6 Comments
User's avatar
Courtenay Schembri Gray ✰'s avatar

Oh, I really love Robert Frost! I’m quite the traditionalist in the poetry I read and write. I essentially go from Plath (my first love) backwards!

Expand full comment
Michael Conley's avatar

Oh Plath is absolutely my choice for P. Sorry, Poe, Pope, Pound and Petrarch but it's not even close...

Expand full comment
Courtenay Schembri Gray ✰'s avatar

I enjoy all those P’s, but Plath is the P for me!

Expand full comment
Jane Dougherty's avatar

I know what you mean about Frost. His is a classical style, limpid and lyrical. All three qualities that are out of style these days. I know this poem, and can't remember now how I thought of it at first reading, hoping the worst wasn't going to happen probably, but yes, the Macbeth opening, much more subtle than the raven as a portent.

Expand full comment
Michael Conley's avatar

I like that description 'limpid and lyrical'. There's definitely something old-fashioned about that style, yeah.

Expand full comment
Jane Dougherty's avatar

Shame that for many critics, the mark of a good poem is that it’s clear as mud and as lyrical as unrendered breeze blocks.

Expand full comment