Jim Asher's Blog - Posts Tagged "frost"
New to Goodreads
I'm new to Goodreads. I have no followers at this time, so who knows if or when anyone will see this -- but here goes!
My new book, "Great American Poems - REPOEMED," features poetry of Dickinson, Cummings, and Frost -- so I'll start with some lines from these three poets.
First, in "What Fifty Said," Frost opened his poem with the following:
When I was young my teachers were the old.
I gave up fire for form till I was cold.
I suffered like a metal being cast.
I went to school to age to learn the past.
As an educator, I find these lines quite depressing since the speaker (i.e. the student) had to give up "fire for form" due to a traditional approach of teachers presenting mind-numbing content in an uninspiring fashion. I hope that this is the exception rather the rule these days since students have access to digital technologies that allow them to be producers, publishers, audience, and reviewers in global collaborations.
Of course, Emily Dickinson wrote "This is my letter to the world." I suspect if she were alive today, the poem would, instead, read as follows:
This is my Twitter to the #world
So please retweet for me—
With simple news and pithy quips—
A social Tapestry.
My message is transmitted
To Tweeps I cannot see;
And I would love to follow you
If you would follow me!
Even Cummings said "to hell with literature" in his poem "let's start a magazine." He wanted something "...redblooded /
lousy with pure
reeking with stark
and fearlessly obscene."
Certainly Cummings would have loved the digital age-- talk about "reeking with stark" (and yes, "fearlessly obscene"). I wonder how he would have stretched the limits of poetry if he had had more than a typewriter? I suspect his poem "let's start a magazine" would have started something more like...
"let’s start up google+
to hell with Facebook
we want something redhot"
Frost ended "What Fifty Said" with the following lines:
Now I am old my teachers are the young.
What can't be molded must be cracked and sprung.
I strain at lessons fit to start a suture.
I go to school to youth to learn the future.
I appreciate Frost's acknowledgement that, at fifty, he went "to youth to learn the future." I think if he, Cummings and Dickinson were alive today, they'd be "graced with guts and gutted with grace" (Cummings' words) in every sort of social media and digital device available.
They would all be writing more than letters to the world.
My new book, "Great American Poems - REPOEMED," features poetry of Dickinson, Cummings, and Frost -- so I'll start with some lines from these three poets.
First, in "What Fifty Said," Frost opened his poem with the following:
When I was young my teachers were the old.
I gave up fire for form till I was cold.
I suffered like a metal being cast.
I went to school to age to learn the past.
As an educator, I find these lines quite depressing since the speaker (i.e. the student) had to give up "fire for form" due to a traditional approach of teachers presenting mind-numbing content in an uninspiring fashion. I hope that this is the exception rather the rule these days since students have access to digital technologies that allow them to be producers, publishers, audience, and reviewers in global collaborations.
Of course, Emily Dickinson wrote "This is my letter to the world." I suspect if she were alive today, the poem would, instead, read as follows:
This is my Twitter to the #world
So please retweet for me—
With simple news and pithy quips—
A social Tapestry.
My message is transmitted
To Tweeps I cannot see;
And I would love to follow you
If you would follow me!
Even Cummings said "to hell with literature" in his poem "let's start a magazine." He wanted something "...redblooded /
lousy with pure
reeking with stark
and fearlessly obscene."
Certainly Cummings would have loved the digital age-- talk about "reeking with stark" (and yes, "fearlessly obscene"). I wonder how he would have stretched the limits of poetry if he had had more than a typewriter? I suspect his poem "let's start a magazine" would have started something more like...
"let’s start up google+
to hell with Facebook
we want something redhot"
Frost ended "What Fifty Said" with the following lines:
Now I am old my teachers are the young.
What can't be molded must be cracked and sprung.
I strain at lessons fit to start a suture.
I go to school to youth to learn the future.
I appreciate Frost's acknowledgement that, at fifty, he went "to youth to learn the future." I think if he, Cummings and Dickinson were alive today, they'd be "graced with guts and gutted with grace" (Cummings' words) in every sort of social media and digital device available.
They would all be writing more than letters to the world.
I Know Bawdy
When most people think of the poetry of Robert Frost, they probably think of lilting lines about New England settings, rural life, natural phenomena, everyday events, and colloquial speech. Few realize, though, that Frost had a bit of a bawdy side. Consider his poem “The Objection To Being Stepped On”:
At the end of the row
I stepped on the toe
Of an unemployed hoe.
It rose in offense
And struck me a blow
In the seat of my sense.
It wasn't to blame
But I called it a name.
And I must say it dealt
Me a blow that I felt
Like a malice prepense.
You may call me a fool,
But was there a rule
The weapon should be
Turned into a tool?
And what do we see?
The first tool I step on
Turned into a weapon.
I tried my hand at "updating" some of Frost's poems for the 21st century by re-writing them in hip-hop lingo for my book Great American Poems – REPOEMED. The re-written version of this poem starts out like this:
Ayo— saw her on the dance flo
Werkin it. Getting lo lo.
Turn out she an unemployed hoe
Another poem with a naughty nature is E. E. Cummings’ poem “may I feel said he.” It begins like this:
may i feel said he
(i'll squeal said she
just once said he)
it's fun said she
(may i touch said he
how much said she
a lot said he)
why not said she
I also wrote a parody for this poem and that was quite a challenge from the start. Certainly a take-off with a serious theme wouldn’t work, for the original poem might then seem to be the parody. Therefore, a parody warranted humor— but how/what?
My first move was to flip all of Cummings’ “said he’s” and “said she’s” to “he said” and “she said.” With that, I headed in the direction of a spoof about gossip & rumors based on double entendre – but it all seemed too much like the original poem. Then it hit me: I’d use that notorious line, “that’s what she said.” But what would be my theme?
Recently I had written a parody of an Emily Dickinson poem centered on a plumbing problem. While working on that poem, I was amused to discover how many plumbing terms had sexual overtones. Therefore, I decided that my poem would be about a couple repairing a problem with a leaking toilet – and “that’s what she said.”
The internal rhyme structure of the Cummings' poem offered quite a challenge, though (especially since there are few words that rhyme with “plunger”). Hmmm…this reminds me of a time when I came across a bawdy greeting card that stated, “I tried to write a poem about love, but I couldn’t think of a word that rhymed with ‘Venus.’”
Anyway, the final version of my parody turned out to be quite waggish in its own right. It starts out like this:
(there’s sweating she said
water’s jetting he said
check the ballcock she said)
he said that’s what she said
(may i flush she said
it may gush he said
check the o-ring she said)
he said that’s what she said
Finally, while I’m on the subject of racy poems, it might surprise you that even Emily Dickinson penned a few spicy numbers herself, including “Wild Nights!” which opens like this:
Wild nights! Wild nights!
Were I with thee,
Wild nights should be
Our luxury!
I have a parody of that poem which begins “Wild rice! Wild rice!” However, since I’m on the topic of “bawdy” poetry, I thought it would be more appropriate to conclude with my take-off of Dickinson’s “I'm Nobody! Who are you?” It goes like this:
I know Bawdy! Yes I do!
Do you – know Bawdy – too?
Then Truth or Dare for us?
Do tell! Or tantalize – you know.
How titillating – to be – Bawdy!
How naughty – like a Flirt –
To be somewhat saucy – or seductive –
Like an alluring gelatin Dessert!
At the end of the row
I stepped on the toe
Of an unemployed hoe.
It rose in offense
And struck me a blow
In the seat of my sense.
It wasn't to blame
But I called it a name.
And I must say it dealt
Me a blow that I felt
Like a malice prepense.
You may call me a fool,
But was there a rule
The weapon should be
Turned into a tool?
And what do we see?
The first tool I step on
Turned into a weapon.
I tried my hand at "updating" some of Frost's poems for the 21st century by re-writing them in hip-hop lingo for my book Great American Poems – REPOEMED. The re-written version of this poem starts out like this:
Ayo— saw her on the dance flo
Werkin it. Getting lo lo.
Turn out she an unemployed hoe
Another poem with a naughty nature is E. E. Cummings’ poem “may I feel said he.” It begins like this:
may i feel said he
(i'll squeal said she
just once said he)
it's fun said she
(may i touch said he
how much said she
a lot said he)
why not said she
I also wrote a parody for this poem and that was quite a challenge from the start. Certainly a take-off with a serious theme wouldn’t work, for the original poem might then seem to be the parody. Therefore, a parody warranted humor— but how/what?
My first move was to flip all of Cummings’ “said he’s” and “said she’s” to “he said” and “she said.” With that, I headed in the direction of a spoof about gossip & rumors based on double entendre – but it all seemed too much like the original poem. Then it hit me: I’d use that notorious line, “that’s what she said.” But what would be my theme?
Recently I had written a parody of an Emily Dickinson poem centered on a plumbing problem. While working on that poem, I was amused to discover how many plumbing terms had sexual overtones. Therefore, I decided that my poem would be about a couple repairing a problem with a leaking toilet – and “that’s what she said.”
The internal rhyme structure of the Cummings' poem offered quite a challenge, though (especially since there are few words that rhyme with “plunger”). Hmmm…this reminds me of a time when I came across a bawdy greeting card that stated, “I tried to write a poem about love, but I couldn’t think of a word that rhymed with ‘Venus.’”
Anyway, the final version of my parody turned out to be quite waggish in its own right. It starts out like this:
(there’s sweating she said
water’s jetting he said
check the ballcock she said)
he said that’s what she said
(may i flush she said
it may gush he said
check the o-ring she said)
he said that’s what she said
Finally, while I’m on the subject of racy poems, it might surprise you that even Emily Dickinson penned a few spicy numbers herself, including “Wild Nights!” which opens like this:
Wild nights! Wild nights!
Were I with thee,
Wild nights should be
Our luxury!
I have a parody of that poem which begins “Wild rice! Wild rice!” However, since I’m on the topic of “bawdy” poetry, I thought it would be more appropriate to conclude with my take-off of Dickinson’s “I'm Nobody! Who are you?” It goes like this:
I know Bawdy! Yes I do!
Do you – know Bawdy – too?
Then Truth or Dare for us?
Do tell! Or tantalize – you know.
How titillating – to be – Bawdy!
How naughty – like a Flirt –
To be somewhat saucy – or seductive –
Like an alluring gelatin Dessert!
What Fifty Said
In my first-ever goodreads blog entry on June 6th I opened with some thoughts on Robert Frost’s poem, “What Fifty Said.” I noted that, “As an educator, I find these lines (in the first stanza) quite depressing since the speaker (i.e. the student) had to give up ‘fire for form’ due to a traditional approach of teachers presenting mind-numbing content in an uninspiring fashion.” In light of some of my recent posts concerning the use of poetry in professional development for teachers, I thought that I would revisit that poem.
Of course, at this time of year most schools are out for the summer, and students and teachers are enjoying their vacations; however, school administrators like myself are busy preparing for the 2012-2013 school year – so perhaps a school administrator or two will see this discussion and/or some of my previous posts and incorporate poetry into some of their planning for the new school year. With that said, here is the entire poem by Frost:
WHAT FIFTY SAID
When I was young my teachers were the old.
I gave up fire for form till I was cold.
I suffered like a metal being cast.
I went to school to age to learn the past.
Now I am old my teachers are the young.
What can't be molded must be cracked and sprung.
I strain at lessons fit to start a suture.
I go to school to youth to learn the future.
Of course the opening line of the poem conveys an obvious truth — that youth is taught by those who are “old,” those who have come before them and who, themselves, are educated. However, the remaining lines of the of the stanza reveal that this education – learning “the past” from “the old” – can be excruciating when one must give up “fire for form.” How sad it would be for any youth to be cast into a conventional mold due to the obsolete approach of an outdated teacher. That image brings to mind two quotes from E. E. Cummings:
• I would rather learn from one bird how to sing than to teach 10,000 stars how not to dance.
• It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.
Back to the Frost: the tone of the poem turns with the opening line of the second stanza as the speaker reveals that he is now old himself. As the stanza concludes, he notes that he has “cracked and sprung” from his mold as he now “learn(s) the future” from the youth. Hmmm – this makes me wonder just how exhilarating Frost would view – and learn from – the youth of the digital age. Are current teachers joining the collaboration revolution and learning from their students? Are they joining their students as they journey into the 21st Century to become collaborators, creators, publishers, audience, reporters, and digital citizens? This brings to mind yet another quote from Cummings:
• Always the beautiful answer who asks a more beautiful question.
Of course, at this time of year most schools are out for the summer, and students and teachers are enjoying their vacations; however, school administrators like myself are busy preparing for the 2012-2013 school year – so perhaps a school administrator or two will see this discussion and/or some of my previous posts and incorporate poetry into some of their planning for the new school year. With that said, here is the entire poem by Frost:
WHAT FIFTY SAID
When I was young my teachers were the old.
I gave up fire for form till I was cold.
I suffered like a metal being cast.
I went to school to age to learn the past.
Now I am old my teachers are the young.
What can't be molded must be cracked and sprung.
I strain at lessons fit to start a suture.
I go to school to youth to learn the future.
Of course the opening line of the poem conveys an obvious truth — that youth is taught by those who are “old,” those who have come before them and who, themselves, are educated. However, the remaining lines of the of the stanza reveal that this education – learning “the past” from “the old” – can be excruciating when one must give up “fire for form.” How sad it would be for any youth to be cast into a conventional mold due to the obsolete approach of an outdated teacher. That image brings to mind two quotes from E. E. Cummings:
• I would rather learn from one bird how to sing than to teach 10,000 stars how not to dance.
• It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.
Back to the Frost: the tone of the poem turns with the opening line of the second stanza as the speaker reveals that he is now old himself. As the stanza concludes, he notes that he has “cracked and sprung” from his mold as he now “learn(s) the future” from the youth. Hmmm – this makes me wonder just how exhilarating Frost would view – and learn from – the youth of the digital age. Are current teachers joining the collaboration revolution and learning from their students? Are they joining their students as they journey into the 21st Century to become collaborators, creators, publishers, audience, reporters, and digital citizens? This brings to mind yet another quote from Cummings:
• Always the beautiful answer who asks a more beautiful question.
