The Rob I Knew - Musings on Robert Frost
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/
The Rob I Knew - Musings on Robert Frost
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 Talk
By Robert Frost
When a friend calls to me from the road
And slows his horse to a meaning walk,
I don’t stand still and look around
On 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 to the stone wall
For a friendly visit.