What comes to my mind seeing this photo?

I always say something while posting a photo; this is no exception. Many things come to my mind when I see a thing when or after I travel.  This photo was taken when we visited JFK Museum and Library last October.  The background photo was taken during the 4/29/1962 White House dinner honoring Nobel Prize winners of the western hemisphere.

I wonder why Robert Frost, a literary giant even in his lifetime, was slighted or missed by the Nobel committee.  The very fact that JFK invited him there and sat beside the First Lady is the best protest.  Photo shows the Jacqueline Kennedy was talking to Robert Frost and JFK Pearl Buck (1938 Nobel Prize).  Yes, Buck is a worthy laureate, but, how can anyone say Frost is not?

This photo is scanned from a 1/9/2009 WSJ article (“Bards at the Inaugural Gates”) in which the writer talks about the four poets reciting at the Presidential Inauguration; Robert Frost (at JFK’s inauguration in 1961) was the first and the best.

It is well known that Frost, then 86, blinded by the sun’s glare reflected on the snow-covering ground, couldn’t read the verses of “Dedication” that he wrote for the occasion; instead he recited “The Gift Outright” by memory.

Some say Frost didn't change impromptu and that he discussed his “The Gift Outright” with JFK before the 1/20/1961 inauguration. Which was the case? That’s historian’s job.  This photo of Frost talking to JFK at White House was taken two days after the inauguration.

I have had difficulty understanding “the Gift Outright”until I read this new book, “The Art of Robert Frost” (see photo right) by Tim Kendall, who comments on many of Frost’s poems, then I know why the Washington Post reported Frost “stole the hearts of the inaugural crowd.”  It is fitting that Frost recited this 'patriotic' poem for the occasion by chance or by intention.

T.S. Eliot once promised to write comments on his The Waste Land, but never did.  That didn’t surprise me as he once said interpreting his poems is “your job, not mine.”

Robert Frost gave his hand written “Dedication” to JFK and it ended up in the hand of one of JFK’s assistant.  The original was donated to JFK Library in 2006.

The YouTube link is Robert Frost read his The Gift Outright,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6i_Ajyek2YA