Reading and Writing Through Frost’s Poems

with Camille Guthrie

The Robert Frost “At Present in Vermont” exhibit at Bennington Museum presents the poet’s engagement with rural life in South Shaftsbury and how it stimulated his poetry: “Frost was inspired by the local landscape—the apple trees he planted, the stone walls he admired, and the fields, forests, lakes, and streams surrounding his Shaftsbury farms.”

In this poetry talk and workshop, we will discuss two of his famous poems about country chores: “After Apple-Picking” and “Mending Wall.” These poems display Frost’s characteristic fidelity to the realism of country life along with his meditations on the imagination. Camille will also provide creative writing exercises that “write through” these poems in order to generate poetry about the interplay between daily human activity and the magic of the gaps, elves, games, and dreams that Frost offers us in his poems. No writing experience is necessary!

The workshop will take place in the Museum’s Hadwen Pavilion, where participants can take inspiration from the Vermont landscape. Participants should bring writing materials (notebook, pen or pencil).

Fees and Registration

Bennington Museum Members: $20/person
Not-Yet-Members: $25/person

About the Presenter:

Camille Guthrie’s new book Diamonds is forthcoming from BOA Editions in fall 2021. She is the author of three books of poetry: Articulated Lair: Poems for Louise Bourgeois (2013), In Captivity (2006), and The Master Thief (2000), all published by Subpress. Her poems have appeared in such journals as At Length, Boston Review, The Iowa Review, The New Republic, Poem-A-Day, Tin House, as well as in several anthologies including the Best of American Poetry 2019 & 2020 (Scribner) and Art & Artists: Poems (Everyman’s Library). The Director of the Undergraduate Writing Initiatives at Bennington College, she has been awarded fellowships from the MacDowell Colony and the Yaddo Foundation, and she holds an MFA from Brown University and a BA from Vassar College.