back in high school, when I was either a Junior, they started adding more electives to choose from, including several in the English department taught by our junior and senior honors instructor who was from Boston (not important, but the things you remember). In one class, we had to memorize poetry, junior year I think. This is they one I recited. When we took creative writing in my senior year, she commented on how she thought Frost influenced my writing.
@Cerridwyn@f00l Good influence!
The one and only poem I ever memorized was Robert Frost (but I’m not sure I remember it correctly anymore) so I’ve cheated here & copy/pasted it. It was in a poetry paperback someone had left in a bedroom I rented, my first place away from home for college. That summer was a whole story in itself…
Nothing Gold Can Stay
Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.
@Cerridwyn@f00l@Kyeh
Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening always brings up two great memories for me.
One is a piece set to the poem that a choir (that I was a member of) used to sing for winter concerts.
The other is the movie TELEFON, where the last part of the poem was a mental trigger to activate Russian saboteurs. Excellent movie - it might be an interesting re-watch given the politics of today vs. during the movie’s setting of Detente.
Frost has some marvelous short (and easy to memorize) poems
FIRE AND ICE
Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To know that for destruction ice
Is also great,
And would suffice.
There are a few book readers left in the world. I saw a post from somewhere yesterday (Reddit? Substack? Not sure):
That someone had spent a year reading Ulysses
The reader loved portions of it but not the entire thing. Some parts were found to be a bit of a slog.
Commentators agreed.
Joyce didn’t foresee social media and attention-hogging platforms. He prob thought the civilization.trend would be toward greater literacy and greater abilities in readers to appreciate difficult and complex works
Oh well. If the literary greats of the part were live today, which online sources would they be addicted to?
Amen. Here comes the sun.
@therealjrn PTL!
@mycya4me @therealjrn
Pudding, Tacos and Liquor?
@therealjrn I’ll take your word for it - too foggy here to tell…
@therealjrn @yakkoTDI skip the last two for me! It would be a Nice Juicy Hamburger! Gatoraide to wash it down.
Mmm. Longest night of the year. I was rounding up the witches.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Different strokes
@unksol I hope you did not get a Hex put on you!
@mycya4me not sure. Lots of black cats around for some reason. I’m sure it’s fine. Everything is fine…
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
Robert Frost
1874 –
1963
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.
/image “rural snowy evening*
@f00l
disclaimer: I’m old
back in high school, when I was either a Junior, they started adding more electives to choose from, including several in the English department taught by our junior and senior honors instructor who was from Boston (not important, but the things you remember). In one class, we had to memorize poetry, junior year I think. This is they one I recited. When we took creative writing in my senior year, she commented on how she thought Frost influenced my writing.
Thanks for bringing back the memory
@Cerridwyn @f00l The schools don’t teach the classics any more. In ninth grade we did a report on a paperback version of Star Wars.
@Cerridwyn @f00l Good influence!
The one and only poem I ever memorized was Robert Frost (but I’m not sure I remember it correctly anymore) so I’ve cheated here & copy/pasted it. It was in a poetry paperback someone had left in a bedroom I rented, my first place away from home for college. That summer was a whole story in itself…
Nothing Gold Can Stay
Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.
@Cerridwyn @f00l
Well, I guess I remember another:
My arms are warm.
— Aram Saroyan
(yes, the son of William)
@Cerridwyn @f00l @Kyeh
Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening always brings up two great memories for me.
One is a piece set to the poem that a choir (that I was a member of) used to sing for winter concerts.
The other is the movie TELEFON, where the last part of the poem was a mental trigger to activate Russian saboteurs. Excellent movie - it might be an interesting re-watch given the politics of today vs. during the movie’s setting of Detente.
@Cerridwyn @therealjrn
Re books and teaching
Perhaps due to doomscrolling and similar habits:
I am reading in news stories that rather shor
novels (such as Pride and Prejudice) are now too long for college student to read.
This disconnect from being able to read a book is said to even be true w some Ivy League students.
Poor literature!
All those great novelists should have devoted their time to writing comic-book potential works.
(Have nothing against comic books.)
/giphy “poor literature”
@Cerridwyn @f00l
It be us, we, all, who are poorer for it…
@Cerridwyn @Kyeh
Frost has some marvelous short (and easy to memorize) poems
FIRE AND ICE
Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To know that for destruction ice
Is also great,
And would suffice.
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/File:Fire_and_Ice.ogg
(Read aloud)
@Cerridwyn @therealjrn
There are a few book readers left in the world. I saw a post from somewhere yesterday (Reddit? Substack? Not sure):
That someone had spent a year reading Ulysses
The reader loved portions of it but not the entire thing. Some parts were found to be a bit of a slog.
Commentators agreed.
Joyce didn’t foresee social media and attention-hogging platforms. He prob thought the civilization.trend would be toward greater literacy and greater abilities in readers to appreciate difficult and complex works
Oh well. If the literary greats of the part were live today, which online sources would they be addicted to?
@Cerridwyn @f00l Discord
of course…
Come on summer
@Star2236 that’s my favorite part of winter solstice!