Gamble

Frost Notes

Anthology

Robbie Gamble

How does each new generation of American poets manage to carry Frost's recognizable tone forward while, at the same time, making it new ? Massachusetts poet Robbie Gamble's poem "Penumbra" offers a poem that begins with a very Frost-like tone that moves very deftly into the poet's own.

Penumbra

The moon slid into place as advertised
Across the sun, one summer afternoon.
I stepped outside to feel what charged the air,
Drawn to the change, the modulating light
That caused the birds to settle for the night.
I gazed up, the corona hanging there
Was streaming shadows, beams of light and gloom
That barred the earth, and held me hypnotized.

He once encouraged us to walk in light,
For those who walk in darkness mostly stumble.
But I feel pinned at this penumbral edge
Where light and dark both awe and draw a wedge
Between heart's home and craved constructs that crumble.
Slide on, eclipse- expose my appetites!

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Note:

I wrote "Penumbra" without specifically holding Frost as an inspiration, but when I look back over poems of his that I have particularly enjoyed reading over the years, I realize I am especially drawn to the surprising ways he uncovers allusions to the Divine in nature, in such poems as "Design." Recently I have been paying close attention to the possibility of form in my own writing, and I appreciate the way that Frost stretches the traditional sonnet in poems like "Hyla Brook," subtly adding a 15th line to tenderly emphasize his "love of things." I tried to push the sonnet form a little in "Penumbra" by employing a symmetrical rhyme scheme for each of the stanzas, to echo the trajectory of sun and moon.

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Robbie Gamble writes from Boston, Massachusetts. He has recently published pieces in Ibbetson St. Press, Poesy, Edgz and the Pine Island Journal of New England Poetry.

Back
Home
Next