In 1922 Robert Frost surreptitiously confessed to a crime that rocked the literary world to such an extent that the ramifications are still widely debated within the ivy covered walls of today’s most revered liberal arts universities** Disguised as a masterful example of the beauty of the written word, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, the poem that Frost himself called “My best bid for remembrance,” should be required reading for everyone.*** In the confession Frost admits he is trespassing but, having previously staked out the area, knows he can commit the crime undetected based on the fact the property owner maintains his primary residence in the Village some miles away. Ignoring the foreboding bell shake of his equine companion, Frost did with intent and, some would argue malice aforethought, gaze at the magnificence of the ethereal tableau.
We are all familiar with the question “If a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it does it make a sound?” This begs the debate starting question “if a victimless crime is committed in the forest and nobody sees it, was a crime actually committed? Frost created a work of art that is also an unsolvable conundrum inflicting on us countless nights of agonizing reflection and lost sleep.
The literary and legal controversy rages on in classrooms and moot courts the world over. The intellectual arguments will continue long after we are gone. And, as Robert Frost predicted, so will the Poem.
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**Known to trumpers only as seething beds of radical-right socialism where students dangerously learn to think on their own.
*** If you are a trumper have someone read it to you and don’t get in a homophobic frenzy when you hear the word “queer.” In this case it is a synonym for odd or unusual. OMG do I have to explain synonym to you as well?