Murphy, William J.

English

Virtual Commons - Bridgewater State University

Bridgewater ReviewVolume 15 | Issue 2 Article 7Dec-1996Robert Frost: Bridgewater State Teacher's College,1959William J. MurphyBridgewater State CollegeThis item is available as part of Virtual Commons, the open-access institutional repository of Bridgewater State University, Bridgewater, Massachusetts.Recommended CitationMurphy, William J. (1996). Robert Frost: Bridgewater State Teacher's College, 1959. Bridgewater Review, 15(2), 11-14.Available at: http://vc.bridgew.edu/br_rev/vol15/iss2/7_______________-----l L-- _Bridgewater welcomedAmerica's most beloved poet, Robert Frost, to her cam-pus on l?~cembe: 1, 1959. Mr. Frost lectured and "Said" many ofhis poems toan admmng audience that filled Horace Mann Auditorium to overflowing. Trulya highlight in this year. 'ROBERTFROST:BridgewaterState Teacher'sCollege, 1959William J. MurphyI love poetry for the fun of it,and because it is an antidoteto the helter skelter of myeveryday life. I turn off the scaryand limited TV news and pick upmy page-worn, cover-tapedUntermeyer anthology of poetry.I am looking for a new poem.Well, new to me, at any rate. Moreand more these days I find thatpoetry is a necessary addition (an-tidote?) to the everyday prose thatI am asked to read, the popularmagazines, the newspapers or"information" in countless for-mats that is "required" reading inmy professional life. I am not ex-pected to read poetry for my pro-fession, nor am I an expert aboutthe poetry I read. Poetry-as-a-hobby is the work I love to add tomy normal workload. I dredgeup from my college days the lim-ited skills of scansion I learnedthen and find that counting thestresses of a line is a great dealmore fun than looking at a lineof stock market information.I travel to a local "poetryslam" to relax after a hard day oflistening to people present ideasin classes and at meetings. Pro-fessionally I am both a teacherand a faculty union leader, and,though I have not studied the is-sue systematically, I can fairly re-liably report that in these positions I donot normally hear ideas delivered in po-etic form. It is hard to imagine that cen-turies ago poetry was an important meansfor dealing with everyday affairs. Poetrylost its value because it's effectiveness wasquestioned. I've spent enough time inclassrooms and meetings to question theeffectiveness of our normal ways of pre-senting our ideas. Yes, imagine those re-sponsible for the next faculty meetingspeaking poetically to make their points,and imagine teachers teaching social stud-ies in the poetic form.I appreciate poetry because it givesme a chance to connect with my past ex-periences. Having developed a career inthis careerist oriented society, I use theknowledge that I know best to do what Ido to make a living. Because of this I haveforgotten lots of knowledge that was im-portant to me. Poetry is there to provideme the means to recall subjects that es-tablished my early world view. When thepoetry is of high quality then I recall thepast with inspiration. Robert Frost said"poetry makes you remember what yo~didn't know you knew." Is there a betterreason to love poetry?The idea of reading, reciting and writ-ing poetry for the love of it appears to bemore popular than ever. Poet and poetrywriter Donald Hall reports that all indica-tions are that poetry is in excellent shape.For Hall, the idea thatpoetry is dying is a biglie. He even titled a re-cent published bookDeath to the Death ofPoetry in which hewrites eloquently whyhe doesn't "accept thebig lie." Hall pointsout that more than athousand poetrybooks appear in thiscountry each year andthat more people readpoetry now than everdid before. Poetryreadings, he states,picked up in the late1950s, avalanched inthe 1960s, and con-tinue unabated in the1990s. Poetry journalsare published and sub-scribed to in largernumbers than ever.Hall is an enthusiastfor quality poetry thatintends artistic excel-lence. His supportingevidence for thestrength of poetrydoesn't include sup-port for anything lessthan the "diverse, in-telligent, beautiful,moving work thatshould endure."11l- _------------Such a fine pullet ought to goAll coiffured to a winter show,And be exhibited, and win.The answer is this one has been-And come with all her honors home.Her golden leg, her coral comb,Her fluff ofplumage, white as chalkHer style, were all the fancy's talk.Frost advised:What I didn't know about the life ofFrost that day would, of course, fill theeventual volumes of biographies writtensince his death in 1963. Now available isthe knowledge that the themes in his po-etry were rooted in Frost's family relation-ships. Frost lived with the tragic early lossof children to illness, depression in sev-eral family members, and sickness thatnagged him throughout his life. For somecritics, Frost's use of these themes in hispoetry was alarming to the extent thatearlier in 1959, at his 85th birthday party,he was referred to by Lionel Trilling as a"terrifying" poet. Trilling observed thatFrost's radical work "is not carried out byWhat I knew about poetry in general,and the poetry of Frost in particular, wasacquired through the required for-mal learning exercises of my school-ing. Like many other students, anyfavorable attitude on my part towardpoetry had more to do with appre-ciation of the rhymes found in nurs-ery rhymes, music lyrics and thepoems that were known by everyonesuch as "Casey at the Bat." Sadly, theidea of poetry appreciation for mewas probably eliminated by forced,formal learning of poetry. As well,the growing popularity of televisionhad its bad effect. The lack of poetryappreciation wasn't missed by Frostthat day in December. He stated,"Never force a child to like poetry.Too many teachers tell their students theyshould or must like poetry." His adviceoffered to me, the future teacher, was pro-found and never forgotten.What Fifty SaidI understood that Frost was a greatpoet. But I also knew that he was a notedcommentator on the subject of baseball.He had written a significant baseball piecein Sports Illustrated which, three yearsearlier, was the basis for my tenth gradesocial studies report on the history ofbase-ball. His capacity to write on baseball andto be a great poet increased my apprecia-tion of the man to great heights. (I haveread since that when he was 12 it was hisdream was to become a professional base-ball player).Appearing before me that day was thisgentle man who at 85 was traveling andworking with endurance and enthusiasm.Frost had to be one of the oldest personsthat I ever had seen. My professor of math,George Durgin, was the oldest person Iknew at the college. My grandfather, Willy,who was then in his late seventies was themy oldest relative. Grandfather Willy, wholooked like Frost to me, was known to spina yarn and was something of a punster.Seeing Frost that cold December day re-minded me of my grandfather and theDecember days I spent as a young boyhelping him raise his Wyandotte chickens.Perhaps Frost, also an expert in rais-ing chickens, had some influence on mygrandfather's early chicken-raising skills.Frost had written on the subject in themagazine Farm-Poultry. And I imaginethat grandfather Willy read Frost's ''ABlue Ribbon at Amesbury," a poem foranyone who loves chickens.J1t7zen 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.J1t7zat can't be moulded must becracked and sprung,I strain a lessons fit to start a suture,I go to school to youth to learn the future.For Hall, the poetry readings with"rows of listeners" make him feelwonderful. He states, "In the 1990sthe American climate for poetry isinfinitely more generous. In the mail,in the row of listeners, even in thestore down the road, I find generousresponse. I find it in magazines andin rows oflisteners, even in the maga-zines and in rows of listeners inPocatello and Akron, in Florence,South Carolina, and in Quartz Moun-tain, Oklahoma."The first poetry reading I everwent to was given by Robert Frost atBridgewater State Teachers Collegeon December 1, 1959. I was a seventeenyear old freshman. The great poet-philoso-pher, at that time 85 years old, traveledfrom his home in Cambridge to speak tothe college community. The college madeattendance compulsory for both studentsand faculty, but this meant little to thoseof us who looked forward to hearing thiscultural icon whose poetry and ideas wereknown throughout the world. Here, forme, was a chance to see the person re-sponsible for some of the most creativepoetry written in the first half of the cen-tury. The first Frost poetry that I remem-ber encountering was in the high schoolliterature class where my final grade de-pended on my interpretation of "TheDeath of the Hired Man." Frost wrote that"Home is the place where, when you haveto go there, they have to take you in." Itook it seriously then, and I still do.Hall points out that the public is con-fused by the sheer volume of poetry andby some partisanship in the world of criti-cism for specific poets. There are relativelyfew national journals to keep up with thevolume of poems being produced, andthere is a need to discriminate among thegood and bad ones. And the "either thispoet or that one is the correct one for theday" syndrome leads to partisanship at theexpense of the overall well being of po-etry. However, there is ample evidence toshow that poetry is still strong in America,and that these problems are having lim-ited effect.12----------------' '---------------reassurance, nor by the affirmation of oldvirtues and pieties. It is carried out by therepresentation of the terrible actualities oflife in a new way. I think of Robert Frostas a terrifying poet. Call him, if it makesthings any easier, a tragic poet" (quotedin Robert Frost by Jeffrey Meyer,1996).cluding a Congressional Gold Medal pre-sented by President Kennedy in 1962, (ithad been originally been awarded to himby President Eisenhower). In return hegave Kennedy a copy of In the Clearing,a volume published the next day when hewas 88 years old.the poem that states, "Earth's the right placefor love." Frost's poetry that day, and muchofwhat I've read since, has showed me thepossibility of the grand design for all thingsgreat and small. For example, in "Design,"Frost questions whether design is whatmakes the best ofapparent chaos in nature.I doubt that anyone in the audiencethat day thought Frost was in any way ter-rifying. I remember that I didn't. Perhaps,Trilling's serious critique of Frost a fewmonths before was one reason why atBridgewater he said what he did aboutthe intentions of his critics. He remarked,"that in one of his poems he mentionedthe hemlock and some critics went on todeeply analyze its meaning and reachedthe conclusion that it must refer to thepoison hemlock juice by which Socratesmet his death." Laughingly, Frost com-mented that he meant only the simplehemlock shrub that grows in the field ofNew Hampshire where he spent much ofhis early life.In March of 1959 Frost was quotedin the Boston press as predicting that thenext president of the United States wouldcome from Boston and that his namewould be Kennedy. Never would I haveimagined that he would be the first poetto read a poem at a presidential inaugura-tion when he read "The Gift Outright" inhonor ofJohn F. Kennedy. When asked byKennedy to participate in the inaugura-tion, Frost replied by telegram:DesignI found a dimpled spider, fat and white,On a white heal-all, holding up a mothLike a white piece ofrigid satin cl6th-Assorted characters ofdeath and blightMixed ready to begin the morning right,Like the ingredients ofa witches broth-A snow-drop spider, a flower like a froth,And dead wings carried like a paper kite.lWzat had the flower to do with being white,The wayside blue and innocent heal-all?lWzat brought the kindred spider to that height,Then steered the white moth thither in the night?lWzat but design ofdarkness to appall?-Ifdesign govern in a thing so small."IF YOU CAN BEAR AT YOUR AGETHE HONOR OF BEING MADE PRESI-DENT OF THE UNITED STATES, I OUGHTTO BE ABLE AT MY AGE TO BEAR THEHONOR OF TAKING SOME PART INYOUR INAUGURATION. I MAY NOT BEEQUAL TO IT BUT I CAN ACCEPT IT FORMY CAUSE--THE ARTS, POETRY, NOWFOR THE FIRST TIME TAKEN INTO THEAFFAIRS OF STATESMEN"As for a man and his contributionsand awards, here was the only person tohave been awarded four Pulitzer honors(1924 --New Hampshire; 1931nCollectedPoems; 1937--A Further Range;1943--April). And more awards were to come in-The poetry "said" by Frost that daymeant much to the country, partly becauseof its creativity, but also because of the fa-miliarity of his themes. Frost's poems wereconversational in style, and focused on thenatural and the pastoral. They were poemsabout the practical the difficult aspects oflife. Frost had the ability to discuss life'sdifficulties while at the same time showingus the beauty of nature. This aesthetic ofFrost left an impression that continues toaffect me.My appreciation ofhumanity's connec-tion with nature can be attributed in nosmall way to Frost reciting "Birches." Ithink we all can agree with the line from13That day in 1959 Frost questioned therenaming of the college (enacted earlierin that fall) when the state legislaturecaused the word "Teacher" to be droppedfrom the title "Bridgewater State Teach-ers College." Frost remarked "it was asthough we were ashamed of the wordteacher." Maybe here was Frost living upto his alleged contrariness. His poetryraised contradictions. The lines in his"Mending Wall" n "Something there is thatdoesn't love awall" and "good fences makegood neighbors" raise the perennial con-flict of old and new ways.-------------- --------------Mending WallSomething there is that doesn't love a wall,That sends the frozen-ground-swell under itAnd spills the upper boulders in the sun,And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.The work ofhunters is another thing;I have come after them and made repairUlhere they have left not one stone on a stone,But they would have the rabbit out ofhiding,To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean,No one has seen them made or heard them made;But as spring mending-time we find them there.I let my neighbor know beyond the hill,·And on a day we meet to walk the lineAnd set the wall between us once again.We keep the wall between us as we go.To each the boulders have fallen to each.And some are loaves and some so nearly ballsWe have to use a spell to make them balance:"Stay where you are until our backs are turned!"We wear our fingers rough with handling them.Oh, just another outdoor game,One on a side. It comes to little more:There where it is we do not need the wall:He is all pine and I am apple orchard.My apple trees will never get acrossAnd eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.He only says, "Good fences make good neighbors."Spring is the mischiefin me, and I wonderIfI could put a notion in his head:"Ulhy do they make good neighbors? Isn't itUlhere there are cows? But there are no cows.Before I built a wall I'd ask to knowUlhat I was walling in or walling out,And to whom I was like to give offense.Something there is that doesn't love a wall,That wants it down." I could say "Elves" to him,But it's not elves exactly, and I'd ratherHe said it for himself. I see him there,Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the topIn each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.He moves in darkness as it seems to me,Not ofwoods only and the shade oftrees.He will not go behindhis father's saying,Andhe likes having thought ofit so wellHe says again, "Good fences make good neighbors."14Like Frost, I have spent a good partof my life working in education. I thinkmy experiences with education have beenmore rewarding than what seems to bethe case for Frost. His biographers havedescribed numerous occasions whenFrost and formal education didn't connectpositively. He wrote and said good and badthings about schools. I think the poem"What Fifty Said" states an educationalphilosophy that gives meaning to the roleof teachers--those younger and thoseolder.The chance to see the best whilebeing a college freshman nearly forty yearsago helped establish my continuousconnection to poetry. The special occasionof listening to a great poet read his poetryhad an inspirational value that helped methink there was more to life than I couldhave imagined. An awesome thoughtperhaps, but one that all college freshmendeserve. [jillWilliam 1. Murphyis Professor of Special Education

Robert Frost: Bridgewater State Teacher\u27s College, 1959

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Robert Frost: Bridgewater State Teacher\u27s College, 1959

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