Wednesday Wisdom

WHO?

Robert Frost (March 26, 1874 – January 29, 1963) was an American poet known for his vivid and realistic depictions of rural life in New England. Robert Lee Frost was born in San Francisco, California. His father, William Prescott Frost Jr., was a journalist, and his mother, Isabelle Moodie, was a Scottish immigrant. Frost's father died of tuberculosis when he was 11 years old. After the death of his father, Frost moved with his mother and sister to Lawrence, Massachusetts. He attended Dartmouth College in Hanover NH, but he left before completing his degree. 

Frost married Elinor Miriam White in 1895 and shortly after bought a farm in Derry, New Hampshire, where he worked as a poultry farmer. The farm life greatly influenced his poetry, and many of his poems reflect the rural landscapes and themes of his surroundings. Frost's first poem was published in 1894, and his first book, "A Boy's Will," was published in 1913. His second book, "North of Boston" (1914), gained significant attention and established him as a poet.

Frost’s early influences were poets like Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau who came from the literary and philosophical school of Transcendentalism. This school of thought highlighted the importance and spirituality of nature and on self-reliance while criticizing the conventions of society and its materialistic nature. Frost took his family to England, where he developed a friendship with writer and poet Edward Thomas. They would take long walks together through nature and “The road not taken “was influenced by his time with Thomas. His time in England also brought another influence with the introduction to the Romantic poetry of Keats and Wordsworth. The Romantic poets also pushed back against the conventions of British structured society while emphasizing imagination and emotion and a connection to nature. Frost returned to the United States in 1915 and his most important and influential works come from two poetry collections, "Mountain Interval" (1916) and "New Hampshire" (1923) which consist of poems that were influenced by these two schools of literature. Over the years, he became one of America's most beloved and honored poets, winning four Pulitzer Prizes for Poetry.

Frost spent his later years teaching and lecturing at various institutions, including Amherst College and the University of Michigan. He became an icon of American literature, receiving numerous awards and honors. He recited a poem at the inauguration of President John F. Kennedy in 1961. Robert Frost passed away on January 29, 1963, in Boston, Massachusetts. 

What he produced

Some of Frost's most well-known poems include "The Road Not Taken," "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening," "Birches," and "Mending Wall" which were included in his collections of poems. His poetry often explores complex themes, such as choices in life, the beauty of nature, and the human condition.

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening is one such poem that explores the beauty of nature while exploring the human condition. The poem goes published in 1922 as part of New Hampshire goes as this:

Whose woods these are I think I know. His house is in the village though; He will not see me stopping here To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer To stop without a farmhouse near Between the woods and frozen lake The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake To ask if there is some mistake. The only other sound’s the sweep Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark, and deep, But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep.

"Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" has garnered diverse interpretations from death, despair or a metaphor for a long arduous journey, all of which Frost has denied. The poem does have a recurring theme that underscores the tension between appreciating the beauty of nature and the pressing demands of personal responsibilities. The poem invites contemplation on the delicate balance between the allure of enjoying a tranquil natural scene and the imperative to fulfill one's commitments and obligations. But who is the speaker, why is he here? he is familiar with the spot even and the owner of the land. Is he a hard-working New England laborer stopping to contemplate his journey or is it metaphor to winter as an end to the end of the year. Poetry, when well written allows for the mind to imagine.

2023 why do we care?

Frost demonstrates his talent in crafting the aesthetic appeal of a poem, written in four beautiful stanzas and in what is called iambic terameter he creates a musical like flow to the poem that captivates the reader. Each of the four stanzas are comprised of four lines in which the last words of the first and four sentences rhyme (know-snow, queer-year, shake-flake, deep-sleep). This harmonious and rhythmic pattern is soothing and is easy to the human ear which contributes to the poem memorability.

In middle school I had a teacher Mr. Dante Defazio, who did indeed teach Dante’s Inferno. I don’t recall for sure, but I like to believe I understood the irony at the time. One of his lessons was to pick a poem you’re fond of, memorize it and follow up by reciting it to the class. I chose "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” by Robert Frost because the imagery he created which I recognized as the White Mountains of New Hampshire. It was, perhaps, the first time I realized the power of words to promote images with the brilliance of wordsmiths to create layers of meanings and interpretations. While books tend to tell stories and facts, poetry can be more interpretative, like a song, leaving the readers with multiple interpretations.

As a youngster first reading the poem, I remember thinking Frost’s poem could be a metaphor for Santa Claus, with his reindeers taking a pause to enjoy the solitude of nature before returning to his quest of delivering presents. As I ponder this poem too many years later, I still enjoy the imagery and harmonious balance of lines like “He will not mind me stopping here to watch the woods fill up with snow”, or, “The only other sound’s the sweep of easy wind and downy flake”. I believe however Frost’s enduring message may be telling us to just stop and enjoy the here and now.

A Merry Christmas to all……………………………………………

And now you know...

Philosophy is the art of thinking, the building block of progress that shapes critical thinking across economics, ethics, religion, and science. 

METAPHYSICS: Literally, the term metaphysics means ‘beyond the physical.’ Typically, this is the branch that most people think of when they picture philosophy. In metaphysics, the goal is to answer the what and how questions in life. Who are we, and what are time and space?

LOGIC: The study of reasoning. Much like metaphysics, understanding logic helps to understand and appreciate how we perceive the rest of our world. More than that, it provides a foundation for which to build and interpret arguments and analyses. 

ETHICS: The study of morality, right and wrong, good and evil. Ethics tackles difficult conversations by adding weight to actions and decisions. Politics takes ethics to a larger scale, applying it to a group (or groups) of people. Political philosophers study political governments, laws, justice, authority, rights, liberty, ethics, and much more.

AESTHETICS: What is beautiful? Philosophers try to understand, qualify, and quantify what makes art what it is. Aesthetics also takes a deeper look at the artwork itself, trying to understand the meaning behind it, both art as a whole and art on an individual level. A question an aesthetics philosopher would seek to address is whether or not beauty truly is in the eye of the beholder.

EPISTEMOLOGY: This is the study and understanding of knowledge. The main question is how do we know? We can question the limitations of logic, how comprehension works, and the ability (or perception) to be certain.2