Description:

Exceptional Robert Frost ALS, quoting his own work, "Minor Bird", Emerson's" Berrying" and Sandburg's" The People Yes", responding to a poem that critiques" Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening"

ROBERT FROST (1874-1963) Autograph Letter Signed, "Robert Frost" at the conclusion of a 4.5 page typed original poem signed,"Carl E. Hirsch," 8.5" x 11", separate sheets. No place, no date. To Mr. Hirch [sic]. Fine condition.

Carl E. Hirsch has titled his 98-line poem" To Robert Frost." In his poem, Hirsch includes an analysis of the meaning of two of Frost's poems, "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" (1922) and" A Minor Bird" (1928).

Referring to" Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening," Hirsch's poem, in part, "You stopped to watch the snow fill up the woods, / To breath the fresh, clean air of Wintertime.../ You turned away, for you had far to go / Among the path which led at last to peace..."

Hirsch continues, "Caesar had been acquainted with the night, / And so were you, but in a different way, / For he declared that might alone makes right, And you declare that every Summer day / Reflects your heart-felt gratitude to peace / Which you sought as a boy, and which you found / In measuring each harvest's first increase, / Not in a struggle for forbidden ground..." Each a General and Roman Consul, Marius had a profound effect on his nephew Caesar.

As to" A Minor Bird," Hirsch writes, in part, "You had your moments of disgust with singing / When you said that you wished a bird would fly / Away from your house, and not come back bringing / Songs you did not care to hear or try. / But you admitted that an empty word / Is not the singing of a minor bird..."

Robert Frost writes, in full, "Your poems make deep thoughtful reading. You haven't let the mere sound of words have the upper hand of you - But you scare me a little with what you have taken me to mean. You suck more melancholy out of me than I should have thought possible. Caesar and Marius and I should all be taken with a grain of salt. Emerson said 'Earth's a howling wilderness truculent with force and fraud.' It is and it isn't. Sandburg the happy go lucky says 'The people - Yes! 'The people yes and no! You might be making too much out of my wish a bird would go away and not sing by my house all day. You must be careful to think free. It is true regret is sacred. But so are a lot of other things sacred and all of them regret included are but ministers to poetry and feed its sacred flame. Thanks for letting me see the poems."

In his poem" Berrying" (1904), Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, "Earth's a howling wilderness truculent with force and fraud." Carl Sandburg's epic book-long prose-poem" The People, Yes" was published in 1936. Frost's correspondence with Hirsch is in the Rauner Special Collections Library at Dartmouth College.

Provenance: The Estate of Charles E. Sigety, Christies, New York, December 7, 2015.

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