Hello, this is Frank Skinner and welcome to my poetry podcast. This week I would like

to cover a poem by an American poet called Robert Frost who lived from 1874 to 1963.

He lived just long enough to read his poetry at John F. Kennedy's inauguration. In fact,

Robert Frost in American culture is sort of Mr. Poetry Establishment in many ways. He

is Robert Frost. Is that kind of a poet? And that puts some people off, but I do think he's brilliant.

And this particular poem that I'm talking about today is one of my all-time faves. I'll

be straight with you. Robert Frost briefly wrote a lot about rural New England which is sort

of northeast USA. And it's very conversational and simple. And there'll be times during this I

use the word folksy because it's got that kind of country people talking sense feel to it. But

believe me, it's a lot deeper than that. And there's a lot more going on with Frosty even though he

denies that when he talks about his poetry very often and tries to talk it down. But

it's all in there. And this poem that I want to talk about is a poem from 1923 called The Stars

Blitter. And man, I love it. I really love it. I'm going to let you see why. It begins with inverted

commerce. So someone other than the voice of the poem is speaking. Someone is being quoted

at the beginning. One long sentence right up top. And this is what that quoted person is saying.

You know Orion always comes up sideways throwing a leg up over our fence of mountains.

And rising on his hands, he looks in on me busy outdoors by lantern light with something I should have

done by daylight. And indeed, after the ground is frozen, I should have done before it froze.

And a goss flings a handful of waist-leaves at my smoky lantern chimney to make fun of my way

of doing things. Or else, fun of Orion's having caught me. Has a man? I should like to ask.

No rights. These forces are obliged to pay respect to. Okay, that's all in inverted commerce.

And so someone we don't know who at this stage is being quoted. And the quoted speaker refers to

...