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Mountain Interval by Robert Frost

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Saffron

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DWill wrote:... "Out! Out! brief candle". I just thought of the words I left out in my own quotation from it, which are "full of sound and fury," and I wonder whether the sound and the fury of the buzz saw are kind of a literal representation of MacBeth's metaphor.
I'm also thinking that since the tragic figure is a boy, it's also literally truer that he "Struts and frets his hour upon the stage,/and then is heard no more." Or maybe not.
Ah, yes, I'd forgotten all about the other, "Out, out." Someones been marching around my house spouting the Lady M speech, so naturally that one was paramount in my mind. I think you are much more correct than I.
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We only have about 6 poems to go to wrap this book up. Pick a poem and let's go --

Brown’s Descent, or the Willy-nilly Slide
The Gum-gatherer
The Line-gang
The Vanishing Red
Snow
The Sound of the Trees
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DWill

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Your're scaring me, Ms. Moderator. But on the other hand, I like the injection of some classroom discipline. Poetry people will drive you nuts otherwise.

The one I liked most was "Snow." "The Gum-Gatherer" was okay, too. It had a strange rhyming pattern, which actually kind of distracted me. It was pretty mild in its theme, though. Reminded me a little of old Wordworth's "Resolution and Independence," which is also about a gatherer, only it's an ancient man who wades around in the muck waiting for leeches to attach to his legs. Then he sells them for medical use. More romantic than this man who just harvests pitch off the pines.

After Paradise Lost, at least we are not put off by a 10-page poem, right? I like these dialogue poems of Frost's. They have very little action, just subtle psychological goings-on, and the reader has to infer a lot. (We should next go the Frost's first book, "A Boy's Will,", so we can discuss the wonderful "Death of the Hired Man.") Anyway, I just like the little drama that resulted from this fanatical neighbor visiting the couple. It's a short story in blank verse, but told more economically than it could be in prose.

Oh, yes, I also liked "The Sound of Trees." Frost does uncommonly well with trees, doesn't he?

Teacher! Teacher! My hand is up! OK, thanks. What do you think of my idea to read the volume "A Boy's Will" (1913)? Can we, huh?
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DWill wrote: Oh, yes, I also liked "The Sound of Trees." Frost does uncommonly well with trees, doesn't he?
I think so too.
Teacher! Teacher! My hand is up! OK, thanks. What do you think of my idea to read the volume "A Boy's Will" (1913)? Can we, huh?
For you, Will, anything. How about you lead the discussion. I also like the the poem, "Death of a Hired Man." I am thinking that A Boy's Will is his second book and North of Boston was his first book, but then, you will know.

P.S. That's Lady Moderator.
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Saffron wrote:
How about you lead the discussion. I also like the the poem, "Death of a Hired Man." I am thinking that A Boy's Will is his second book and North of Boston was his first book, but then, you will know.
My collected Frost puts A Boy's Will first 1n 1913, North of Boston second in 1914. Close.

You know, regarding your invitation, I think I might need to pull back until I get this poor connection business solved. I don't know whether either the cable company or the phone company will come by here if I recite my tale of woe to them, I'd bet not. So I'll probably have to see whether I can get satellite and not break the bank, and not also end up with a TV package that has my butt parked on the couch 24/7. A pretty unpoetic quandary, no?
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DWill wrote: Teacher! Teacher! My hand is up! OK, thanks. What do you think of my idea to read the volume "A Boy's Will" (1913)? Can we, huh?
Saffron wrote:For you, Will, anything. How about you lead the discussion.
DWill wrote: You know, regarding your invitation, I think I might need to pull back until I get this poor connection business solved.
I'm in a muddle. Are you only declining leadership? Should we read A Boy's Will or put it off to another time?
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From "Snow":

“Our snow-storms as a rule
Aren’t looked on as man-killers, and although
I’d rather be the beast that sleeps the sleep
Under it all, his door sealed up and lost,
Than the man fighting it to keep above it, 245
Yet think of the small birds at roost and not
In nests. Shall I be counted less than they are?
Their bulk in water would be frozen rock
In no time out to-night. And yet to-morrow
They will come budding boughs from tree to tree 250
Flirting their wings and saying Chickadee,
As if not knowing what you meant by the word storm.”

Several thoughts about this passage. I have often marveled that the tiny bodies of birds somehow do not freeze. I can get my head around why they don't. Especially knowing that humans can die of cold exposure at 40. This strikes me as a "Man against nature" or a kind of repeat of Frost's, " I had a lovers quarrel with the world", statement.
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DWill wrote: Teacher! Teacher! My hand is up! OK, thanks. What do you think of my idea to read the volume "A Boy's Will" (1913)? Can we, huh?
How about for now, just having a discussion of The Death of the Hired Man? Anyone interested?
Last edited by Saffron on Mon Mar 30, 2009 9:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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