christmas tree lit up. I have always associated that poem with December, and Christmas, for that reason, although there is nothing inherently Christmas-y about the poem itself.
That's why I was surprised to learn, many years later, that some believe the poem to be about Santa Claus. I was one of those kids who stopped believing in Santa at a young age, so I guess it never occurred to me in third grade. I was too busy, even at eight years old, thinking about the rhythm of the poem and how it conjured up beautiful images in my head!
I don't care to do a line-by-line analysis of the poem, and I doubt it will help anyway, because as a reader I know that I may never come to the same meaning as Frost had intended when he wrote it. As a poet myself, I know that this is okay. Replace "horse" with "eight reindeer" and mention a sleigh and then I may be convinced it's about Santa!
But there has always been something inherently magical about the poem to me, despite all the "dark" imagery like "the woods are lovely, dark and deep" and "the darkest evening of the year." Why is this man present? Why does it seem like he can see everything, but no one can see him? Why must he go miles before he can sleep? Where is he going? Why does the horse think there's been a mistake?
It turns out, Frost's fairly short poem full of simple imagery is a complex poem after all. I memorized it in the third grade because I had to, but it stays in my brain because it makes me think, feel and remember. That, to me, is the magic of a good poem. |
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Thank you to everyone who wrote in about my last Poetry Newsletter, "Does Poetry Matter?"
To be honest, as a poet, I found this letter not quite to my liking. Poetry matters, it always has and always will. Yes, unfortunately people today read only certain kind of poetry and you need to write in a certain way so you could get published, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't write for your soul. People are different and therefore, everyone likes different kind of stuff, poetry included. Poetry brings everything to life. It can calms your nerves, brings a smile to your face and your eyes soften and your soul is a bit "softer" than before. Poetry matters. If it affected only one person on this whole planet and everyone else neglected it, it would still matter. Because old souls that writers are need poetry. Poetry is our cure and poetry is what we need. No matter what we do in life. -SophieMoon 
I am sorry you didn't find my newsletter to your liking. I was merely exploring my own thoughts and relationship with poetry. Everything you say is absolutely true. The challenge for me is juggling poetry and the other aspects of my life.
Well Done yes poetry does matter, like our eyes, words are the path to our soul. Thanks! -CandyStaiNeCane 
I enjoyed the Newsletter but think it far easier to write a story about two people in love in a short story than to write it in poetry. Poetry is a different language. The same story can be written in poetic terms saying more and saying it more intensely with fewer words in my opinion. Everyone is entitled to there choice, Poetry is now mine. -monty31802
Does poetry matter? I'll let a quote from my all-time favorite movie answer that one: "We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for. To quote from Whitman, "O me! O life!... of the questions of these recurring; of the endless trains of the faithless... of cities filled with the foolish; what good amid these, O me, O life?" Answer. That you are here - that life exists, and identity; that the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse. That the powerful play *goes on* and you may contribute a verse. What will your verse be?" John Keating (played by Robin Williams) -Red Writing Hood <3 
Although I am trained as a designer and graphic artist I have been writing poetry since around 1980. I don't write to any particular form but the poem itself seeks out the form. Each line demands a following line and most poems take me about 15 to 30 minutes to write, I don't write poetry to "matter", I write because it pleases me. Some of them are not bad at all. -jansand |
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