Robert Frost

by | Friday, December 28, 2018 | Personal Growth | 3 comments

I was originally just sending the following to a friend, but now feel like it is a nice blog also.

To be completely honest, I was not all that impressed with this poem… until I read the last line. I learned from it. I believe it will make me a better writer. So much said in just one line…

“Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”

 

© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.

3 Comments

  1. Liz on December 28, 2018 at 2:46 pm

    I’ve always liked Robert Frost. The simplicity of his poems belies their complexity: can’t you just feel the body blow of the last stanza? And didn’t he just gently carry you there and then -wham! What is it about, do you think? Do the deep woods represent the thrall that relativity holds us in with it’s beauty and diversions, or do they represent the pull of the transcendent? Do our “promises” keep us on the path of enlightenment or entangled in relativity?

  2. Michael Mamas on December 28, 2018 at 6:25 pm

    Hi Liz,
    In those terms I would say, if the woods represented the transcendent or the relative, I would say the former. Or at least a place of peace and rest. Then there is the pull of life with so many promises to keep… to others as well as to your self, your/our world. “And miles to go before I sleep”: Life’s path is long and challenging… so many miles to go… the world of karma…. It is the story of life in a nutshell… yes?

  3. Marty on December 29, 2018 at 5:24 pm

    Robert Frost is probably my most familiar and favorite of all poets. I remember well visiting him as 6-8 yr old with my father who was his doctor for a short period of time, at his farm in Franconia or Ripton. I was in awe of being in his presence, tho as a child I wasn’t sure why. I vividly remember sitting on a stone wall, typical seen in New England farm landscapes separating pastures, as he and my father talked that day.

    The perception of relativity, transcendence and karma in many of his poems, another being “The Road Not Taken”, are much more observant for me now having dipped a toe into the transcendent these past twenty-plus years. I find I always think of this poem when hiking or walking any trail when a fork presents itself, which path to take and what will I find taking one and not the other. What a metaphor for life, if only, if only?

    This blog you’ve shared has an article on that poem too.

    https://www.poetryfoundation.org/articles/89511/robert-frost-the-road-not-taken

    Thank you for this blog reference, it will be a great resource for poetry reading for time to come.