The Road Not Taken - Robert Frost

I've often wonder about this poem and what it really means, because there are definitely roads that I will never go down again. As Mr. Frost points out, "Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back."

So having taken all these paths to reach this point (yes many of them less traveled), has it really made all the difference?

THE ROAD NOT TAKEN
by Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Katie Couric at the Poetry & Creative Mind Benefit Video

Poets.org my favorite poetry website (I'm about to ware that link on my favorites out). Recently posted some interesting video of Katie Couric Backstage at the Poetry & The Creative Mind Benefit.

On April 1, 2008, the Academy of American Poets held its sixth annual benefit, Poetry & The Creative Mind, at Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center. Some of America’s leading artists, scholars, and public figures participated in this extraordinary evening celebrating the role of contemporary poetry in American culture. Poetry & The Creative Mind kicks off National Poetry Month, established by the Academy in 1996and now the largest literary celebration in the world.

Poetry & Meryl Streep

Phillis Wheatley

photo by clairity

Phillis Wheatley, 1753-1784, poet, was the first African-American to publish poetry. Born into slavery, she was taken from her parents at an early age. She was raised Christian and offered an exceptional education by the family that owned her. She received he freedom on the death of her owner in 1778 and married. She had three children and none survived infancy. She died at age 31.

`TWAS mercy brought me from my Pagan land,
Taught my benighted soul to understand
That there's a God, that there's a Saviour too:
Once I redemption neither sought nor knew,
Some view our sable race with scornful eye,
"Their colour is a diabolic die."
Remember, Christians, Negroes, black as Cain,
May be refin'd, and join th' angelic train.´

Phillis Wheatley @ Wikipedia - They have some great links there please check them out.

A Geo-Biography of Phillis Wheatley on Google Earth

Animation - Edgar Allan Poe reads Annabel Lee

Notes from YouTube - Edgar Allan Poe cartoon made with trial version of Toon Boom software and other programs. Granted, the animation is a bit limited, but until two weeks ago, I had never tried to animate anything. I do have too much time on my hands. This took about four hours total. But it was fun time and another good learning experience.

Annabel Lee is the last poem composed by American author Edgar Allan Poe. Written in 1849, it was not published until shortly after Poe's death that same year, appearing in two newspapers.

Annabel Lee
It was many and many a year ago, In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know By the name of Annabel Lee;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought Than to love and be loved by me.

I was a child and she was a child, In this kingdom by the sea:
But we loved with a love that was more than love — I and my Annabel Lee;
With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven Coveted her and me.

And this was the reason that, long ago, In this kingdom by the sea,
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling My beautiful Annabel Lee;
So that her highborn kinsmen came And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulchre In this kingdom by the sea.

The angels, not half so happy in heaven, Went envying her and me —
Yes! — that was the reason (as all men know, In this kingdom by the sea)
That the wind came out of the cloud by night, Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.

But our love it was stronger by far than the love Of those who were older than we — Of many far wiser than we —
And neither the angels in heaven above, Nor the demons down under the sea,
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul Of the beautiful Annabel Lee:

For the moon never beams, without bringing me dreams Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And the stars never rise, but I feel the bright eyes Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
Of my darling — my darling — my life and my bride, In her sepulchre there by the sea, In her tomb by the sounding sea.

The Parade by Billy Collins Read by Garrison Keillor

The Parade by Billy Collins


Notes from YouTube - The poem, "The Parade" by Billy Collins read by Garrison Keillor for Writer's Almanac.

God Bless All Moms

I love it when I can kill two birds with one stone. I wanted to post something for Baby Buggy Bumper Blog for mothers and do a post here in Fitzgerald's Poetry Blog.

Well this poem for mothers seems to cover both blogs at the same time.

This is for the mothers who have sat up all night with sick toddlers in their arms, wiping up barf laced with Oscar Mayer wieners and cherry Kool-Aid saying, “It’s okay honey, Mommy’s here.”

I really enjoyed reading this and I hope you do too. The blog Pass the Torch is a good read, and I like the photography there too, so take a look around while you are there.

Easter 1916 - William Butler Yeats Reading

The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost

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

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

click on link above to hear a reading of the poem at Poets.org

Shakespeare Sonnet #3 Performed by Joe LaRue

Notes from YouTube - #3 is saying: take a good long look at yourself and ask: why haven't you had a kid yet? where is there any hot chick who doesn't want to screw you? is it because you're so in love with yourself? ok, here's yet another reason to have a kid - so that when you get older, you can look at that kid and relive your own beauty and youth through it, the same way your mother does with you now.

music: joni mitchell "both sides"

Shakespeare's use of Oxymorons in Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet Art Print
Dicksee, Sir...
Buy at AllPosters.com


Oxymorons are used in Shakespeare's 'Romeo and Juliet' when Romeo is describing to Benvolio how much he loves Rosaline:

Romeo. Why then, O brawling love! O loving hate!
O anything of nothing first create,
A heavy lightness, serious vanity,
Misshapen chaos of well-seeming forms,
Feather of lead…


Juliet also uses oxymorons after having found out about her cousins death at the hands of Romeo she says:

O serpent heart, hid with a flow'ring face!
Beautiful tyrant, fiend angelical'
Dove-feathered raven,wolfish ravening lamb'
A damned saint, an honourable villain

Sonnet from the Portuguese 44 audio version

Sonnet from the Portuguese 44: How do I Love thee?
click title to hear the audio version @ poetryfoundation.org

By Elizabeth Barrett Browning

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of being and ideal grace.
I love thee to the level of every day’s
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.





Elizabeth Barrett Browning Giclee Print

Galloway, Ewing


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Because I could not stop for death- Emily Dickinson

There are several versions of this poem, this is my favorite one;

Because I could not stop for death

Because I could not stop for Death,
He kindly stopped for me;
The carriage held but just ourselves
And Immortality.
We slowly drove, he knew no haste,
And I had put away
My labor, and my leisure too,
For his civility.

We passed the school, where children strove
At recess, in the ring;
We passed the fields of gazing grain,
We passed the setting sun.

Or rather, be passed us;
The dews grew quivering and chill,
For only gossamer my gown,
My tippet only tulle.

We paused before house that seemed
A swelling of the ground;
The roof was scarcely visible,
The cornice but a mound.

Since then 'tis centuries, and yet each
Feels shorter than the day
I first surmised the horses' heads
Were toward eternity.

By Her Aunt's Grave by Thomas Hardy

'Sixpence a week', says the girl to her lover,
'Aunt used to bring me, for she could confide
In me alone, she vowed. 'Twas to cover
The cost of her headstone when she died.
And that was a year ago last June;
I've not yet fixed it. But I must soon.'

'And where is the money now, my dear?'
'O, snug in my purse... Aunt was so slow
In saving it—eighty weeks, or near.'...
'Let's spend it,' he hints. 'For she won't know.
There's a dance to-night at the Load of Hay.'
She passively nods. And they go that way.

by Thomas Hardy. Public Domain.

See You Later Alligator

See you later Dad,

And it seemed that she was sad.

See you later Alligator,

After while Crocodile,

My little starry eyed woman child,

With your nappy hair and your big smile,

Go and go with style,

And when you have walked that mile,

Sit and rest a while.

When you have gone around that track,

Lugging that baggage in a big old pack,

Or if life won't cut you slack,

You may not even know how to react.

Think of home but don't look back.

Taylor Mali on what teachers make Video

Notes from YouTube; - Taylor Mali, slam poet, gives his mind on what teachers make.