When the moon hits your eye… (by guest blogger Vinnay)
I’ll be honest, poetry is not my thing; I prefer short stories. Some of my favorite short stories contain lots of New England imagery, so I tried to find a poem that captured some of that.
I chose Robert Frost’s “Moon Compasses” for a number of reasons.
First, he was a Vermonter, and I lived in Vermont for my undergraduate years and fell in love with the state. Second, not only was Frost a Vermonter, but he was a friend of my alma mater, Marlboro College, and was involved in the earliest stages of the colleges existence. The library at Marlboro still has some of his original manuscripts.
Most importantly, I just really like this poem. Frost is fantastic at conveying images of nature, and when I read this piece it takes me back to Vermont where I spent so many nights staring at the sky, the
moon, and the mountains (I was an astrophysics major).
Moon Compasses Robert Frost
I stole forth dimly in the dripping pause
Between two downpours to see what there was.
And a masked moon had spread down compass rays
To a cone mountain in the midnight haze,
As if the final estimate were hers,
And as it measured in her calipers,
The mountain stood exalted in its place.
So love will take between the hands a face…
I particularly like the twist at the end of the poem that makes it all
the more beautiful as it reveals itself as a love poem.
Vinnay lives in Buffalo, New York. Which is also, apparently, a real place. He usually blogs here.
July 28th, 2010 at 9:28 am
Um…so, what you’re saying is “Marlboro College” on your facebook page is a real place and not just an inside joke cause you’re a chain smoker? O_O
July 28th, 2010 at 10:33 am
Also, Vermont is in New England.
July 28th, 2010 at 11:18 am
I like this because it’s poemy but not flowery and corny. Nice choice for Poetry Wednesday.
July 28th, 2010 at 11:20 am
It’s the shortest Frost poem I’ve ever seen! very uncharacteristic.
July 28th, 2010 at 11:29 am
Hey! You were supposed to edit out my repeated sentence. I copied and pasted, instead of cut and pasted! Please remove the sentence before the poem starts. Jeez!
July 28th, 2010 at 11:36 am
Oh, I see I need to give you the speech I give F-train: I am not your worker monkey.
July 28th, 2010 at 1:50 pm
Nicely done! “A cone mountain…” brilliant.
I adore Vermont. And who knew VinNay was such a mush?
July 28th, 2010 at 2:01 pm
LOL. *raises hand* I knew.
July 28th, 2010 at 6:04 pm
Lovely poem Vinny.
Your post brought to mind this poem by Walt Whitman:
When I Heard the Learned Astronomer
When I heard the learn’d astronomer,
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me,
When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them,
When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room,
How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick,
Till rising and gliding out I wander’d off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.
July 30th, 2010 at 1:52 am
Guest blogging is lame when you only get 10 comments and 2 of them are your own.
July 30th, 2010 at 1:52 am
and 5 are from Dawn