Robert Frost: A Lover's Quarrel with the World Page #3

Stocking, Walking.

Somewhere in there.

[Audience Laughs]

Now I out walking

the world desert...

and my shoe and my stocking

do me no hurt.

I leave behind

good friends in town.

Let them get well-wined

and go lie down.

Don't think I leave

for the outer dark...

Like Adam and Eve

put out of the Park.

Forget the myth.

There is no one I

am put outwith...

or put out by.

Unless Im Wrong

I but obey...

the urge of a song:

Im bound away!

You know that song.

And I may return

if dissatisfied...

with What I learn

from having died.

I didn't know it was going

to be a death poem.

[Audience Laughs]

But you see, What I Want you

to like is a double thing, isn't it?

L like the little tight form

and everything.

Then Im gonna say to you,

not as significant a poem as that.

The last one I wrote.

I sent it right in,

fresh like that Without a title.

I couldn't think

of What to call it, see.

In Winter, in the woods alone...

against the trees I go.

I mark a maple for my own

and lay the maple low.

At four o'clock I shoulder axe

and in the afterglow...

I link a line of shadowy tracks

across the tinted snow.

For winter-

For nature-

For nature I see no defeat

in one tree's overthrow...

or for myself in my retreat

for yet another blow.

That was a threat. I was writing-

I was gonna write another book.

[Audience Laughs]

I didn't think of that when I wrote it,

but I saw that afterwards...

the same as the critics do.

They always see meanings

I didn't see when I wrote the book.

But I put that in.

Shall I say that twice to you?

'Cause I like to have written it?

It feels so fresh to me.

In Winter, in the woods alone...

against the trees I go.

I mark a maple for my own

and lay the maple low.

At four o'clock I- I shoulder axe

and in the afterglow...

I link a line of shadowy tracks

across the tinted snow.

I see for nature no defeat

in one tree's overthrow...

or for myself in my retreat

for yet another blow.

Ive brought with me tonight-

Uh, Mrs. Morrison

has brought with me...

20 or 30 copies of it to give-

She's gonna give you each one

to carry away...

in my handwriting.

I wrote it- wrote it this morning.

I never know Where I'll write

or What I'll Write.

L- I remember once in Wilkes-Barre...

Where I never was but once in my life.

Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania...

stuck there, changing trains-

something- I had to go a hotel.

And I wrote one of my best poems

right there in that hotel...

- standing on my head.

- [Students Laugh ]

There's a curious state of-

comes over you, that's all.

But some people like to think

it starts with a phrase or something.

I think it starts with a mood.

As Poe sari somewhere, you know-

He never-

He wrote lots of prose.

And he had a hard life

and died at 40, the poor boy.

But he said he never

touched the poetry...

except when, you know,

with something- sacred touch.

And that's a strong word for it...

but that feeling that you

never do it unless you-

Never do it to pay a bill...

- 'cause you probably won't.

- [Audience Laughs]

And yet it comes to market

in the long run, you know.

You can't write it that Way.

If I ever thought

when I was writing anything...

that this would settle, you know-

pay the gas bill or somethin' like that.

I couldn't write it.

But I do think in the middle of it...

the only self-conscious thought

I ever have is:

This seems to be going pretty good.

- [Audience Laughs]

- Good luck. Another step, you know.

Still going.

[ Chuckles ]

Just like skating on thin ice, you know,

Where you might go through...

and fail, but ifs still going.

Once Im going, I either-

I go the same as the-

It goes-

I think ifs like startin' the sled

at the top of the hill...

where they've worn

the snow through too much...

and it goes hard to start...

but you get right over that gritty place

and a-go she goes.

- [Students Chuckle]

- Get right on and ride.

One of the best ones I ever wrote,

isn't it'?

Yeah, ifs a good poem.

I had little bit of trouble

with the last stanza...

to get that the Way I wanted.

But the first two were just slip-

slicky as grease.

That's one of the happy accidents,

you can call it.

You know, that's What you

go into a poem for.

See that alone and that own

and that go and that low.

And I kept glow and snow

and overthrow and blow...

all the Way through it-

it's quite a feat.

[ Man ] You don't

make anything of the fact...

that retreat rhymes

with defeat then?

- Oh, no. [Chuckles]

- [ Man Chuckles]

[ Frost Continues Chuckling ]

I value that honor.

That you cant really suspect me

of just putting retreat there...

- because of the rhyme.

- [ Man Chuckles]

Can ya?

- Well, ifs a hard question.

- [Student Laughs]

[Frost ] Yeah. Well,

that's the Way it ought to be.

Hmm.

We- We retreat.

We don't escape.

That's a word I loathe- escape.

Retreat is sort of

a characteristic word.

It means that you retreat for strength.

Church touches that, you know.

They don't brought up

in the right religion...

if they don't know

What retreat is.

You don't escape.

You withdraw with God...

with sleep.

Uh, I often see it

transported to a spot...

and there in the woods

at the edge of it.

I was there with the ax

and the tree and everything.

And I made it just like that...

with the Whole-

trying to get the whole feel.

You know, satisfying myself.

I'd like to be there, see.

[ Frost ]

Im there.

It's been some years

since Ive held a tree.

But ifs a pleasure to meet.

You know, Ive often said

that every poem...

solves something for me in life.

I go so far as to say...

that every poem...

is a momentary stay against...

the confusion of the World.

But of course,

any psychiatrist will tell you...

that so is making a basket

or making a horseshoe or-

Giving anything form gives you

a confidence in the universe.

That it has form, see?

When you talk about your troubles

and go to somebody about them...

you're just a fool, you know?

The best Way to settle them

is to make something that has form...

'cause all you Want to do

is get a sense of form.

[ Chuckles ]

All that makes you

healthy and well...

is a feeling that there is

some sort of form...

to your business, your occupation.

Everybody that starts anything

just starts as a village idiot of course.

[Audience Laughing]

And maybe that's What

all the poets ought to be.

You see them Wondering about that.

How- How wild

you have to go to be...

beyond the rational, you know,

beyond the orderly.

I often think of it...

Where the thought comes in,

the force comes in.

The wild force.

My friendship lately, in Washington,

has been very strange to me.

That's blundered into-

And Im very much...

uh, in the affairs of

the Secretary of the Interior.

That doesn't mean psychology.

[Audience Laughs]

The real- The real interior.

And his beautiful obsession...

is almost the same as mine.

Mr. Udall is around everywhere

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes