Poem of the Day (April 18)

[Anonymous No.20241346]

What are your thoughts on this poem, /lit/?

Fire and Ice by Robert Frost

Yesterday's poem >>20236746

[Anonymous No.20241347]

>Robert Lee Frost (March 26, 1874 – January 29, 1963) was an American poet. His work was initially published in England before it was published in the United States. Known for his realistic depictions of rural life and his command of American colloquial speech, Frost frequently wrote about settings from rural life in New England in the early 20th century, using them to examine complex social and philosophical themes.
>Frost wrote the poem in June 1922 at his house in Shaftsbury, Vermont. He had been up the entire night writing the long poem "New Hampshire" and had finally finished when he realized morning had come. He went out to view the sunrise and suddenly got the idea for "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening". He wrote the new poem "about the snowy evening and the little horse as if I'd had a hallucination" in just "a few minutes without strain."

[Anonymous No.20241361]

Nice.

[Anonymous No.20241391]

Classic.

[Anonymous No.20241394]

I heard better from fucking fortune cookies

[Anonymous No.20241524]

I don't get Robert Frost.

[Anonymous No.20241545]

>>20241346
this poem was a big influence on ASOIAF

[Anonymous No.20241548]

>>20241346
I don’t get it.

[Anonymous No.20241579]

>>20241346
I don't hate it.

It's lyrically pleasing enough that even shorn of all sense, it's still nice to read. "I" might be my favourite sound, up with "Au."

As for the actual sense... the world ending in fire and ice could refer to global warming/cooling hijinks, or the hot/cold end of the universe. Possibly even something religious. I imagine there's an accepted answer based on Frost's time of life.

I suppose then that desire is strong enough to burn a man to destruction. Yet the coldness of hate is also bloody awful.

It's ultimately more about the destructive powers of feeling than the end of the world, then. Catastrophising hate and desire as strong enough to end the world is certainly attention-grabbing. But the lack of any real narrative or imagery preclude it from greatness in my opinion. Still, the lyricism and true-seeming metaphors give it enough to make it enjoyable.

Frost is my favourite American poet (discounting Elliot, for the usual reasons) which is a shame, because I don't think he's first rate. I've often wondered whether that's because poetry to my taste never caught on in America, because it's been neglected in anthologies I've read, or because there's something in the American character that keeps them from writing it.

I don't mean that as an anti-American jab; I'm genuinely curious.

Also, to the last poster yesterday: I don't disagree with anything you wrote. Thread died before I could respond.

[Anonymous No.20241590]

>>20241579
>could refer to global warming/cooling hijinks,
bro... it's a poem not a scientific (propaganda) treatise

[Anonymous No.20241592]

>>20241579
>he thinks global warming was a thing during Frost's lifetime
the zoomer who doesn't understand historical context strikes again

[Anonymous No.20241601]

The last three lines ruin it

[Anonymous No.20241603]

>>20241579
What poetry is to your taste? And I get what you're saying about imagery and narrative but not all poems are trying to achieve the same effects. It'd be more correct, I think, to say you simply don't care for certain types of poems.

[Anonymous No.20241605]

>>20241601
Sounds like a British caricature

[Anonymous No.20241677]

>>20241590
>>20241592
Greenhouse effect was theorised before 1900. But yeah, obviously unlikely to be what Frost intended to refer to. That said, the poem picked up additional meaning that he probably never intended in subsequent decades. All that's required to fit the poem is that "some" believe the world will end in fire, a metaphor that easily and accurately slips onto the climate change movement.

>>20241603
Yeah, that's fair. But how else am I meant to judge them, except by my taste? I could assess how well I think the author achieved their aim, but it's impossible to know their aim just by reading their poems. And even if I did, what if I hold their aim in contempt? Should I just leave that unsaid? I personally don't care for the Illiad, but I can still recognise it's a great poem that others love. Should I just not speak on it at all, or only offer others' opinions as if they were mine? I think my method of criticism is the most honest and, ultimately, the only one I can ever truly aspire to do perfectly. I can't read other people's minds, but through diligence, I can better learn what does and doesn't work for me.

[Anonymous No.20241695]

>>20241346
This is perhaps the most fucked meter I have ever read.

[Anonymous No.20241702]

>>20241695
It's just iambic tetrameter with a few lines of iambic dimeter.

[Anonymous No.20241724]

>>20241677
>the poem picked up additional meaning that he probably never intended in subsequent decades.
Only in the mind of the mentally ill

[Anonymous No.20241730]

>Frost
>ice
Ohh, very clever.

[Anonymous No.20241813]

>>20241677
Fair enough, but it is in fact possible to appreciate things in a different way by achieving a fuller, if not certainly provable, understanding of why they were made. If that doesn't interest you that's fine, just pointing out that it's a possible way of approaching the subject.

[Anonymous No.20241878]

>>20241346
ima be honest this one sucks balls

[Anonymous No.20241890]

>>20241878
Why?

[Anonymous No.20242268]

>>20241394
>>20241524
>>20241548
>>20241601
>>20241695
>>20241695
>>20241878
Why do people hate good poems?

[Anonymous No.20242280]

>>20242268
People here don't understand poetry or art desu

[Anonymous No.20242303]

[Anonymous No.20242789]

>>20241346
Some say the world will end in poopoo
Some say in peepee
From what I've tasted of doodoo
I hold with those who favor poopoo
But if again death had met me
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction peepee
Is also great
And would be neat

[Anonymous No.20243341]

>>20241346
You should post longer poems.

[Anonymous No.20243625]

>>20241346
i always get the impression this guy just follows academy analysis on how to make a good poem ; alas id rather hear from a humble poor man who has something to express than frost's

[Anonymous No.20244358]

It's nifty, but it's hard to say a lot in nine lines. I much prefer Frost's longer poems, like After Apple-Picking:

My long two-pointed ladder's sticking through a tree
Toward heaven still,
And there's a barrel that I didn't fill
Beside it, and there may be two or three
Apples I didn't pick upon some bough.
But I am done with apple-picking now.
Essence of winter sleep is on the night,
The scent of apples: I am drowsing off.
I cannot rub the strangeness from my sight
I got from looking through a pane of glass
I skimmed this morning from the drinking trough
And held against the world of hoary grass.
It melted, and I let it fall and break.
But I was well
Upon my way to sleep before it fell,
And I could tell
What form my dreaming was about to take.
Magnified apples appear and disappear,
Stem end and blossom end,
And every fleck of russet showing clear.
My instep arch not only keeps the ache,
It keeps the pressure of a ladder-round.
I feel the ladder sway as the boughs bend.
And I keep hearing from the cellar bin
The rumbling sound
Of load on load of apples coming in.
For I have had too much
Of apple-picking: I am overtired
Of the great harvest I myself desired.
There were ten thousand thousand fruit to touch,
Cherish in hand, lift down, and not let fall.
For all
That struck the earth,
No matter if not bruised or spiked with stubble,
Went surely to the cider-apple heap
As of no worth.
One can see what will trouble
This sleep of mine, whatever sleep it is.
Were he not gone,
The woodchuck could say whether it's like his
Long sleep, as I describe its coming on,
Or just some human sleep.

[Anonymous No.20244385]

>>20243625
>i always get the impression this guy just follows academy analysis on how to make a good poem
What the fuck are you talking about? What the fuck are you talking about?

[Anonymous No.20244490]

>>20241346
A bit simple, but the meter is clean and the rhyme is pretty.

[Anonymous No.20244823]

>>20241346
>Is also great
What the fuck was he thinking? So childish... Is this an inside joke or something?

[Anonymous No.20244840]

>>20244823
It's like someone with a bery poor vocabulary who tried freestyling for the first time.

[Anonymous No.20244849]

idk what it means but the rhymes are original

[Anonymous No.20244899]

>>20241346
Burn up or freeze is an ever present reality to those who know
t. Knower
But this poem doesn't take a side so it's really only good for perplexing those who are oblivious to the dichotomy, which this thread so clearly demonstrates to humorous effect

[Anonymous No.20245071]

>>20241346
>Robert Frost
>Prefers fire

[Anonymous No.20245086]

>>20244849
>fire
>desire
>original

[Anonymous No.20246027]

>>20245071
kek