{"id":4630,"date":"2009-05-28T14:47:29","date_gmt":"2009-05-28T18:47:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/?p=4630"},"modified":"2009-10-19T15:13:56","modified_gmt":"2009-10-19T19:13:56","slug":"robert-frost-grouch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/2009\/05\/robert-frost-grouch\/","title":{"rendered":"Robert Frost, Grouch"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Update, 2009-10-19:<\/strong><\/em> If you’ve come here by way of the BBC’s Justin Webb’s America<\/em> piece<\/a> on “Space, youth, and hope,” welcome! If you’re also here straight from the UK, , I also suggest that you skip over to the Phoenix Artist Club<\/a> in London on November 3 for the London book launch event for artist Helen Couchman<\/a>‘s Mrs. West’s Hats<\/em><\/a>. You won’t be disappointed!<\/p>\n

Steve King’s always-interesting daily e-newsletter, Today in Literature<\/em><\/a>, reports that “Robert Frost’s Steeple Bush<\/em>, his eighth and second-last collection of poems, was published on this day in 1947.”<\/p>\n

We don’t normally think of Frost as a social commentator, but apparently he fell off that wagon numerous times in Steeple Bush<\/em>. In the poem below, says King:<\/p>\n

…he gives his take on the boom in trade, specifically the vogue for mass-produced, Asian kitsch… it shows Frost in a frisky, nearly foul-mouthed mood.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Wow, eh?<\/p>\n

An Importer<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mrs. Someone’s been to Asia,
\nWhat she brought back would amaze ye.
\nBamboos, ivories, jades, and lacquers,
\nDevil-scaring firecrackers,
\nRecipes for tea with butter,
\nSacred rigmaroles to mutter,
\nSubterfuge for saving faces,
\nA developed taste in vases,
\nArguments too stale to mention
\n‘Gainst American intervention;
\nMost of all the mass production
\nDestined to prove our destruction.
\nWhat are telephones, skyscrapers,
\nSafety razors, Sunday papers,
\nBut the silliest evasion
\nOf the truths we owe an Asian?
\nBut the best of her exhibit
\nWas a prayer machine from Tibet
\nThat by brook power in the garden
\nKept repeating Pardon, pardon;
\nAnd as picturesque machinery
\nBeat a sundial in the scenery —
\nThe most primitive of engines
\nMass producing with a vengeance.
\nTeach those Asians mass production?
\nTeach your grandmother egg suction.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

[Text confirmed here<\/a>.]<\/em><\/p>\n

Again: wow. Robert Frost, the kindly white-haired stammerer at the JFK inauguration, wrote stuff like this? Who knew? And, um, excuse me: “frisky”? I don’t know about you, but when I think of “frisky” I think of frolicking like a flock of lambs. Or satyrs.<\/p>\n

_______________<\/p>\n

(Note: In looking around the Web for more about this poem, I found some suggestion that Frost meant the whole thing satirically. For instance<\/a>: “…the poem ends with an ironic twist, turning a prejudiced conception of the East back on the general public that held it.” Which struck me as reaching, but whadda I know.)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Update, 2009-10-19: If you’ve come here by way of the BBC’s Justin Webb’s America piece on “Space, youth, and hope,” welcome! If you’re also here straight from the UK, , I also suggest that you skip over to the Phoenix Artist Club in London on November 3 for the London book launch event for artist […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","h5ap_radio_sources":[],"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[94,251],"tags":[147,1249,1250,1251],"class_list":{"0":"post-4630","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-02_in-the-news","7":"category-poetry-writing_cat","8":"tag-today-in-literature","9":"tag-robert-frost","10":"tag-an-importer","11":"tag-steeple-bush","12":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kZSG-1cG","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4630"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4630\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4642,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4630\/revisions\/4642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}