Going Public - January 4, 2019
"Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening"
Written by Robert Frost
Read by Denice Stradling
Photo by David Bartus from Pexels

Denice writes...

I have always loved "Stopping By Woods" by Robert Frost.  However, I admit to not re-visiting it in quite awhile.  As I am so much older now, with 'less miles to go before I sleep', the importance of those miles is what really gobsmacked me in the very instance of recording these beautiful words.  So grateful for the opportunity ... and the valuable lesson.

"Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening," by Robert Frost (read by Denice Stradling)

Going Public - January 1, 2019
"Burning Bush," by John Drinkwater
Read by Denis Daly

Denis writes...

John Drinkwater, poet, critic and dramatist was born in 1882 and died in 1937. Burning Bush, a pastoral elergy for a mother who died while still young, comes from The Collected Poems Of John Drinkwater, Volume 2, first published in 1923. 

A Voices of Today production
https://www.voicesoftoday.org/

Burning Bush

"Burning Bush," by John Drinkwater (read by Denis Daly)

GOING PUBLIC - January 1, 2019
"Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening," by Robert Frost
Read by Xe Sands
https://bit.ly/1D9DTxT

Relaunch in celebration of Public Domain Day 2019!
Finally! This is one of the Frost poems now officially in the public domain - so it makes the perfect choice for the relaunch of Going Public and our brand new YouTube channel (er, which we have no idea how to use or deal with, so bear with us as we get our internet sea legs...)

Yes, yes...Road Not Taken is probably Frost's most iconic and well known poem. And that one holds a special place in my heart...but Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening is...something apart. It speaks of a different place in the journey. You take the path you take, you walk its many tributaries, and one night, when you're feeling a little wearier than other days, the depth of that final path seems less resistable. But you're not *quite* at the end of your path yet, are you? No, you're not. There is the longing...and there is the realization that the timing isn't quite right. 

I think this is one that appeals on a different and deeper level well after you initially encounter it - likely in some lit class in high school, when Road is a far more appropriate and timely message. 

So enjoy The Road Not Taken...and when it's a little later, take another look at Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
BY ROBERT FROST

Whose woods these are I think I know.   
His house is in the village though;   
He will not see me stopping here   
To watch his woods fill up with snow.   

My little horse must think it queer   
To stop without a farmhouse near   
Between the woods and frozen lake   
The darkest evening of the year.   

He gives his harness bells a shake   
To ask if there is some mistake.   
The only other sound’s the sweep   
Of easy wind and downy flake.   

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,   
But I have promises to keep,   
And miles to go before I sleep,   
And miles to go before I sleep.

"Snow Motion" Video footage courtesy of Coverr

"Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,"j by Robert Frost (read by Xe Sands)

Going Public is a celebration of work in the public domain, shared via Creative Commons licensing, recorded purely for the joy of reading something that truly resonates with the narrator and then sharing that joy with others. Pieces are offered gratis on a weekly basis, without compensation of any sort either to the narrator or author.

