{"id":33,"date":"2008-06-09T16:33:28","date_gmt":"2008-06-09T20:33:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/joesindorf.com\/blog\/?p=33"},"modified":"2008-06-09T16:50:10","modified_gmt":"2008-06-09T20:50:10","slug":"poetic-justice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/joesindorf.com\/blog\/2008\/06\/09\/poetic-justice\/","title":{"rendered":"Poetic Justice"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I love the work of Robert Frost. It probably comes from my New England roots. The pictures that Frost paints with his poetry bring back so many vivid images from growing up in rural New Hampshire.<\/p>\n<p>I own many Frost first editions, and a beautiful portrait of America&#8217;s Poet Laurette by renowned photographer Lotte Jacobi (signed by both of them) is one of my prized possessions.\u00a0 So when this bit of news filtered down to me, you now can understand why it got my attention.<\/p>\n<p class=\"textBodyBlack\">The Homer Noble Farm in Ripton, Vermont, where Frost spent more than 20 summers before his death in 1963, was vandalized by a bunch of idiots in December of last year.\u00a0 A 17-year-old former Middlebury College employee decided to hold a party and gave a friend $100 to buy beer. Word spread. Up to 50 people descended on the farm, the revelry turning destructive after a chair broke and someone threw it into the fireplace.\u00a0 When it was over, windows, antiques and china had been broken, fire extinguishers discharged, and carpeting soiled with vomit and urine. Empty beer cans and drug paraphernalia were left behind. The damage was put at $10,600.<\/p>\n<p class=\"textBodyBlack\">\n<table style=\"PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 15px; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; PADDING-TOP: 5px\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" align=\"right\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><script type=\"text\/javascript\"><\/script><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>Twenty-eight people \u2014 all but two of them teenagers \u2014 were charged.\u00a0 You&#8217;ll never believe\u00a0their sentence&#8230; <!--more--><\/p>\n<p class=\"textBodyBlack\">Twenty-five of them agreed to undergo two sessions\u00a0with a Middlebury College professor of poetry and Frost biographer. \u00a0Jay Parini\u00a0discussed Frost&#8217;s poems\u00a0\u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.poets.org\/viewmedia.php\/prmMID\/15717\" target=\"_blank\">The Road Not Taken<\/a>\u201d and \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.poemofquotes.com\/robertfrost\/out-out.php\" target=\"_blank\">Out, Out<\/a>\u201d seizing on parts with particular relevance to draw parallels to their case.<\/p>\n<p class=\"textBodyBlack\">\u201cTwo roads diverged in a yellow wood,\u201d he thundered, reciting the opening line of the first poem, which he called symbolic of the need to make choices in life.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"textBodyBlack\">\u201cThis is where Frost is relevant. This is the irony of this whole thing. You come to a path in the woods where you can say, \u2018Shall I go to this party and get drunk out of my mind?\u201d\u2019 he said. \u201cEverything in life is choices.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"textBodyBlack\">Even the setting had parallels, he said:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"textBodyBlack\">\u201cBelieve me, if you\u2019re a teenager, you\u2019re always in the damned woods. Literally, you\u2019re in the woods \u2014 probably too much you\u2019re in the woods. And metaphorically you\u2019re in the woods, in your life. Look at you here, in court diversion! If that isn\u2019t \u2018in the woods,\u2019 what the hell is \u2018in the woods\u2019? You\u2019re in the woods!\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"textBodyBlack\">The ending to this poem is so great&#8230;<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"textBodyBlack\"><span style=\"font-size: x-small; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana;\">I shall be telling this with a sigh<br \/>\nSomewhere ages and ages hence:<br \/>\ntwo roads diverged in a wood, and I &#8212;<br \/>\nI took the one less traveled by,<br \/>\nAnd that has made all the difference. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"textBodyBlack\"><span style=\"font-size: x-small; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">I<\/span> hope for these kids &#8212; and for you and me &#8212;\u00a0we choose wisely.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I love the work of Robert Frost. It probably comes from my New England roots. The pictures that Frost paints with his poetry bring back so many vivid images from growing up in rural New Hampshire. I own many Frost first editions, and a beautiful portrait of America&#8217;s Poet Laurette by renowned photographer Lotte Jacobi [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[27,26,24,3],"class_list":["post-33","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-decisions","tag-poetry","tag-punishment","tag-work"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/joesindorf.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/joesindorf.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/joesindorf.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joesindorf.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joesindorf.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/joesindorf.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/joesindorf.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joesindorf.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joesindorf.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}