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Robert Frost is one of my favorite poets. What I'm about to suggest is not for the faint of heart! Kind of guerilla poetry! What you have to realize is that this guy Frost had this incredible sense of rhythm he's the original RapMeister - yeah that's what I'm talkin about - this white bread! Also, poetry is best presented read aloud. But one step further is to set the words of 1 of his poems to a rippin' rap beat!

This is hard to visualize without hearing it, but start feeling the rhythm, rocking to it, then read this poem aloud and rap it, feel it, man!:

STOPPING BY WOODS ON A SNOWY EVENING

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 thing 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.

(Now imagine as this last word is rapped, the rapper gives the classic rap close with the slow nod, the jutting chin and the arms folded - cool dude! sweet!)


JohnC

John,

Frost's works can touch me without the rap. But to each his own. You may have offered a new way to teach poetry in the city.

david

What a unique way to relate to Frost ... thanks!

David, Anthony, Jackie:

Thanks for your kind thoughts. I too can relate to Frost without any rap. But, if we simply "read" Frost's poetry we might be apt to miss out on the power and rhythm in his works. I sort of dramatized the point, which perhaps could stand on it's own as a way of presenting Frost's works. I really would love to see this developed by a creative teacher or performance group! Yo, yo yo ...

Any other lovers of poetry out there? What are some of your favs?


JohnC


[This message has been edited by JohnC (edited 10-15-98).]

"The Road Not Taken" is easily my favorite
and is also happens to be by Frost.

The Road not Taken
by Robert Frost - 1916

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that, the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

========
My other favorites are "The Raven" by
Edgar Allen Poe (the Simpson's "version"
was quite funny as well.
Narrator:"Darkness there and nothing more."
Bart: "Do you know what would have been
scary than nothing?"
Lisa: "What?"
Bart: "Anything!").

"Rime of the Ancient Mariner" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge is also quite nice but
long!

Osu!
Jason

John, All great poets have an incredible sense of rhythm, that's what made them great. It's true about the reading out loud; Frost made his living not from publishing, but from his live readings.

Go back even further to Shakespeare and read some of his sonnets, there again is that rhythm and metre.

I don't really agree with setting the poem to music however. The medium of poetry is the language. I tend to think that setting poetry to music would dilute the artists intention of making us think and understand the imagery they are presenting to us.

It would not as David writes serve as a tool to teach poetry in the city. An understanding of language is the most important prerequisite to studying poetry.The use of music to present the ideas may serve to popularize the works, but many people will never get the underlying meaning of the words. In other words, a waste of time.

However, "SBWOASE" would be an excellent poem to examine with city youth. The character's desperation is shared by many a teenager who have surely thought of suicide and can be shown that they also have "miles to go" before they sleep.

VTY

Kevin