I gave my “Black Presence” talk in Shoreham, Vt., earlier in the month and will be doing it again in Sheffield, Mass., at the end of the month (the 26th, 6:30 pm) in the old Congregational church in the center of town. That will make the second church I have spoken in this month, as I gave a talk on Robert Frost and his Arlington connections to the Arlington Common on the 7th in the now deconsecrated mid-century Catholic Church on Main Street. That required dipping back in to Sarah Cleghorn’s Threescore, from which I extracted some moving quotations about the effect of spoken word poetry on her, especially Frost’s by Dorothy Canfield Fisher and modern poetry by her friend Halley Phillips Gilchrist, the force behind the Southern Vermont Poetry Society, which first brought Frost to the area. I enjoy these bursts of research and speaking, and a couple of local historians (Bill Budde and Shawn Harrington) dug up some good things for me. 35 or so people showed up and I was happy to take requests in the second part of the program.

Of course, Adam Plunkett has also spoken, in his new biography of Robert Frost. He persuasively explodes Frost’s oft-told tale about staying up all night at the Stone House in summer 1922 to write “New Hampshire,” then coming up with “Stopping by Woods” in the morning. Plunkett ascribes this piece of deception on Frost’s part in terms of his rivalry with T.S. Eliot and the clamor over “The Wasteland” (1922). I, with many others, have fallen for Frost’s and can’t call it (my 3rd edition) back now. It will have to wait for the 4th…

Meanwhile, we are almost all set for the 250th activities around the commemoration of the taking of Ticonderoga by Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys in May 1775. I have been quite occupied with those activities, especially in regard to the educational tour for 4th grade students. It another CVNHP-funded project, quite ambitious, too.