英国之行成就著名诗人

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  This story begins with a plank of wood.
  Maudelle Driskell directs the Frost Place, Robert Frost’s old homestead in Franconia, New Hampshire. Recently, as she and her staff were cleaning up the house and packing away for winter, they found something odd 1)wedged into a closet under the stairs.
  That crate lid, Driskell realized, was no ordinary piece of wood. It was part of the crate that Frost used to sail back from England in 1915.
  Now like many American teens across the country, I memorized Robert Frost in school, you know, “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood...”But this 2)quintessential American poet was actually a nobody before he set sail to England three years earlier.
  Nearly 40 years old, Frost was a college dropout, a farmer living in rural New Hampshire and a poet, sort of.
  Jay Parini (Frost’s Biographer): He had one or two poems published, but only in a magazine—not poetry, but 3)poultry magazine—a magazine for chicken farmers.
  Frost’s time in England, says Parini, was crucial to Frost’s entrance into the American 4)canon and it all came about on a bit of a 5)whim. Frost inherited some money, and in 1912 he sold his chicken farm and packed up his family and set sail across the Atlantic. With only a letter of introduction to an obscure British poet, Frank S. Flint, he was determined to 6)infiltrate the British literary scene. And somehow he did.
  Parini: Within the space of a year, Frost had met Yeats, Ezra Pound, the poet Wilfred Gibson, the poet LaSelle Abercrombie and lots and lots of other poets and editors.
  The American unknown published his first two books, A Boy’s Will and North of Boston, and was 7)heralded by his British colleagues for capturing the American voice.
  Parini: Why England? Well, I think sometimes a writer needs separation to begin to hear his own voice, the accents of home. And so in the very American accented poetry that he wrote during this period, you can hear the voice of the New England farmer being miraculously transformed.
  Without his experience in England, suggests Parini, it’s unlikely we’d be memorizing a poem about a road in a yellow wood. Frost left England in 1915 as World War I 8)ramped up.
  Parini: When he stepped off the boat in America, walked up to the dock, he saw a copy of The New Republic which had a big story, “New American Voice, Robert Frost, Poet of the People.” And so from that moment on, Frost was Robert Frost—famous American poet, beloved American poet.   But the now famous literary figure didn’t head to New York City or Boston. No, he settled down in the quiet village of Franconia, New Hampshire, where he presumably unpacked his things, shoved them into a closet under the stairs, and, I guess, just needed a little extra shelf space.


  故事从一块木板说起。
  莫德尔·得利斯科尔负责打理位于美国新罕布什尔州法兰哥尼亚镇的罗伯特·弗罗斯特故居——弗罗斯特之家。近日,她和其他工作人员在打扫屋子和收拾物品准备过冬时,发现有一块奇怪的东西卡在楼梯底下的壁橱里。
  这是一个板条箱的箱盖,得利斯科尔看出这不是一块普通的木头,它属于弗罗斯特1915年从英国坐船回来时装行李用的木箱。
  像许多美国的青少年一样,我也在上学的时候背诵过弗罗斯特的诗歌,你知道的,“黄色的树林里分出两条路……”但事实上,这位典型的美国诗人在1912年越洋去英国之前还是寂寂无名。
  弗罗斯特当时年近四十,是一个大学辍学生,一个住在新罕布什尔州农村的农民,还可以勉强称得上是一个诗人。
  杰伊·帕里尼(弗罗斯特传记作者):他发表过一两首诗,但只是发表在一本杂志上,而且还不是一本诗歌杂志,而是给养鸡的农民看的关于家禽饲养的杂志。
  帕里尼说,弗罗斯特在英国的那段时期对他日后跻身美国重要作家之列起到了非常关键的作用,而他去英国是出于一个偶然的念头。他当时继承了一笔钱,便在1912年卖掉了他的养鸡场,全家人一起横渡大西洋到了英国。当时他只有一封写给一位没有名气的英国诗人弗兰克·S·弗林特的引荐信,但他却雄心勃勃地想要在英国文学界闯出一番天地。他真的做到了。
  帕里尼:一年之内,弗罗斯特结识了叶芝、埃兹拉·庞德、诗人威尔弗雷德·吉布森、诗人拉塞尔·艾伯克龙比,还有其他很多诗人和编辑。
  这位默默无闻的美国人发表了他最初的两本诗集——《少年的意志》和《波士顿以北》,英国的文人们对他赞赏不已,称他捕捉到了美国的声音。
  帕里尼:为什么是英国呢?嗯,我想,有时候一个作家得离开一下,才能够听到自己的声音,听到家乡的声音。从他在这段时期所写的美国韵味浓厚的诗歌中,你能听到一个脱胎换骨的新英格兰农民的声音。
  帕里尼认为,如果没有弗罗斯特在英国的经历,我们可能就没有机会在课堂上背诵那首黄色树林分岔路的诗。1915年,随着一战的战火越烧越烈,弗罗斯特离开了英国。
  帕里尼:回到美国,当他从船上下来,走上码头的时候,看到了一本《新共和》杂志,上面有个大篇幅的报道,题为《新的美国之声——罗伯特·弗罗斯特,人民的诗人》。从那时起,弗罗斯特成为了著名的、深受爱戴的美国诗人罗伯特·弗罗斯特。
  但这位新晋的文学之星并没有去纽约市或者波士顿,而是选择了在新罕布什尔州的法兰哥尼亚这个宁静的村庄定居下来。可以想见,他解开行李,把东西塞进楼梯底下的壁橱,我猜,他大概是需要加多一层架子吧,所以就把行李箱的箱盖嵌在了壁橱里。


  背景小知识
  罗伯特·弗罗斯特(Robert Frost,1874.3—1963.1),美国著名诗人,曾四度获得普利策奖和许多其他的奖项及荣誉,被称为美国文学中的桂冠诗人。弗罗斯特的诗可分为两大类:抒情短诗和戏剧性较强的叙事诗,两者都脍炙人口。他的诗歌多从农村生活和大自然中汲取题材,诗歌风格上的一个最大特点是朴实无华,语言质朴、清新、近乎口语化,但涵义隽永,寓深刻的思考和哲理于平淡无奇的内容和简洁朴实的诗句之中。
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