Bridgewater Review Volume 15 | Issue 2 Article 7 Dec-1996 Robert Frost: Bridgewater State Teacher's College, 1959 William J. Murphy Bridgewater State College Recommended Citation Murphy, William J. (1996). Robert Frost: Bridgewater State Teacher's College, 1959. Bridgewater Review, 15(2), 11-14. Available at: http://vc.bridgew.edu/br_rev/vol15/iss2/7 This item is available as part of Virtual Commons, the open-access institutional repository of Bridgewater State University, Bridgewater, Massachusetts. _______________-----l L-- _ liably report that in these positions I do this careerist oriented society, I use the not normally hear ideas delivered in po­ knowledge that I know best to do what I etic form. It is hard to imagine that cen­ do to make a living. Because of this I have turies ago poetry was an important means forgotten lots of knowledge that was im­ for dealing with everyday affairs. Poetry portant to me. Poetry is there to provide lost its value because it's effectiveness was me the means to recall subjects that es­ questioned. I've spent enough time in tablished my early world view. When the ROBERT classrooms and meetings to question the poetry is of high quality then I recall the effectiveness of our normal ways of pre­ past with inspiration. Robert Frost said FROST: senting our ideas. Yes, imagine those re­ "poetry makes you remember what yo~ sponsible for the next faculty meeting didn't know you knew." Is there a better Bridgewater speaking poetically to make their points, reason to love poetry? and imagine teachers teaching social stud­ State Teacher's ies in the poetic form. The idea of reading, reciting and writ­ College, 1959 ing poetry for the love of it appears to be I appreciate poetry because it gives more popular than ever. Poet and poetry me a chance to connect with my past ex­ writer Donald Hall reports that all indica­ William J. Murphy periences. Having developed a career in tions are that poetry is in excellent shape. For Hall, the idea that love poetry for the fun of it, poetry is dying is a big and because it is an antidote lie. He even titled a re­ I to the helter skelter of my cent published book everyday life. I turn off the scary Death to the Death of and limited TV news and pick up Poetry in which he my page-worn, cover-taped writes eloquently why Untermeyer anthology of poetry. he doesn't "accept the I am looking for a new poem. big lie." Hall points Well, new to me, at any rate. More out that more than a and more these days I find that thousand poetry poetry is a necessary addition (an­ books appear in this tidote?) to the everyday prose that country each year and I am asked to read, the popular that more people read magazines, the newspapers or poetry now than ever "information" in countless for­ did before. Poetry mats that is "required" reading in readings, he states, my professional life. I am not ex­ picked up in the late pected to read poetry for my pro­ 1950s, avalanched in fession, nor am I an expert about the 1960s, and con­ the poetry I read. Poetry-as-a­ tinue unabated in the hobby is the work I love to add to 1990s. Poetry journals my normal workload. I dredge are published and sub­ up from my college days the lim­ scribed to in larger ited skills of scansion I learned numbers than ever. then and find that counting the Hall is an enthusiast stresses of a line is a great deal for quality poetry that more fun than looking at a line intends artistic excel­ of stock market information. lence. His supporting evidence for the I travel to a local "poetry strength of poetry slam" to relax after a hard day of doesn't include sup­ listening to people present ideas port for anything less in classes and at meetings. Pro­ than the "diverse, in­ fessionally I am both a teacher Bridgewater welcomedAmerica's most beloved poet, Robert Frost, to her cam­ telligent, beautiful, and a faculty union leader, and, pus on l?~cembe: 1, 1959. Mr. Frost lectured and "Said" many ofhis poems to an admmng audience that filled Horace Mann Auditorium to overflowing. Truly moving work that though I have not studied the is­ a highlight in this year. ' should endure." sue systematically, I can fairly re- 11 ------------ l- _ Hall points out that the public is con­ I understood that Frost was a great Frost advised: fused by the sheer volume of poetry and poet. But I also knew that he was a noted by some partisanship in the world of criti­ commentator on the subject of baseball. Such a fine pullet ought to go cism for specific poets. There are relatively He had written a significant baseball piece All coiffured to a winter show, few national journals to keep up with the in Sports Illustrated which, three years volume of poems being produced, and earlier, was the basis for my tenth grade And be exhibited, and win. there is a need to discriminate among the social studies report on the history ofbase­ The answer is this one has been­ good and bad ones. And the "either this ball. His capacity to write on baseball and And come with all her honors home. poet or that one is the correct one for the to be a great poet increased my apprecia­ Her golden leg, her coral comb, day" syndrome leads to partisanship atthe tion of the man to great heights. (I have Her fluff ofplumage, white as chalk expense of the overall well being of po­ read since that when he was 12 it was his Her style, were all the fancy's talk. etry. However, there is ample evidence to dream was to become a professional base­ show that poetry is still strong in America, ball player). and that these problems are having lim­ ited effect. Appearing before me that day was this What I knew about poetry in general, gentle man who at 85 was traveling and and the poetry of Frost in particular, was For Hall, the poetry readings with working with endurance and enthusiasm. acquired through the required for­ "rows of listeners" make him feel mal learning exercises of my school­ wonderful. He states, "In the 1990s ing. Like many other students, any the American climate for poetry is What Fifty Said favorable attitude on my part toward infinitely more generous. In the mail, poetry had more to do with appre­ in the row of listeners, even in the J1t7zen I was young my teachers were the old. ciation ofthe rhymes found in nurs­ store down the road, I find generous I gave up fire for form till I was cold, ery rhymes, music lyrics and the response. I find it in magazines and I suffered like a metal being cast, poems that were known by everyone in rows oflisteners, even in the maga­ I went to school to age to learn the past. such as "Casey at the Bat." Sadly, the zines and in rows of listeners in idea of poetry appreciation for me Pocatello and Akron, in Florence, Now I am old my teachers'are the young. was probably eliminated by forced, South Carolina, and in Quartz Moun­ J1t7zat can't be moulded must be formal learning of poetry. As well, tain, Oklahoma." cracked and sprung, I strain a lessons fit to start a suture, the growing popularity of television had its bad effect. The lack ofpoetry The first poetry reading I ever I go to school to youth to learn the future. appreciation wasn't missed by Frost went to was given by Robert Frost at that day in December. He stated, Bridgewater State Teachers College "Never force a child to like poetry. on December 1, 1959. I was a seventeen Frost had to be one of the oldest persons Too many teachers tell their students they year old freshman. The great poet-philoso­ that I ever had seen. My professor of math, should or must like poetry." His advice pher, at that time 85 years old, traveled George Durgin, was the oldest person I offered to me, the future teacher, was pro­ from his home in Cambridge to speak to knew atthe college. My grandfather, Willy, found and never forgotten. the college community. The college made who was then in his late seventies was the attendance compulsory for both students my oldest relative. Grandfather Willy, who What I didn't know about the life of and faculty, but this meant little to those looked like Frost to me, was known to spin Frost that day would, of course, fill the of us who looked forward to hearing this a yarn and was something of a punster. eventual volumes of biographies written cultural icon whose poetry and ideas were Seeing Frost that cold December day re­ since his death in 1963. Now available is known throughout the world. Here, for minded me of my grandfather and the the knowledge that the themes in his po­ me, was a chance to see the person re­ December days I spent as a young boy etry were rooted in Frost's family relation­ sponsible for some of the most creative helping him raise his Wyandotte chickens. ships. Frost lived with the tragic early loss poetry written in the first half of the cen­ of children to illness, depression in sev­ tury. The first Frost poetry that I remem­ Perhaps Frost, also an expert in rais­ eral family members, and sickness that ber encountering was in the high school ing chickens, had some influence on my nagged him throughout his life.