Thank you, Robert Frost

Okay, you know the absolutely awesome poem by Robert Frost:

FIRE AND ICE
Some say the world will end in fire
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.

I've always been taken by that dang thing, and being a meter/rhyme freak, I had to break it down. I realized that the meter/rhyme scheme is thus, line by line:

syllables rhyme scheme
8 A
4 B
8 A
8 A
8 B
8 C
8 B
4 C
4 B

So I decided to try it. I asked my sophomore class to give me a topic. "Music!" squeeks Jordan Boyd.

"Okay, music," I say walking to the board. More or less, I write the following poem (see below) then the bell rings and I revise. As I finish, my good friend and true mentor and poet, Lee Snell comes into my room. He's looking for a copy of Animal Farm. I don't have one . . . but I DO have something to show him. I tell him of my discovery. I say, "I've been zapped by the form." I love it, and Lee, too, instantly falls in love with it. Here it is.

FYI: The words "my repertoire and" used to be "my shelves until I" (line 3). My mentor, Lee Snell, is right. How it stands now is better.


A BALLAD OF THE SOFTER KIND
If music feeds the suff'ring mind
And heals the heart
I'll search my repertoire and find
A ballad of the softer kind.
But if I listen to my heart
And meditate upon the choice
I'll find a song that marries art
With vivid voice
And happy heart.

Yes! Thank you, R. Frost.