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Vermont Reads 2008 |
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“Sharing Our Past — Shaping Our Future” Since 1974 |
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Questions for Discussion Download discussion questions in PDF · Why do you think Bober titled her book “A Restless Spirit”?
· One of the reasons this book has been praised is that Bober portrays her subject in all his human complexities—neither all good nor all bad. Describe some of the qualities that make Robert Frost complex. How does Bober avoid treating him like a glorified icon or, conversely, falling into the trap of painting him as a cold and distant figure, as other biographers have?
· Why does she start each chapter with a poem? What does a particular poem have to do with a particular chapter? How does this help tell Frost’s life story?
· What were the key components of a poem as far as Frost was concerned? What does Bober say (in her Introduction) was one of Frost’s most significant contributions to the craft of writing poetry?
· Read aloud the Frost quotation on the back of the book: “When I was young, I was so interested in baseball that my family was afraid I’d waste my life and be a pitcher. Later they were afraid I’d waste my life and be a poet. They were right.” Is this quotation to be taken straightforwardly or ironically? Does Frost really think his family is right in thinking he “wasted” his life as a poet? Would he have “wasted” his life if he had indeed become a professional baseball player instead?
· Frost was born in 1874, nine years after the conclusion of the Civil War. What impact did the society in which he was born have on his life?
· Describe Frost’s father. What influence did William Frost have on his son? Compare their relationship with Robert Frost’s relationship with his own children, particularly his son, Carol, later in life.
· Describe Frost’s mother. What influence did Isabelle Moodie Frost have on her son? How might have this relationship influenced Frost’s choice of Elinor as a wife, and their marriage in general? How might have his relationship with Isabelle influenced his role as a parent?
· How did Frost’s early life in San Francisco influenced his character?
· What necessitated the move back East for good when Frost is 11? What was the effect on Frost and his family upon arriving in Lawrence, Massachusetts to live with his grandparents? How did the Eastern United States differ from the West Coast in the late 1800s?
· Describe Frost’s early relationship with the educational system and schooling. What were his school experiences like in California and Massachusetts? What role did his mother play in shaping his feelings about education? What impact might this have had on his later approach to education with his own children and in his teaching style at high schools and colleges?
· Frost began working at a young age to help support his family. Describe Frost’s lifelong experience of balancing hard, “blue collar” work—in factories, on farms—with the “loftier” pursuits of reading, writing poetry, and teaching. How did one influence the other?
· What first drew Frost to Elinor White and vice versa? In what ways was their relationship and eventual marriage both conventional and unconventional?
· What was the real reason that Frost left Dartmouth College? What was the excuse he used? Do you think this was a wise, or foolhardy, decision? Frost’s daughter Lesley left college as well but later remarked: “I needed my degree, why didn’t they make me see it?” Did Frost and his wife err in allowing their daughter to leave school? For young people: Are there ever any good justifications for quitting school? Would Frost’s unconventional path through the educational system work the same way today?
· Discuss the impact of grief on Frost’s life. Tragedy was ever-present for him from an early age—his father’s alcoholism and early death from tuberculosis, his first son’s death at age three, his beloved mother’s death at age 56, his sister’s early death after years in a mental institution, his daughter’s death after childbirth, his second son’s depression and suicide, his wife’s cancer and death from heart attacks. How did this shape him as a man? How did this grief show up in his poetry?
· What impact might the frequent moves from one house to another, from one job to another, have had on Frost’s family? What about the frequent worry about money? How did Frost attempt, if at all, to create continuity for his children in the face of all this change and concern? Did he succeed?
· What kinds of things did he think it was important to teach his children?
· Of what importance were classical works of literature to Frost? Would Frost continue to justify their importance in today’s literary canon? Why?
· Discuss examples of Frost’s poems as an outgrowth of his love and knowledge of the natural world and his livelihood as a farmer. How did Frost get ideas for poems? (Example: p. 71: A farmer whose land borders the Frosts’ remarks to the poet, “Good fences make good neighbors.)
· How and why did a fear of failure dog Frost most of his life? What mitigated this fear so that it did not completely overtake him?
· Why was there hostility toward Frost from his colleagues when he started teaching at Pinkerton Academy?
· Frost told students at Pinkerton that “Good writing grows out of having something to say. Write out of your own observations, experiences, insights.” He also encouraged them to search for material “common in experience” but to write about it uncommonly. How was this philosophy reflected in his own writing?
· Describe Frost’s ongoing bouts with physical ailments. How did these affect his life and work?
· What was the impetus for the Frost family’s sojourn in England? How did this chapter in Frost’s life impact his professional career? How does he get his first book published and why did he title it A Boy’s Will?
· Some of Frost’s best known and loved poems—among them “Mending Wall,” “After Apple-Picking,” and “Birches,”—were written about experiences in New England while he was living in old England. Why might it have been easier to write these poems far away from where they were set?
· Bober says that Frost’s wife, Elinor, “had almost a desperate calm about her. There was a kind of melancholy—as though she had paid a price for protecting her husband’s genius.” (p. 121) Do you think she paid a price? If so, what did she sacrifice?
· When Frost is offered a full professorship teaching English at Amherst in 1917, what leads him to take the position? What does he sacrifice to do so?
· “A poem is never planned beforehand,” Frost once said. “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” is an example of a poem Frost wrote “in one stroke of the pen.” Read the poem aloud. Does it have the feel of a poem written all at once? Why? What is the tone of the poem? What inspired Frost to write it?
· Frost’s poem “West-Running Brook” features a conversation between a husband and wife in which the wife tells the husband, “…the brook / Can trust itself to go by contraries / The way I can with you—and you with me—.” How does this serve as a metaphor for Frost’s own relationship with Elinor?
· Not quite a year after Elinor died, Frost’s Collected Poems of 1939 was published. The book contained Frost’s now-famous essay, “The Figure a Poem Makes,” as its preface. In it, Frost says that a poem “begins in delight and ends in wisdom” and that it is a “momentary stay against confusion.” What do you think he means by these descriptions? Choose one or two of his poems and explain how they serve as examples.
· Frost’s later years were some of his most prolific in terms of writing and teaching. He won more Pulitzer Prizes and served long stints at the Bread Loaf School of English and at Dartmouth. In 1961, at the age of 86, he read a poem at the inauguration of President John F. Kennedy. He published his last book when he was 88 years old. Why do you think so much of his success came so late in life and when he was largely alone?
· After reading this book, how have your impressions of Robert Frost changed? What do you think is his greatest legacy?
· Natalie Bober has said that as she writes biographies, “my story becomes not simply the life of my subject, but the portrait of an era as well. In this way biography becomes a prism of history. Indeed biography has been called the human heart of history.” Discuss this in relation to A Restless Spirit. How does the story of Robert Frost offer a glimpse into history?
· Use a facilitator, preferably someone who loves literature and poetry, has experience leading discussions, and has taken the time to read and research the book carefully. He or she should be prepared with a list of stimulating questions (the above list is a good start) and try to include everyone in the conversation. He or she should also provide a brief biography of the author. Consult with VHC for trained discussion facilitators in your area.
· Make every attempt to seat people in a circle. If the group is too large for this configuration, ask people to speak loudly and clearly so that everyone can hear, or, as appropriate, ask them to stand and face the group when talking.
· Don’t forget the introductions! Be creative – in addition to stating their names, people might briefly share their general impressions of Robert Frost, their favorite Frost poem, their reason for attending, or something about the book they want to be sure gets discussed.
· Discussion facilitators should use a “closer” to end the discussion. One example is asking everyone (or, if the group is large, volunteers) to share a final thought about the book or the experience they’ve just had discussing it. Or ask volunteers to read their favorite sentence or paragraph from the book.
· Serve refreshments!
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