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Special Features for Readers

This page provides audio-visual content (and other material) that may enhance the experience of reading selected poems in poems in 11 New Roads Not Taken – including various original new poems (new takes) and a few of Frost’s original poems.

TENNIS OPEN, NOT AGING

A TIME TO SPEAK

THE ROAD NOT TAKEN (by Robert Frost)

STOPPING BY WOODS ON A SNOWY EVENING (by Robert Frost)

MENDING WALL (by Robert Frost)

MOE’S SWING

FEAR AND EYES … OF STEPHEN KING

DISCLAIMER NOTE

The poem TENNIS OPEN, NOT AGING (printed on page 32 of the book, as a new take on Frost’s THE ROAD NOT TAKEN) concerns and comments on a famous tennis match (between Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras). Here are links to video of the match:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDW5M561YM4 (extended highlights)
https://youtu.be/knfJaCr06BM?si=siYKt8XUEX2ez_QB (full match)

(SPOILER ALERT: it may be better to read the poem, before watching either video in its entirety.)

The poem A TIME TO SPEAK (printed on page 174 of the book, as a new take on Frost’s A TIME TO TALK) concerns and comments on Frost’s presentation at the JFK inauguration. Here is a link to video of the event: https://youtu.be/AILGO3gVlTU?si=qKyZ3m-Hu6njOWEb. (SPOILER ALERT: it is better to read the poem A TIME TO SPEAK, before watching this video.)

Additionally, here are links to footage of Frost reciting two of his most famous poems:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ie2Mspukx14 (audio footage of Frost reciting his classic poem THE ROAD NOT TAKEN, namely, the version reprinted on page 19 of the book)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rebVUgCgSAU (audio-video footage, at 0:27 – 1:15 in the file, of Frost reciting his classic poem STOPPING BY WOODS ON A SNOWY EVENING, which is reprinted on page 240 of the book)

(Other footage, of Frost reciting his poetry, is available online, as well.)

Frost’s poem MENDING WALL (reprinted on pages 181 – 183 of the book) was featured on an episode of the television program Poetry in America: https://www.poetryinamerica.org/episode/mending-wall/ . The program includes discussion by scholars, poets, and other public figures – regarding MENDING WALL on a poetic level and also in relation to historical world events. (Of course, much else has been said and written about MENDING WALL.)

The poem MOE’S SWING (printed on page 222 of the book, as a new take on Frost’s MOWING) concerns and comments on golfer Moe Norman and his golf swing. Moe Norman, along with his golf swing and affinity for poetry, are featured in the following videos and materials:

https://youtu.be/JeIT0af2C_M?si=6ZuTfpMCUE2i-cxT (1994 Moe Norman interview and golf ball-striking demonstration, Part 1)
https://youtu.be/wflqA4sdIbw?si=UvXv1olHj8UmYv_U (1994 Moe Norman interview and golf ball-striking demonstration, Part 2)
https://youtu.be/P18BIzcXHNE?si=tKr87RhiZ8iP8Sdg (Moe Norman feature on ESPN)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htV_iFC3bLA (1994 Moe Norman Clinic)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NptiFEFdCE (Moe Norman reciting the poem MY LITTLE ROBOT)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkY6gyUi24k (Moe Norman reciting the poem MY LITTLE ROBOT (at the start of this video, on the website of his disciple, teacher Todd Graves)
The poem GOLF IS HAPPINESS – and a mention of Moe Norman’s proclivity for reciting it – are set forth in a book by Todd Graves and Tim O’Connor, entitled The Single Plane Golf Swing: Play Better Golf the Moe Norman Way, pp.191, 193 (Brown Books Publishing Group 2015).

Information about Moe Norman is also available from many other sources, including numerous books, articles, videos, and other online content.

The poem FEAR AND EYES … OF STEPHEN KING (printed on page 77 of the book, as a new take on Frost’s FIRE AND ICE) concerns and comments on the works of author Stephen King. King is no stranger to the works of Robert Frost. In King’s novel IT, the reader is informed that one of the characters had thought, “Old Bobby Frost said home’s the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in,” which is based on a quotation from Frost’s The Death of the Hired Man (from Frost’s book North of Boston).¹ King’s IT also quotes the phrase “way leads on to way,”² which appears in Frost’s THE ROAD NOT TAKEN.

Also, King published Different Seasons, which is a collection of four novellas. In that collection, in King’s novella Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption (upon which the movie The Shawshank Redemption was based), one of the characters says, “there’s a rock wall, right out of a Robert Frost poem,”³ which is a reference to Frost’s poem MENDING WALL (a Frost poem that is reprinted on pages 181 – 183 of the book 11 New Roads Not Taken). Additionally, in Different Seasons, in King’s novella The Breathing Method, “Robert Frost” is mentioned as the first in a list of “remarkable” poets.⁴

1. See King, Stephen, It (New York, Scribner, 1986), p.89. In the Frost work, the words “Home is” are spelled out, in dialogue between characters, rather than using the contraction “home’s”; and the Frost work is in verse, with capitalization of first letters of the words “Home” and “They”, at the start of their lines. See Frost, Robert, North of Boston (United States, H. Holt, 1915), p.20.

2. It, p.458. (The first-person narrator doesn’t attribute the phrase (“way leads on to way”) to Frost, but instead states, “It’s in The Lord of the Rings, I think, where one of the characters says that ‘way leads on to way’ ….”)

3. King, Stephen, Different Seasons (New York, Scribner), 1982, p.78.

4. Different Seasons, p.515. Specifically, “Robert Frost” is the first among a (non-alphabetical) list of six “remarkable” poets, who are supposedly among the authors of “free-verse poems” that are reprinted in a book that the narrator encounters. This reference is quizzical, in that Frost did not write free-verse poetry (i.e., poetry unconstrained by any formal rules); rather, Frost professed a strong dislike for it – as discussed in a note on page 279 of 11 New Roads Not Taken. However, it should be noted that, in King’s novella The Breathing Method, the description – of “free-verse poems” written by Frost (and others) – is given by a first-person narrator, who is a fictional character; the narrator’s characterizations may not reliable, for various different reasons.

… There are many more notes set forth in the book 11 New Roads Not Taken, including notes about Robert Frost’s life and works, as well as numerous other topics …

Also, check for updates on the book’s official blog: 11newroads.blogspot.com.

DISCLAIMER NOTE:

This book (11 New Roads Not Taken) includes poems that concern the above-mentioned persons; however, the book and its author are not affiliated with, or endorsed by, any of the above-mentioned persons.