Tag Archives: Robert Frost

“Before verse can be human again it must learn to be brutal.” — Austin Clarke

Posted on May 9, 2025 by sheila

“He cleared a non-Yeatsian space in which an Irish poet might build a confident poetry in English for which the term ‘Anglo-Irish’ is meaningless.” – Michael Schmidt, Lives of the Poets Austin Clarke was born in Dublin on this day … Continue reading →

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“Too many poets delude themselves by thinking the mind is dangerous and must be left out. Well, the mind is dangerous, and must be left in.” — Robert Frost

Posted on March 26, 2025 by sheila

“[The poem] begins in delight, it inclines to the impulse, it assumes direction with the first line laid down, it runs a course of lucky events, and ends in a clarification of life–not necessarily a great clarification, such as sects … Continue reading →

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“The people must grant a hearing to the best poets they have, else they will never have better.” — Harriet Monroe

Posted on December 23, 2024 by sheila

“I started in early with Shakespeare, Byron, Shelley, with Dickens and Thackeray; and always the book-lined library gave me a friendly assurance of companionship with lively and interesting people, gave me friends of the spirit to ease my loneliness.” – … Continue reading →

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Year in Review: Running my mouth in 2020, Part 2

Posted on December 21, 2020 by sheila

Here’s part 1, a list of things I’ve written for other outlets. This list, then, is a hodge-podge of the things I’ve written here this year. Anyone familiar with this joint knows that I do tribute posts for people’s birthdays. … Continue reading →

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The Books: “The Norton Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry” – Robert Frost

Posted on December 13, 2008 by sheila

Daily Book Excerpt: Poetry The Norton Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry, Volume 1: Modern Poetry, edited by Jahan Ramazani, Richard Ellmann, and Robert O’Clair I have always thought that Robert Frost was darker than he is given credit for. … Continue reading →

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Free Verse

Posted on May 30, 2007 by sheila

I’d just as soon play tennis with the net down. — Robert Frost on writing free verse, 1956

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Happy Birthday: “Stopping By The Woods on a Snowy Evening”

Posted on March 7, 2007 by sheila

Today in 1923 – Robert Frost’s “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” was published in the New Republic. The story of the composition of that poem is very cool. One of my favorite kinds of inspirational stories. It is … Continue reading →

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Thanks, Robert Frost

Posted on January 31, 2007 by sheila

Thanks, Robert Frost by David Ray Do you have hope for the future? someone asked Robert Frost, toward the end. Yes, and even for the past, he replied, that it will turn out to have been all right for what … Continue reading →

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Happy Birthday to Snowy Woods

Posted on March 7, 2006 by sheila

I learned that today, in 1923, Robert Frost’s “Stopping By The Woods on a Snowy Evening” was published in the New Republic. Here’s the story of the composition of that poem – which I think is just GREAT: Though it’s … Continue reading →

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Famous epitaphs

Posted on November 1, 2005 by sheila

John Keats, great poet, who died in 1821 (and I think his birthday was Sunday), wrote his own epitaph, which is now rightly famous: “Here lies one whose name was writ in water.” But actually, the full epitaph reads like … Continue reading →

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