Today is Poet Robert Frost‘s birthday. Were he still alive, he would be 141. “The Road Less Travelled” was one of his more popular poems.
President John F. Kennedy appreciated the poetry of Robert Frost so much that he invited Frost to read at his inauguration, for the first time in American history, on January 20, 1961. I had just turned 7 years old and vaguely remember seeing Frost’s reading on television with his straight white hair blowing in the wind. I wondered why the president wanted someone so old to read a poem.
Two years later Robert Frost died in January of 1963 – Kennedy was assassinated the same year in November.
I have come to appreciate Robert Frost’s poetry especially his poems about nature. I find them observant, melancholy, sweet, and slow. Although I have never lived in New England, I appreciate his love of the land where he lived.
So today I celebrate his poem “Blue Butterfly Day.” It reminds me of the Spring Azures that are now on the wing.
Blue Butterfly Day
It is blue-butterfly day here in spring,
And with these sky-flakes down in flurry on flurry
There is more unmixed color on the wing
Than flowers will show for days unless they hurry.
But these are flowers that fly and all but sing:
And now from having ridden out desire
They lie closed over in the wind and cling
Where wheels have freshly sliced the April mire.
Was a Spring Azure the inspiration for Robert Frost’s “Blue Butterfly Day” poem? This Spring Azure is nectaring on southern blackberry.
