PEOPLE IN AMERICA - Robert Frost, Pt. 1

PEOPLE IN AMERICA - Robert Frost, Pt. 1
By Richard Thorman

Broadcast: Sunday, February 01, 2004

(THEME)

VOICE ONE:

I'm Shirley Griffith.

 
Graphic¹ Image
VOICE TWO:

And I'm Rich Kleinfeldt with the Special English program, People in America. Today, we begin the story of twentieth century poet Robert Frost.

(THEME)

VOICE ONE:

In nineteen-sixty-one, John Kennedy was sworn in as president of the United States. He asked one of America's best-known writers to read a poem. Robert Frost stood in the cold sunlight that day, his white hair blowing in the wind. He read these words from his poem, "The Gift Outright²":

NARRATOR:

The land was ours before we were the land's.

She was our land more than a hundred years

Before we were her people. She was ours

In Massachusetts, in Virginia,

But we were England's, still colonials³,

Possessing what we still were unpossessed by,

Possessed⁴ by what we now no more possessed.

Something we were withholding⁵ made us weak

Until we found out that it was ourselves

We were withholding from our land of living,

And forthwith found salvation⁶ in surrender.

Such as we were we gave ourselves outright

(The deed of gift was many deeds of war)

To the land vaguely⁷ realizing westward⁸,

But still unstoried, artless, unenhanced,

Such as she was, such as she would become.

(MUSIC BRIDGE)

VOICE TWO:

Robert Frost was one of America's best known and most honored serious writers. But his fame came late in his life. He was forty years old before Americans began to read his poems and praise them. Once his fame was established, however, it grew stronger and stronger during the rest of his long life.

His success came from uniting traditional forms of poetry with American words, spoken in a clearly American way.

VOICE ONE:

Frost used the same speaker for many poems, so the separate poems formed a larger unity¹⁰. He created this speaker carefully. He felt that his readers would believe his poems if he put the words into the mouth of a wise person who lived in the country, not the city.

Many people thought the speaker was Frost himself. In fact, the speaker was an imaginary person. Frost, the man, tried to become the imaginary person he created for his poetry.

VOICE TWO:

Robert Frost is always linked to the land of cold winters in the northeastern United States, the area called New England. Yet he came from the other side of the country, San Francisco, California. He was born there in eighteen-seventy-four. He lived in California during his early childhood.

This man who was born in the West and became linked with New England was named for the chief southern general in America's Civil War. The general's name was Robert Edward Lee. The poet was named Robert Lee Frost, because his father wanted to honor the general.

Someone once asked another American writer, Ernest Hemingway, how to become a writer. The best thing, he said, was to have an unhappy childhood. If this is true, Robert Frost's childhood was unhappy enough to make him a very good writer.

(MUSIC BRIDGE)

VOICE ONE:

Robert Frost's father was a reporter who wanted to be a politician. He often drank too much alcohol and became angry. Robert was the victim of his anger. He was eleven when his father died.

His mother tried to protect him from his father's anger. Some people think she protected him too much. As a child, Robert was afraid of the dark. All his life he suffered from imaginary sicknesses.

VOICE TWO:

Frost's mother was from New England. After her husband died, she moved back there. She supported her children by teaching school. Yet she got more enjoyment¹¹ from reading and writing poetry.

Frost finished high school in eighteen-ninety-one. He and a girl, Elinor White, had the best record of the students graduating that year. He married Elinor three years later. She rejected him at first, but finally agreed to marry him. This rejection¹² led to a lack of trust in their marriage. It made Frost say this: "I could lose everything and not be surprised."

VOICE ONE:

After high school, Frost's grandfather offered to pay his costs at Dartmouth College. Frost left the school after a few months. He did not like it. He spent the next few years working at different jobs. At one time, he worked in a factory. Later, he repaired shoes. He was a teacher. He was a reporter. Always, he wrote poetry.

VOICE TWO:

Frost attended Harvard University for two years. After that, he returned to the many jobs he held before. And he continued to write poetry. He said that until nineteen-thirteen, he earned only about ten dollars a year from writing.

For a while, Frost tried to take care of a farm in the state of New Hampshire. He was not a successful farmer. During this time of working and travelling from job to job, he and his wife had four children. Since he earned very little money, his family was always poor.

VOICE ONE:

Robert Frost saw himself becoming more and more like his father, treating his family badly. He became very unhappy with himself and with his life. He even thought about ending his life. In nineteen-twelve, he decided¹³ to try to make a new start. He took his family to Britain. The cost of living was low. And there was an interest in what was then called a "new poetry. "

In Britain, Frost found a publisher for his first book of poems. The book was called "A Boy's Will." When it appeared in nineteen-thirteen, Frost received high praise from British readers. Praise was something he had not received in his own country.

Ezra Pound, another American poet living in Britain, read the poems and liked them very much. He wrote a magazine report about Frost. He also helped get Frost's second book of poems published in America. That book was called "North of Boston."

VOICE TWO:

Many readers consider "North of Boston" to be Frost's best book of poems. In Britain, it was praised even more than his first book. Readers saw the way he took simple material and constructed from it a world of new meanings. They saw the way he spoke⁹ with a voice that sounded like common speech.

What they failed to see was the differences Frost found between what was seen and the person doing the seeing. This was what he called "the outer and inner weather."

In nineteen-fifteen, both of Frost's books were published in the United States. He felt that his books had "gone home," and he should go home, too. When he reached America, he was surprised by the praise he received and the acceptance of American publishers.

In the words of the poem he read at President Kennedy's inauguration¹⁴ many years later: "The land was his before he was the land's."

(MUSIC BRIDGE)

VOICE ONE:

When Robert Frost returned to America from Britain, he bought another farm in New Hampshire. To feed himself and his family, he depended on the sales of his books and papers. He also earned money by speaking at universities.

Success did not ease his life. And it did not change the way he thought and acted. The gentle, wise person who spoke from his poems was the man Frost wanted to be. He knew, however -- and his family knew -- he was not that man.

Tragic¹⁵ events affected¹⁶ him. His son killed himself. His wife was often sick, and his daughter became mentally sick. Frost, too, suffered from his own imaginary sicknesses. Through his poems, however, he lived a different life.

VOICE TWO:

Frost was a worker in words, a craftsman¹⁷. He tried to capture exactly the speech of the people of New England. He used simple descriptions that were easily understood. He talked about simple, natural things: trees, the weather, the seasons, night and day. In an early poem he wrote:

NARRATOR:

I'm going out to clean the pasture¹⁸ spring; I'll only stop to rake the leaves away (And wait to watch the water clear, I may): I sha'n't be gone long. -- You come too. I'm going out to fetch the little calf¹⁹ That's standing²⁰ by the mother. It's so young It totters²¹ when she licks²² it with her tongue. I sha'n't be gone long. -- You come too.

VOICE ONE:

Robert Frost said that reading his poems should begin with pleasure and end in wisdom. Yet as he grew older, his simple idea of the world became more difficult. His world was more touched with sadness. He wrote more about fear, about being alone, about losing whatever he had.

(pause)

We will continue our story of American poet Robert Frost next week.

(THEME)

VOICE TWO:

This Special English program was written by Richard Thorman. It was produced by Christine Johnson. I'm Rich Kleinfeldt.

VOICE ONE:

And I'm Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for another program about People in America on VOA.

1 graphic   

adj.生动的，形象的，绘画的，文字的，图表的

参考例句：

• The book gave a graphic description of the war.这本书生动地描述了战争的情况。
• Distinguish important text items in lists with graphic icons.用图标来区分重要的文本项。

2 outright   

adv.坦率地；彻底地；立即；adj.无疑的；彻底的

参考例句：

• If you have a complaint you should tell me outright.如果你有不满意的事，你应该直率地对我说。
• You should persuade her to marry you outright.你应该彻底劝服她嫁给你。

3 colonials   

生活在殖民地的宗主国居民( colonial的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The restaurant was run by a couple of French colonials. 这件餐厅是由几个法国殖民地居民经营的。
• All the morning the colonials had been gathering. 整个早晨殖民地居民都在聚集。

4 possessed   

adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的

参考例句：

• He flew out of the room like a man possessed.他像着了魔似地猛然冲出房门。
• He behaved like someone possessed.他行为举止像是魔怔了。

5 withholding   

扣缴税款

参考例句：

• She was accused of withholding information from the police. 她被指控对警方知情不报。
• The judge suspected the witness was withholding information. 法官怀疑见证人在隐瞒情况。

6 salvation   

n.（尤指基督）救世，超度，拯救，解困

参考例句：

• Salvation lay in political reform.解救办法在于政治改革。
• Christians hope and pray for salvation.基督教徒希望并祈祷灵魂得救。

7 vaguely   

adv.含糊地，暖昧地

参考例句：

• He had talked vaguely of going to work abroad.他含糊其词地说了到国外工作的事。
• He looked vaguely before him with unseeing eyes.他迷迷糊糊的望着前面，对一切都视而不见。

8 westward   

n.西方，西部；adj.西方的，向西的；adv.向西

参考例句：

• We live on the westward slope of the hill.我们住在这座山的西山坡。
• Explore westward or wherever.向西或到什么别的地方去勘探。

9 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

10 unity   

n.团结，联合，统一；和睦，协调

参考例句：

• When we speak of unity,we do not mean unprincipled peace.所谓团结，并非一团和气。
• We must strengthen our unity in the face of powerful enemies.大敌当前，我们必须加强团结。

11 enjoyment   

n.乐趣；享有；享用

参考例句：

• Your company adds to the enjoyment of our visit. 有您的陪同，我们这次访问更加愉快了。
• After each joke the old man cackled his enjoyment.每逢讲完一个笑话，这老人就呵呵笑着表示他的高兴。

12 rejection   

n.拒绝，被拒，抛弃，被弃

参考例句：

• He decided not to approach her for fear of rejection.他因怕遭拒绝决定不再去找她。
• The rejection plunged her into the dark depths of despair.遭到拒绝使她陷入了绝望的深渊。

13 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

14 inauguration   

n.开幕、就职典礼

参考例句：

• The inauguration of a President of the United States takes place on January 20.美国总统的就职典礼于一月二十日举行。
• Three celebrated tenors sang at the president's inauguration.3位著名的男高音歌手在总统就职仪式上演唱。

15 tragic   

adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的

参考例句：

• The effect of the pollution on the beaches is absolutely tragic.污染海滩后果可悲。
• Charles was a man doomed to tragic issues.查理是个注定不得善终的人。

16 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

17 craftsman   

n.技工，精于一门工艺的匠人

参考例句：

• A cabinet maker must be a master craftsman.家具木工必须是技艺高超的手艺人。
• The craftsman is working up the mass of clay into a toy figure.艺人把一团泥捏成玩具形状。

18 pasture   

n.牧场，牲畜饲养

参考例句：

• This is the place where they used to pasture.这就是他们过去经常放牧的地方。
• The boy got up very early every morning to pasture cattle.这男孩每天起得很早去放牛。

19 calf   

n.小牛，犊，幼仔，小牛皮

参考例句：

• The cow slinked its calf.那头母牛早产了一头小牛犊。
• The calf blared for its mother.牛犊哞哞地高声叫喊找妈妈。

20 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

21 totters   

v.走得或动得不稳( totter的第三人称单数 )；踉跄；蹒跚；摇摇欲坠

参考例句：

• Everywhere religious authority totters as the peasant movement develops. 神权的动摇，也是跟着农民运动的发展而普遍。 来自互联网
• It totters when she licks it with her tongue. 当她用舌头舔它时他还在摇晃。 来自互联网

22 licks   

舔( lick的第三人称单数 )； 打败； （波浪）轻拍； （火焰）吞卷

参考例句：

• He was ready to take his licks. 他准备挨打。
• It licks me how he did it. 我真弄不懂他是怎么做成的。