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Unread 01-09-2022, 10:10 AM
Jim Moonan Jim Moonan is offline
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Location: Boston, MA
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Allen: "Ever since I first read Frost’s famous poem I have smelled something about it that to me suggests that he was thinking about some other living poet (possibly e.e. cummings) who lived in Greenwich Village."


Frost had no quarrel with or envy of cummings that I can find. Famously, the only one Frost had quarreled with was the world. I think you're wildly stretching it to join the two. Unless, of course, you're just having fun.

Other than the sonic similarities of "woods" and "words" and the mention of "village", your poetic hypothesis falls face first in the snow. Your attempt to tie the two titans of modern American poetry falls flat after the first stanza's "village" reference. I don't think Frost had it in him. And besides, he was a naturalist at heart and lived many years in snowy Vermont (where he wrote the poem) and New Hampshire. He wrote the poem because he lived the poem.

Oddly, cummings died in the land of Frost (New Hampshire) and Frost died in the land of cummings (Cambridge, MA). They died within four months of each other. They were both poets. Other than that, the two were Macintosh and Macoun. Sweet and tart. Respectively.


Maybe your final stanza could read:

The *words* are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have punctuation to keep,
And commas to go before I sleep,
And commas to go before I sleep.


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