Comments on: Read It Like You Mean It http://auldlangsyne24.wordpress.com/2008/01/16/read-it-like-you-mean-it/ Just another WordPress.com weblog Tue, 15 Apr 2008 17:41:29 +0000 http://wordpress.com/ hourly 1 By: kmiddleton http://auldlangsyne24.wordpress.com/2008/01/16/read-it-like-you-mean-it/#comment-5 kmiddleton Sun, 20 Jan 2008 17:05:48 +0000 http://auldlangsyne24.wordpress.com/2008/01/16/read-it-like-you-mean-it/#comment-5 You've drawn out the (not so) closet poet, Eric! Nice work! Here's my confession---I'm a horrible reader of poetry. I'm terrible at it. I takes a kind of patience and reverence for language that I just don't have in me. And "Apple Picking," sadly, is not going to change that. With the exception of a Robert Hass poem or two, I'm hopeless. Which is why we're going to read narrative until we barf. You’ve drawn out the (not so) closet poet, Eric! Nice work! Here’s my confession—I’m a horrible reader of poetry. I’m terrible at it. I takes a kind of patience and reverence for language that I just don’t have in me. And “Apple Picking,” sadly, is not going to change that. With the exception of a Robert Hass poem or two, I’m hopeless. Which is why we’re going to read narrative until we barf.

]]> By: Beth http://auldlangsyne24.wordpress.com/2008/01/16/read-it-like-you-mean-it/#comment-4 Beth Fri, 18 Jan 2008 18:08:53 +0000 http://auldlangsyne24.wordpress.com/2008/01/16/read-it-like-you-mean-it/#comment-4 Eric- It’s so sad that Frost is considered a cliché. Maybe it’s because he’s one of the first poets that we read as children. As a result, he’s one of the few poets that most people can actually name. “Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening” is the earliest poem I remember reading. Today, it ranks as one of the top poems that I’ve consistently been asked to study. Last semester it came up again in my Modernism class. Honestly, there’s nothing particularly great about it. It’s never changed my perspective on life or made me into a Frost devotee. Still, I’m drawn to the poem’s fluid language and songlike meter. Since you proclaimed yourself a sucker for anything depressed and lamentable, you probably like Frost’s “Desert Places.” What a bummer of a poem. The poor narrator is overwhelmed with feelings of dejection and separation. The entire landscape is an absolute wasteland: pallid, exposed, and spiritless. I absolutely love the line, “A blanker whiteness of benighted snow With no expression, nothing to express.” It’s a great poem. Enjoy your weekend, Beth Eric-

It’s so sad that Frost is considered a cliché. Maybe it’s because he’s one of the first poets that we read as children. As a result, he’s one of the few poets that most people can actually name. “Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening” is the earliest poem I remember reading. Today, it ranks as one of the top poems that I’ve consistently been asked to study. Last semester it came up again in my Modernism class. Honestly, there’s nothing particularly great about it. It’s never changed my perspective on life or made me into a Frost devotee. Still, I’m drawn to the poem’s fluid language and songlike meter.

Since you proclaimed yourself a sucker for anything depressed and lamentable, you probably like Frost’s “Desert Places.” What a bummer of a poem. The poor narrator is overwhelmed with feelings of dejection and separation. The entire landscape is an absolute wasteland: pallid, exposed, and spiritless. I absolutely love the line, “A blanker whiteness of benighted snow With no expression, nothing to express.” It’s a great poem.

Enjoy your weekend,
Beth

]]> By: parslow http://auldlangsyne24.wordpress.com/2008/01/16/read-it-like-you-mean-it/#comment-3 parslow Thu, 17 Jan 2008 21:37:16 +0000 http://auldlangsyne24.wordpress.com/2008/01/16/read-it-like-you-mean-it/#comment-3 Right, and the main point I wanted to make was a suggestion. Have you read The Road, by Cormac McCarthy? Phenomenal stuff, and as dreary as it gets. But entirely different in style than anything else he's written, so liking it wouldn't necessarily mean you'd like other McCarthy novels. The Road is sparse, brief, empty. What I've seen of his other pieces are that they're a biblical kind of epic, in detail and scope alike. Right, and the main point I wanted to make was a suggestion. Have you read The Road, by Cormac McCarthy? Phenomenal stuff, and as dreary as it gets. But entirely different in style than anything else he’s written, so liking it wouldn’t necessarily mean you’d like other McCarthy novels. The Road is sparse, brief, empty. What I’ve seen of his other pieces are that they’re a biblical kind of epic, in detail and scope alike.

]]> By: parslow http://auldlangsyne24.wordpress.com/2008/01/16/read-it-like-you-mean-it/#comment-2 parslow Thu, 17 Jan 2008 21:34:07 +0000 http://auldlangsyne24.wordpress.com/2008/01/16/read-it-like-you-mean-it/#comment-2 Eric, I think we have similar tastes. I'm looking forward to working with you this semester. And "After Apple Picking" is my favorite Frost poem, too. Joe Eric,

I think we have similar tastes. I’m looking forward to working with you this semester.

And “After Apple Picking” is my favorite Frost poem, too.

Joe

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