Commentary Series

Frost on Spring

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With spring more or less at hand, commentator Peter Gilbert has been thinking of Robert Frost’s poem "A Prayer in Spring", which, he says, is about one of those beautiful spring days that doesn’t just give you spring fever; it touches your heart and soul at the deepest level.
Commentary Series

Young Wretch

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Across Vermont thousands of people have been buying Christmas trees – or cutting their own. Commentator Peter Gilbert tells us about a Robert Frost poem in which the narrator struggles to feel the holiday spirit toward a neighbor who’s cut a Christmas tree on his land without asking.
Commentary Series

Fireflies

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It’s that time of year when fireflies come out at dusk. Commentator Peter Gilbert recalls treasured childhood memories of trying to catch fireflies and wonders what makes them so special.
Commentary Series

Getting away

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Once again the news was grim this week, and commentator Willem Lange is looking forward to getting away to a place that feels far from the trouble.
Commentary Series

Letting go of good things

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With summer and most of autumn now behind us and one half or the other of the electorate about to be disappointed by the presidential election’s results, poet Robert Frost and commentator Peter Gilbert consider how to deal with loss.
Commentary Series

Searching for Robert Frost in England

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A report issued recently by the Vermont Council on Culture and Innovation makes the connection between historic preservation and a community’s economic life. Commentator Peter Gilbert has been thinking about how hard – but how important – it is to preserve what’s special about rural village life.