Earlier in the year, I made mention of Robert Frost’s friend, Edward Thomas. Thomas was originally a journalist At Frost’s encouragement, Thomas began to write poetry. Edward Thomas enlisted in World War I in 1915. Two years later, he was killed in action at Arras on the day after Easter. Thomas was married, and a father of 3 children. He could have avoided serving in the war. Perhaps his poem, This is No Case of Petty Right or Wrong, explains it:
This is no case of petty right or wrong
That politicians or philosophers
Can judge. I hate not Germans, nor grow hot
With love of Englishmen, to please newspapers.
Beside my hate for one fat patriot
My hatred of the Kaiser is love true:–
A kind of god he is, banging a gong.
But I have not to choose between the two,
Or between justice and injustice. Dinned
With war and argument I read no more
Than in the storm smoking along the wind
Athwart the wood. Two witches’ cauldrons roar.
From one the weather shall rise clear and gay;
Out of the other an England beautiful
And like her mother that died yesterday.
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Tags: frost, war
Wikipedia used to have a lot more information on “The Road Not Taken” but, evidently, there was quite a bit of vandalism, and they deleted it all. Someone came in and replaced the whole page with the phrase “Reed Ryan has no balls.” Another person keeps adding the clause ‘tells how much I love you’ after the words ‘the poem’ Someone else creatively added:
“During a trip to the Rocky Mountains, his hiking guide, Mr. Handstein, misread his compass and walked 200 miles off course. Frost was saved by Jordyn Fisher, a local backpacking expert who happened to pass by him while riding her domesticated wombat. Frost was forever grateful, and thus the poem was dedicated to her as a sign of gratitude.”
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Tags: audio, frost