Robert Frost: A Lover's Quarrel with the World Page #4

declaring wildernesses.

It's he and Daniel Boone

and Thoreau and me.

All for the wilderness.

Another poet had that wish,

you know.

He says...

O for a lodge

in some vast wilderness.

An 18th-century poet said...

O for a lodge

in some vast wilderness...

some mighty contiguity of shade.

That's some 18th-century stuff.

[Audience Laughs]

A mighty contiguity of shade.

That's fun, isn't it? ls that right?

Uh, you know, we talked that

they're going to change-

to change swords into plowshares

and all that.

To change weapons into tools.

This one is called, The Objection

to Being Stepped On.

This is a recent one too.

The Objection

to Being Stepped On.

At the encl 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.

- [Audience Laughs]

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?

But What do we see?

The first tool I step on

turned into a weapon.

[Audience Laughing, Applauding]

And in the vein of that...

two or three of my favorite things,

I suppose...

are the scythe, hay fork,

and the fountain pen.

See?

[chuckling]

Baseball bat and so on.

But two of them are just like that.

That scythe- I was good with it.

Mowing, hand mowing.

I wish I had a chance to show ya.

- See?

- [Audience Laughs]

For I knew a man

who could take a scythe-

a long, slender scythe, you know-

and take a lawn and out it

just the same as a lawn mower.

Lovely motions.

Lovely, sweet, beautiful mowing.

Lovely time of day and all that.

I knew people

who have spent their lives...

making a fair field,

burying great big boulders.

See those?

That one rolled clear over into this-

Well, those that were probably

pushed out of this field-

You can't be sure out of that.

I took a lot out up there too.

Some of the places here-

There. Some of those

sharp ones were dynamited.

Ones that are broken in too.

[ Man ]

You mean, when you cleared?

[ Frost ]

Oh, I never used dynamite.

I have made this a fair field.

It was never anything

till I got these out.

[ Indistinct]

I Wanted something to do.

And then this cruel one.

Lets vary it a little bit.

This is an old one too.

It's been around almost as

my Stopping By Woods.

It's called, Provide, Provide.

Like that. Terrible.

[Audience Laughs]

The Witch that came,

the withered hag...

to Wash the steps with pail and rag...

was once the beauty Abishag.

The picture pride of Hollywood.

Too many fall from great and good

for you to doubt the likelihood.

Die early and avoid the fate.

Or if predestined to die late,

make up your mind to die in state.

Make the whole

stock exchange your own.

If need be occupy a throne,

Where nobody can call you crone.

This is long before Monaco.

[Audience Laughs]

Make the whole

stock exchange your own.

If need be occupy a throne,

Where nobody can call you crone.

Some have relied on What they knew...

others on being simply true.

What worked for them

might work for you.

No memory of having starred

makes up for later disregard...

or keeps the end from being hard.

Better to go down dignified with

boughten friendship at your side...

than none at all.

Provide, provide.

I read that here before,

and Ive told What happened once.

This was in the old times,

down Washington.

In front of me

was a very important man.

Not quite the most important,

but very important.

And he was right down in front.

So, I stopped by and said...

Better to go down dignified with

boughten friendship at your side...

than none at all.

Provide, provide.

Or somebody else

will provide for ya.

[Audience Laughing]

And- And I saw his Wife

was beside him.

She smiled. He didn't.

He looked pretty grave.

- [Audience Laughs]

- Then I had to make it even Worse.

I Went on. You see,

I love to say that tone and say...

Or somebody else

will provide for ya.

And then, And how will you like that?

[Audience Laughs]

That's why I am...

What I am.

Then, you like to be in-

Now that's a terrible, great poem.

That's one of my most political

of all my poems.

I was born a Democrat,

and I stayed a Democrat.

But, oh, my!

Ive been pretty uneasy since 1896.

[Audience Laughs]

[ Mutters, Chuckles]

I said to the president-

- I admire you so much...

- [ No Audible Dialogue]

That I wish I was

a better Democrat than I am.

- [Audience Laughs]

- Im a Democrat.

That does not-

That doesn't matter.

[ Chuckles ]

A lady said to me, You've been

saying all sorts of things tonight.

Which are you:

conservative or radical?

[Audience Laughs]

And I said, I never dared-

It's my one free verse poem

that kept her going.

I put it in my book,

I liked it so well.

See, I reached one of those points.

I speak of a new thing.

I said, I never dared

be radical when young...

for fear it would make me

conservative when old.

[Audience Laughs]

And she-

She Went, you know,

kind of confused.

[Audience Laughs]

She didn't know Where that left-

I left her hanging up.

That was out in California.

I left her hanging there.

She's hanging there still probably.

[Audience Laughs]

Im not a reformed Democrat

or a reformed Republican...

or a reformed Communist or anything.

Im just-just as I always was.

But I can live with almost anything.

So much that I, sometimes-

I have been...

so indiscreet as to say...

lucky I have never been investigated,

you know?

About- for- the people I have known.

[ Man Chuckles]

I told 'em-

Ive always escaped that.

I don't like to betray anybody.

Did Ezra Pound make a mistake...

by taking a definite political stand

and engaging in politics?

No, no.

If he Wanted to perish

that way, you know-

[ Laughs 1

Of course Pound is a sad case.

It's been very hard on him, you know?

Very hard oh his health.

A sick, old man how.

Oh.

And I feel cross with him.

And yet I met him.

First time he said,

I hear you have a book coming out.

And I said, Yes.

And he said, Isn't it out?

And I said, I don't know.

I wouldn't dare to ask the publisher.

[ Laughs 1

And he said, Let's go over

and see if we can get one.

He got one, put it in his pocket,

and we came away.

Then we Went back to his room.

SO I- I had this-

this feeling you won't have-

I was a little glad

that it was out or something.

Very glad.

I suppose I walked on air,

as they say.

I was too old-

I was too old to be too excited.

Then Pound-

Pound was a novelty to me.

I didn't know

What kind of a creature he was.

And he, 10 years younger than I-

but he said...

Find something to read

in the bookcase, you know.

And I found something to read.

He was behind me reading my book.

- I hadn't touched it.

- [ Chuckles ]

He said,

You don't mind our liking this?

- I said, No, go ahead and like it.

- [Students Laugh ]

That's the Way a career began.

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