To The Thawing Wind

As I mentioned, I enjoy poems of celebration and tribute. The next poem I enjoyed in the Frost collection was "To The Thawing Wind" www.internal.org/view_poem.phtml?poemID=155, which is also an invocation. I like the pace of it. He started with a couple of tetrameter lines but the rest of the poem has seven syllables per line. Each line is a command and begins with a heavy beat before falling into trimeter (this is the sort of thing I wouldn't normally notice without slowing down and wondering whether 7 syllables was a shortened tetrameter or an extended trimeter). I also like the end of the poem which expresses the poet's desire to be turned out of doors, to leave the insular, isolated life of desk and papers and engage the world. Whitman has a lines of that sort in "Passage to India," ending with "Have we not darken'd and dazed ourselves with books long enough?"

I agree that the ideal life involves both times of settled reflection and times of active engagement, mental vigor and physical vigor. It's a very hard balance to find when work often demands a great deal of sitting on our behinds in confined spaces. For Frost, at least during the times he's writing about in this period, weather dictated whether or not he was active, spring obviously being an invitation to go out. At present, here in Alabama, the cool fall weather does the same for me but work and the shorter days keeps me from enjoying it as much as I would otherwise.

One has to wonder what the most congenial vocation is for a poet. It's generally considered the academic life where their craft is considered a legitimate activity and where they can commune with other poets. Presumably, it also allows more time to practice one's art, though I know writer-academics who would dispute that. But it seems to me the academic lifestyle overemphasizes the contemplative aspects of life. Perhaps the poet, if teaching is to be his or her profession, would be better off teaching recreation. Or leave behind academia entirely, get a degree in finance or some other profession that allows you to make so much $ per hour that you only have to work 20 hrs per week and the rest of the time spend in pursuits invigorating to either mind or body in whatever ratio most benefits you. Frost's farming life is far from ideal since living by the demands of seasonal work creates extremes.

This strikes me as a serious issue that isn't given enough attention, this problem of how to create a life that is congenial to one's art. Academics tend to espouse academia or teaching of some kind but we all know there are more English majors and MFAs being unleashed on the world than there are positions for them to fill. The problem of a secondary profession needs to be brought up earlier to those with an economically self-destructive leaning toward poetry, a specialized career counseling. The best I've encountered so far is Carol Lloyd's Creating a Life Worth Living. But most people won't do the work in a book without the support of a leader or group. I encourage anyone with artistic leanings to get this book and go through it with another artist with the intention of continually using her approach to fine tune your direction in life until you've got something that works for you, your art, and your bank account.