11 episodes
The Rob I Knew - Musings on Robert Frost Carl Burell
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- Society & Culture
Carl Burell reminisces about his old friend Robert Frost, sharing stories about Rob with the people of Derry, New Hampshire attending the Centennial Celebration of Derry in 1927.
This reenactment offers an inside look at the early years of Robert Frost through the eyes of Carl Burell, a childhood friend, farming mentor and hired hand on Frost’s first farm in Derry. Carl’s closeup view provides a unique perspective on Frost’s life among the people of Derry, whom he freely appropriated in much of his poetry. Carl reflects on the experience of personally appearing as hapless fodder in Frost’s successful conversion of the slow demise of the New England family farm into revered and fully monetized literature. Throughout, Carl offers oral interpretations of many of his favorite Frost poems, applying his own native sound of sense to the transcendent poetry of Robert Frost.
The author and voice of this podcast, a reticent but displaced New Hampshire native, is a lifelong devotee of Robert Frost poetry and is very pleased to be channeling Carl Burrell. You can reach him at carlburell1927 at gmail dot com.
Selected Bibliography
Chiasson, Dan. “Bet the Farm,” The New Yorker, February 2, 2014.
Dana, Mrs. William Star. How to Know the Wild Flowers. New York: Charles Scribner’s
Sons. 1904
Frost, Robert. Selected Letters. Edited by Lawrance Thompson. New York: Holt,
Rinehart and Winston, 1964.
----------------. The Poetry of Robert Frost: The Collected Poems, Complete and
Unabridged. Edited by Edward Connery Lathem. New York: Holt, Rinehart and
Winston. 1969.
----------------. Robert Frost: Poetry and Prose. Edited by Edward Connery Latherm and
Lawrance Thompson. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. 1972.
----------------. The Notebooks of Robert Frost. Edited by Robert Faggen. Cambridge,
MA: Harvard University Press, 2006.
Holmes, Richard. (2014, July 18). The Hood Farm. Londonderry News.
http://www.londonderrynh.net/2014/07/the-hood-farm/74622
Lathem, E. Connery, et al.. Robert Frost, Farm-poultryman: the Story of Robert Frost's
Career As a Breeder And Fancier of Hens & the Texts of Eleven Long-forgotten
Prose Contributions by the Poet, Which Appeared In Two New England Poultry
Journals In 1903-05, During His Years of Farming At Derry, New Hampshire.
Hanover, N.H.: Dartmouth Publications, 1963.
Parini, Jay. Robert Frost: A Life. New York. Henry Holt and Company. 1999.
Poirier, Richard. Robert Frost: The Work of Knowing. Stanford, CA: Stanford University
Press. 1977.
-----------------. “Tough Enough to Live,” The New York Times, November 6, 1966.
Pritchard, William H. Frost: A Literary Life Reconsidered. New York: Oxford University
Press. 1984.
Sanders, David. A Divided Poet: Robert Frost, North of Boston, and the Drama of
Disappearance. Rochester, NY: Camden House. 2011.
Stefanik, Jean. (n.d.). NH Native Orchid Project, The New Hampshire Orchid Society.
https://www.nhorchids.org/page-1579474
Thompson, Lawrence, Robert Frost: The Early Years, 1874-1915. New York: Holt,
Rinehart and Winston, 1966.
----------------. Robert Frost: The Years of Triumph, 1915-1938. Holt, Rinehart and
Winston, 1970.
Walsh, John Evangelist. Into My Own: The English Years of Robert Frost. New York:
GrovePress, 1988.
Zhou, Li. (2015, January 9). Orchidelirium, an Obsession with Orchids, Has Lasted for
Centuries. Smithsonian Magazine.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/
orchidelirium-obsession-orchids-lasted-centuries-180954060/
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1 - Hugger Mugger Farmer featuring "The Pasture" by Robert Frost
Carl Burell speaks at the Derry Centennial Celebration of 1927, telling of helping Robert Frost with his first farm in Derry N.H. Carl also reads Frost's poem, The Pasture.The Pastureby Robert FrostI'm going out to clean the pasture spring; I'll only stop to rake the leaves away (And wait to watch the water clear, I may): I shan't be gone long.—You come too. I'm going out to fetch the little calfThat's standing by the mother. It's so young, It totters when ...
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2 - Our Neighbor Napoleon featuring "Mending Wall" by Robert Frost
Carl Burell speaks at the Derry Centennial Celebration of 1927, telling of Robert Frost's neighbor, Napoleon Guay and the origin of the poem, Mending Wall.Mending WallBy Robert FrostSomething there is that doesn't love a wall,That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,And spills the upper boulders in the sun;And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.The work of hunters is another thing:I have come after them and made repairWhere they have left not one stone on a stone,But they would have the ...
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3 - Botanizing featuring "The Tuft of Flowers" by Robert Frost
Carl Burell speaks at the Derry Centennial Celebration of 1927, telling of exploring the orchids of New Hampshire with Robert Frost. Carl includes Frost's poem, The Tuft of Flowers.The Tuft of FlowersBy Robert FrostI went to turn the grass once after oneWho mowed it in the dew before the sun.The dew was gone that made his blade so keenBefore I came to view the leveled scene.I looked for him behind an isle of trees;I listened for his whetstone on the breeze.But he had gone his way, the g...
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4 - Yankier and Yankier featuring "A Time To Talk" by Robert Frost
Carl Burell speaks at the Derry Centennial Celebration of 1927, telling of his many conversations with Robert Frost. Carl reads Frost's poem, A Time to Talk.A Time to TalkBy Robert FrostWhen a friend calls to me from the roadAnd slows his horse to a meaning walk,I don’t stand still and look aroundOn all the hills I haven’t hoed,And shout from where I am, What is it?No, not as there is a time to talk.I thrust my hoe in the mellow ground,Blade-end up and five feet tall,And plod: I go up t...
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5 - What Rob Longed to Get featuring "Mowing" by Robert Frost
Carl Burell speaks at the Derry Centennial Celebration of 1927, telling of Robert Frost mowing with a scythe and reading Frost's poem, Mowing.MowingBy Robert FrostThere was never a sound beside the wood but one,And that was my long scythe whispering to the ground.What was it it whispered? I knew not well myself;Perhaps it was something about the heat of the sun,Something, perhaps, about the lack of sound—And that was why it whispered and did not speak.It was no dream of the gift of idle hours...
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6 - Fifty Dollars! featuring "For Once, Then, Something" by Robert Frost
Carl Burell speaks at the Derry Centennial Celebration of 1927, telling of Robert Frost’s treasure chest of poems and speaking in front of large groups of people. Carl also reads Frost's poem, For Once, Then, Something.For Once, Then, SomethingBy Robert FrostOthers taunt me with having knelt at well-curbsAlways wrong to the light, so never seeingDeeper down in the well than where the waterGives me back in a shining surface pictureMe myself in the summer heaven godlikeLooking out of a wr...