Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Poetry Influences: Robert Frost/Carl Sandburg

As I mentioned in a previous post, Carl Sandburg's “Fog” and Robert Frost's “Stopping by the Woods on a Snowing Evening” are poems that are a part of me because of forced memorization. However, these poems did teach me some other lessons. First, Sandburg's poem taught me all I needed to know about imagery. You need to set the mood and give the reader something that is unexpected and familiar at the same time. With Frost, I learned (and am still continually frustrated with) making rhythm and rhyme work well enough to not get labeled hokey or simplistic. So, even though I found that particular class less than stimulating, I still ended up as a writer.

Did you have to memorize poems in class? What's your favorite Frost or Sandburg poems? Let me know!

Poem of the Day: The Long Dark Road

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