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

Recognize this? Well, if you haven't read it yet, you will soon. Tell your teachers to get on that! It's The Road Not Taken, the classic Robert Frost poem that every student absolutely MUST read before he/she gets to high school. I'm not going to link it here because it's just so important that you have to go find it yourself. It's totally worth it and will take you about three seconds to find. At any rate, it is a poem about self-discovery, originiality, and yes, even anti-establishment. Oh, and it all takes place in the most pastoral of scenes. Ahhh.

Why am I talking about this poem? Well, to introduce you to Robert Frost for starters. He was a poet who, as a young boy, often heard voices in his head. His mother told him that he shared her "second sight", while his father continued to drink away the years.

What does any of this have to do with poetry? Hmm. Well, alot, actually. One of the best ways to appease the voices in your head is to write them out of you. I'm not saying that Frost wrote because of this. I'm just suggesting that you might.

Wow. ANYWAY.... we are here today to talk about a new Robert Frost poem (new to us anyway). Frost has been dead for nearly 40 years but since when has that kept the great ones from their art? His latest poem, "War Thoughts at Home" was handwritten in a copy of a close friend's book. That friend was Frederic G. Melcher, and the poem is partly about him.

According to the Virginia Quarterly Review, "War Thoughts at Home" embodies the stories of two great friends in Frost's life. The first was Edward Thomas--who died in the trenches during World War I--and the poem narrates Frost's ambivalence about the war that claimed Thomas's life. The story of the other friend picks up where the first leaves off. It is the story of a new beginning for Frost in his friendship with Frederic G. Melcher, a rising star in the book trade, and it was Melcher who preserved this lost passage of Frost's poetic thoughts about the war.

Here is a brief excerpt of "War Thoughts at Home"

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.

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.

The entire poem is printed in the current issue of the Virginia Quaterly Review. Pick one up today!