This is Day 4 in a series of posts on George Monteiro’s 1998 book Robert Frost and the New England Renaissance.
The intro post, with a nod to Simon & Garfunkel – AND – to fenestrated abodes – is HERE.
The second, from Sappho to Psycho, discusses infamous snubs of Anthony Perkins (for an Academy Award nomination) and Robert Frost (for a slot on a panel of experts at a celebration of Emily Dickinson), is HERE.
Yesterday’s, the third in the series, covers sweet and dill pickles, blind Homer, the Simpsons, and six degrees of Emily Dickinson; that post is HERE.
Today’s feature is based on just two lines from Monteiro’s book on Frost’s admiration of Dickinson’s poetry:
“Throughout his life (Frost) had read her poems as they appeared, often citing specific poems, in conversation or on public occasions, as examples of the kind of poetry he most favored. His choices ranged through the canon from ‘The Clouds their Backs together laid,” published in 1890, and ‘My life closed twice before its close,” published in 1896, to “The Mountains – grow unnoticed,” first published in 1929.”
The three poems are below.
The intro post, with a nod to Simon & Garfunkel – AND – to fenestrated abodes – is HERE.
The second, from Sappho to Psycho, discusses infamous snubs of Anthony Perkins (for an Academy Award nomination) and Robert Frost (for a slot on a panel of experts at a celebration of Emily Dickinson), is HERE.
Yesterday’s, the third in the series, covers sweet and dill pickles, blind Homer, the Simpsons, and six degrees of Emily Dickinson; that post is HERE.
Today’s feature is based on just two lines from Monteiro’s book on Frost’s admiration of Dickinson’s poetry:
“Throughout his life (Frost) had read her poems as they appeared, often citing specific poems, in conversation or on public occasions, as examples of the kind of poetry he most favored. His choices ranged through the canon from ‘The Clouds their Backs together laid,” published in 1890, and ‘My life closed twice before its close,” published in 1896, to “The Mountains – grow unnoticed,” first published in 1929.”
The three poems are below.
 |  |
 | “The clouds”: What do you think of that macabre turn in line 6? “My life”: Centering on emotional devastation brought on by loss, the final paradoxical lines are simple – but intense. “The Mountains”: Just another of Dickinson’s moving tributes to nature with imagery from a quotidian scene most take for granted. |
Monteiro’s observation of Frost’s favorites among Dickinson’s poems called to mind a statement made by Thomas Wentworth Higginson in a letter to Mabel Loomis Todd in 1890 after the first edition of Dickinson’s poetry proved so popular. In his correspondence, Higginson shared the following:
“I have just been going over the reviews & noting in the book who quotes each poem. Have you observed how they are distributed? Sooner or later each poem, it would seem, must find its one admirer.”
I’ll fill you in on the more favored works according to Higginson’s audit tomorrow. For now, Imma veer off to a road less traveled and see if that makes a difference.
What popped into me noggin when I included that statement from Higginson was whether or not there were “one hit wonders” in the field of poetry – like those “one hit wonders” in music (the top three of the Rolling Stone’s Top Ten One Hit Wonders of All Time” are Norman Greenbaum with “Spirit in the Sky,” Dexy’s Midnight Runners with “Come on Eileen,” and – in the top spot – A-ha with “Take On Me”; the complete list is HERE).
“I have just been going over the reviews & noting in the book who quotes each poem. Have you observed how they are distributed? Sooner or later each poem, it would seem, must find its one admirer.”
I’ll fill you in on the more favored works according to Higginson’s audit tomorrow. For now, Imma veer off to a road less traveled and see if that makes a difference.
What popped into me noggin when I included that statement from Higginson was whether or not there were “one hit wonders” in the field of poetry – like those “one hit wonders” in music (the top three of the Rolling Stone’s Top Ten One Hit Wonders of All Time” are Norman Greenbaum with “Spirit in the Sky,” Dexy’s Midnight Runners with “Come on Eileen,” and – in the top spot – A-ha with “Take On Me”; the complete list is HERE).
| So what of poetry? Are there “one hit wonder” poets? Oh, for sure; here are a few examples: Ernest Thayer: “Casey at the Bat” Clement Clarke Moore: “’Twas the Night Before Christmas” Emma Lazarus: “The New Colossus” Lydia Maria Child: “Over the River and Through the Wood” Julia Ward Howe: “Battle-Hymn of the Republic” I would have to say, though, that the top “one hit wonder” poet of all time would have to be Gelett Burgess. Does that name ring a bell? I bet you know his one hit wonder of a poem. ; ) |  |
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