Hatrack River Forum: Writing on Poetry - Pablo Neruda and Robert Frost

This is topic Writing on Poetry - Pablo Neruda and Robert Frost in forum Books, Films, Food and Culture at Hatrack River Forum.

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Posted by Pixie (Member # 4043) on :

Here's some background info before I come to you all pleading for aid: [Wink]

Students aiming for the International Baccalaurreate Diploma Programme's high school diploma are required to complete an Extended Essay before graduation. The Extended Essay is, as the name suggests, essentially just a really long essay (anywhere from 4000 to 4500 words). Now that we've got that established...

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Well, for my topic, I chose to work in my Language AI (also known in that language as English lol). For my research question... well, I'm still hashing that out at the moment but, what I'd love to do so far is a comparison of Robert Frost and Pablo Neruda's poetry.

They're both widely known and acclaimed so there's not going to be much difficultly in establishing the actual basis for or validity/"so what?" of my comparison. And it sure doesn't hurt either that I'm absolutely wild about Neruda's work, nor that Robert Frost, too, has always been a favorite of mine. And, as far as poet's go, there's also a very broad foundation of easilly comparable similarities and disparities between their works.

I already have a wonderful reference on just poetry itself that my Advisor gave to me a few weeks ago. I'd highly recommend it, actually (Laurence Perrine and Thomas Arp's "Sound and Sense", Eigth Edition - for anyone interested). I also have two collections of Neruda's poetry that I own myself so I'm mostly set there. However, though I have an anthology or two of American poetry, there really isn't enough of Frost's work in them that I can really get a strong reading background in his works.

I've read everything there is on a few rather large online compilations of his works but I was wondering if any of you might be able to suggest any actual texts that I might be able to use? I read somewhere the names of his first and last published collections (at least of those published in his lifetime), and am planning on checking into getting copies as soon as possible, but any other suggestions would be wildly appreciated as well.

So, yeah: Thank you in advance! [Big Grin]

Posted by Valentine014 (Member # 5981) on :

I just wanted to express once more what great taste you have in poets. [Wave]

Posted by ak (Member # 90) on :

Sound and Sense is a fantastic book for studying poetry. I have mine from college and I refer to it all the time. Wow there are so many great poems in there. And all the text part is great too, the information on how to learn to see what's going on in a poem, and how to attune your ear and heart and mind to enjoying poems.

Sounds like good essay material. Is there something about the two poets that you feel is in common? I've never been a Neruda fan but of course I know Frost and some of his stuff I really like a whole lot.

I think right now if it were me I'd do A.E. Housman and J.R.R. Tolkien. They were about the same age, and they both seemed to see the end of something and mourn it. And I love them both. Seems like a cool idea to me, picking two people you like and comparing them. I'd like to read it when you get it written.