In my ENGL 510 class, the poetry of Robert Frost, we continuously discuss his technique for writing his poems. He has been said to be a writer of ironic metaphor, basically boiling down his style of writing oftentimes to writing in ways in which a reader can grasp. Through these metaphors and simpler depictions, he writes using known experiences. These experiences are meant to educate the reader further than just rhyming lines that follow a particular meter; they are for teaching the reader something more. Frost normally tries to tie in a life lesson according to an experience that he, or possibly someone else has had. I know that it isn’t exactly like what Dewey talks about but it many ways, the concept of learning through experience is related.
For example, (I will use a short poem since I know how many people feel about poetry) the poem:
Dust of Snow
by: Robert Frost
The way a crow
Shook down on me
The dust of snow
From a hemlock tree
Has given my heart
A change of mood
And saved some part
Of a day I had rued.
Here, he is using a simple occurrence, the crow shaking snow on a man, and it making the man’s feelings change. The man’s previous bad day, one that he had rued, has now been changed simply by having snow fall on him. I know this may seem a little different than Dewey (or maybe even far fetched), but I think Frost’s point in writing poetry is somewhat like the ideas of Dewey. The depth of human experience can also be shown through poetry.
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I think this connection between Dewey and Frost is an excellent one. Could we explore it further? What is it that Frost is up to that seems Deweyan -- his preference for simple experiential subjects, or something more?
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