“Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Morning” was amongst a collection of poems my mother provided to me while serving in Vietnam in 1968-69, while serving behind the lines at a remote mountaintop outpost, named “Eagle’s Nest”, in the Ashau Valley with the 101st Airborne (Screaming Eagles) Division. It touched me deeply, and particularly the refrain of “miles to go before I sleep”, which inspired me to carry on, not give in to despair and remain hopeful. Thank you for the reminder and insight. Robert Frost, combined with the poems of Omar Khayyam, “If” by Rudyard Kipling, and Elihu, in the Book of Job, inspired my own poem, at age 20, in an attempt to reconcile the atrocities of war in world of darkness and hope for a new dawn in the future:
I like your story regarding this particular poem. It totally affirms my belief that real poetry - as distinct from most of what is being called poetry now - possesses the power to sustain one spiritually in times of darkness and despair. It is a powerful force for good in the world.
“Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Morning” was amongst a collection of poems my mother provided to me while serving in Vietnam in 1968-69, while serving behind the lines at a remote mountaintop outpost, named “Eagle’s Nest”, in the Ashau Valley with the 101st Airborne (Screaming Eagles) Division. It touched me deeply, and particularly the refrain of “miles to go before I sleep”, which inspired me to carry on, not give in to despair and remain hopeful. Thank you for the reminder and insight. Robert Frost, combined with the poems of Omar Khayyam, “If” by Rudyard Kipling, and Elihu, in the Book of Job, inspired my own poem, at age 20, in an attempt to reconcile the atrocities of war in world of darkness and hope for a new dawn in the future:
On Eagle’s Wings
On Eagle’s Wings Angels fly,
Who walk upon waters,
And soar crystal skies,
There once again we gather to meet,
Amidst the roaring thunder of a Warrior’s feat.
A Band of Brothers, from the East arise,
With the Souls of Children,
to a Savior’s cry:
“Awake Nations! Awake! Arise!
Dawn is come, a new Sunrise”.
Warren Monty Quesnell
I like your story regarding this particular poem. It totally affirms my belief that real poetry - as distinct from most of what is being called poetry now - possesses the power to sustain one spiritually in times of darkness and despair. It is a powerful force for good in the world.