Frost...no, wait...CHEKHOV!

I keep hearing snippets about the discovery of a lost Robert Frost poem.  VQR certainly knows what I'm talking about.  Ted Genoways, VQR editor and an accomplised poet, came upon "War Thoughts at Home" in the University of Virginia's special collections.  He says more here.

Yet discovery abounds elsewhere.  This past April, NBC's Brian Williams shared with us "The poem nobody knew was lost."  Heart strings astrum I watched as an eighty-seven-year-old Frost read at JFK's inauguration.  Let Brian Williams guide you here.

THIS JUST IN - (Bud, you're gonna love this!)

Box set, HUZZAH!  The Tales of Anton Chekhov, translated by Constance Garnett.  I've been waiting on this for sometime now.  The moment is sweet.

See you on Saturday!

- MS

Comments

[Bud Parr]

That's the whole 13 enchiladas! Garnett may not have been as true as some recent translations, but her language is more the language of the day; far more beautiful. Wow - Great tounge wagging stuff

[Bud Parr]

Forgot to mention I was just reading that Frost piece in VQR too

[CLAY BANES]

it is a time of massive and lavish repackaging. if the work's in the public domain, all the better ($$$).

here's hoping for more design bravado for contemporary works.

[gk]

The first is what I’ve been able to piece together from various reports. I wrote about it at http://bicycle-diaries.blogspot.com/2006/10/war-thoughts-at-home.html

And the second I discovered on MySpace of all places.

War Thoughts at Home
Robert Frost
[35 lines, 7 stanzas, each 5 lines]

1.
The flurry of bird war [?]
….[?]
….[?]
….[?]
….[?]

2.
It is late in an afternoon
More grey with snow to fall
Than white with fallen snow
When it is blue jay and crow
Or no bird at all.

3. [or 1?]
On the backside of the house
Where it wears no paint to the weather
And so shows most its age,
Suddenly blue jays rage
And flash in blue feather.

4.
….[?]
….[?]
….[?]
….[?]
….[?]

5.
And one says to the rest
“We must just watch our chance
And escape one by one-
Though the fight is no more done
Than the war is in France.”

6.
Than the war is in France!
She thinks of a winter camp
Where soldiers for France are made.
She draws down the window shade
And it glows with an early lamp.

7.
…..[?]
The uneven sheds stretch back
Shed behind shed in train
Like cars that have long lain
Dead on a side track.

War Thoughts at Home
Robert Frost
[http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=47655941&blogID=174412193&MyToken=56b6a49d-4349-4b76-a94a-f7791caeb5f9]
1.
On the back side of the house
Where it wears no paint to the weather
And so shows most its age,
Suddenly blue jays rage
And flash in blue feather.

2.
It is late in an afternoon
More grey with snow to fall
Than white with fallen snow
When it is blue jay and crow
Or no bird at all.

3.
So someone heeds from within
This flurry of bird war,
And rising from her chair
A little bent over with care
Not to scatter on the floor

4.
The sewing in her lap
Comes to the window to see.
At sight of her dim face
The birds all cease for a space
And cling close in a tree.

5.
And one says to the rest
"We must just watch our chance
And escape one by one—
Though the fight is no more done
Than the war is in France."

6.
Than the war is in France!
She thinks of a winter camp
Where soldiers for France are made.
She draws down the window shade
And it glows with an early lamp.

7.
On that old side of the house
The uneven sheds stretch back
Shed behind shed in train
Like cars that long have lain
Dead on a side track.

January 1918

[Mike]

Thanks, GK! MySpace momentarily redeems itself.