On Roads of Frost

On Roads of Frost

This is a tribute to the poetry of Robert Frost. It uses the dodecaverse form.

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On Roads of Frost

(A formal symmetric dodecaverse on the word pool "Frost, Road, Sleigh, Snow, Chill, Winter, Echo, Woods, Dappled, Wonder, Maple, Quiet.")

To Robert Frost, with deepest admiration...

Frost
On road,
Warm, my sleigh,
But here the snow
Is deep; the chill of
Winter's icy breath, and
Lo an echo, soft and sweet:
"Whose woods these are I think I know,"
They're lovely, now, in dappled glow. I
Wonder if this followed way will lead me
Near his rest? My pony, Maple, knows this path,
We've spent a quiet time or two in seach of how
His saplings grew to birches, oak and maple.
We wonder at the sound of trees, and how
With pen he spoke of when the dappled
Autumn sun fills woods with seasons'
Echo. His words recall the
Winters most, we bear the
Chill, with blankets warm,
We brave his snows
In sleighs on
Roads of
Frost.

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Notes on Intertextual References

1. The pool word "Frost," and the imagery of nature, woods, snow and trees, are all hallmarks of Frost's poetry.
2. The echo in line eight of one of Frost's most memorable lines (the opening line of "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening").
3. The use in line eleven of the word "Maple" as a proper noun, which is the very subject of a Frost poem by the same name.
4. In line thirteen, the use of specific tree species refers to some of the most common from Frost's poetry ("Birches," "Tree at my Window," "Maple," "The Sound of Trees"), with the speaker, in the previous line, implying a similar search for how to grow their "saplings" into such towering creations.
5. In line fourteen, the reference to his most famous"tree" poem, "The Sound of Trees."
6. "Roads of Frost" is itself a metaphor, suggesting that this poem travels along the same roads he did.

All poetry and text © Copyright Patrick L. Mills 2024. All Rights Reserved.