Sunday, October 01, 2006

"New" Poem by Robert Frost

In 1918, Robert Frost inscribed a new poem, "War Thoughts at Home," in a copy of North of Boston, his second book. In the eighty-eight years since, the poem never quite resurfaced--until now.

The Fall 2006 issue of the Virginia Quarterly Review scoops the world with a newly discovered, hitherto unpublished poem by Robert Frost. Robert Stilling, a doctoral candidate in English Literature at the University of Virginia, discovered the poem, in which Frost reflects on the fighting in Europe during World War I.

Listen to a good story on the rediscovered poem--including a reading of the first two verses--on NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday.

(04Oct06) Nikkie Proffitt points us to another good story on the poem's discovery from Inside Higher Ed (includes a paraphrase of the entire poem).

1 comment:

Da' Square Wheelman, said...

This is what I've been able to piece together from various reports.

War Thoughts at Home
Robert Frost
[35 lines, 7 stanzas, each 5 lines]

1.
The flurry of bird war [?]
….[?]
….[?]
….[?]
….[?]

2.
It is late in an afternoon
More grey with snow to fall
Than white with fallen snow
When it is blue jay and crow
Or no bird at all.

3. [or 1?]
On the backside of the house
Where it wears no paint to the weather
And so shows most its age,
Suddenly blue jays rage
And flash in blue feather.

4.
….[?]
….[?]
….[?]
….[?]
….[?]

5.
And one says to the rest
“We must just watch our chance
And escape one by one-
Though the fight is no more done
Than the war is in France.”

6.
Than the war is in France!
She thinks of a winter camp
Where soldiers for France are made.
She draws down the window shade
And it glows with an early lamp.

7.
…..[?]
The uneven sheds stretch back
Shed behind shed in train
Like cars that have long lain
Dead on a side track.