Reafers Write, and I my Robert Frost

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From Diane M, in response to the item about the Little Free Library . . . 

Dear Otto  

Yes , I love the Bytes stories never knowing what you have for the day for me to read. 

It so interesting what and how you find this. 

Like the recent subject of the free reading books or exchange. 

I didn’t know about this, this is so great for kids and/or poor families which we also have here in Holland. 

Flying out on Saturday "Down Under "spending time with sons, grandchildren and greatgrandchilden. 

Who would have thought that I would have such a big family 29 years ago when I moved back to Holland. 

Life has many surprises. 

Keep up the good Bytes, will receive them on my Ipad in Aus. 

Take care 

Regards 

Diane 

Thanks Diane. 

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From Graham E in response to Funny Friday not getting posted for some reason last Friday week and I commented that I hoped readers would not get it twice when I posed it again the next day . . . 

Hi Mr O, 

Hopefully it was an unintentional gesture that your last corn corner joke was about the word reiterate, and not to get an extra laugh about Bytes being sent twice ! 

Mr G 

(Graham accompanied his comment with the following) . . .

Thanks Graham.

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From Charlie Z in response to the Robert Frost poem Mending Wall: 

Otto - If my aging memory serves me still ..... I think Robert Frost spoke at John Kennedy's inauguration. And I recall the "Mending Wall" poem from high school in Western Pennsylvania, at a time when they still taught poetry, and English literature, in high school. 

Thanks for the Bytes! And the art associated with today's is terrific! 

Charlie Z 

Thanks Charlie. 

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From Steve M in response to the portraits of persons from India: 

Loved the photography from India in today’s Bytes, Otto. We have been to India twice, and would go back tomorrow if the opportunity arose. The place is an enigma. It’s full of amazing contrasts, colours, smells, texture, optimism, pain, sadness, pride (misplaced and genuine), unbelievable food, good old fashioned bureaucracy, hypocrisy and some of the most truly wonderful, fascinating people on earth. 

For Byters who have never been, go; for Byters who don’t want to go, you are missing out! 

Thanks, Steve. 

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Carlie and readers, some more Robert Frost: 

The following poem, one of Robert Frost’s most popular, was posted by me in 2010 without comments. It is worth a second outing . . . 

Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening 

Whose woods these are I think I know. 

His house is in the village, though; 

He will not see me stopping here 

To watch his woods fill up with snow. 

My little horse must think it queer 

To stop without a farmhouse near 

Between the woods and frozen lake 

The darkest evening of the year. 

He gives his harness bells a shake 

To ask if there is some mistake. 

The only other sounds the sweep 

Of easy wind and downy flake. 

The woods are lovely, dark, and deep, 

But I have promises to keep, 

And miles to go before I sleep, 

And miles to go before I sleep. 

- Robert Frost (1874-1963) 

From wikipedia: 

Frost wrote the poem in June 1922 at his house in Shaftsbury, Vermont. He had been up the entire night writing the long poem "New Hampshire" and had finally finished when he realized morning had come. He went out to view the sunrise and suddenly got the idea for "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening". He wrote the new poem "about the snowy evening and the little horse as if I'd had a hallucination" in just "a few minutes without strain". 

In the early morning of November 23, 1963, Sid Davis of Westinghouse Broadcasting reported the arrival of President John F. Kennedy's casket to the White House. As Frost was one of the President's favorite poets, Davis concluded his report with a passage from this poem but was overcome with emotion as he signed off:

I was broadcasting the arrival with my Westinghouse colleague Ann Corrick. I had covered Kennedy from his 1960 election through the debacle of his Bay of Pigs decision, his triumph in the Cuban Missile Crisis, to Dallas. Now he was gone. I chose, unwisely, to close the broadcast with a verse from Robert Frost’s “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” a poem often quoted by President Kennedy at the end of his speeches during his presidential campaign:

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

In tears, I was unable to finish it. 

At the funeral of former Canadian prime minister Pierre Trudeau, on October 3, 2000, his eldest son Justin rephrased the last stanza of this poem in his eulogy: 

"The woods are lovely, dark and deep. He has kept his promises and earned his sleep."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stopping_by_Woods_on_a_Snowy_Evening