A land of great connections

The historic marker for renowned poet Robert Frost along Route 125 in Ripton, Vt. (Gareth Henderson Photo)

Vermont is a small state, but with a certain greatness to offer. That quality shows up many times in moments of natural grandeur, captured in a photo or video, and other times it has to do with great talents choosing to grace these mountains and valleys. 

Driving back home from a visit to Middlebury, Vermont, today, we passed through Ripton where world-famous poet Robert Frost spent the summer and fall from 1939 until his death in 1963. His writing cabin, a National Historic Landmark, is on a 150-acre farm nestled in the scenic Green Mountains off Route 125. Over the years, he often shared his expertise with the students at Middlebury College’s Bread Loaf School of English and its Writers’ Conference. What an experience that must have been for those young writers. 

Along Route 125, we stopped to take the above photo of the historic marker honoring Frost and his longtime connection to Vermont. The marker quotes the former Vermont Poet Laureate: 

Breathes there a bard who isn’t moved

When he finds his verse is understood

And not entirely disapproved

By his Country and his Neighborhood!

Reading Frost’s own words, and seeing his name honored there, I could not help but think that spot was the perfect place for this recognition. He lived here and shared his craft with aspiring writers, of course, but at the same time, these mountains assuredly brought some comfort and ease to his work. The Green Mountains, by their very presence, embrace the mind and paint natural scenes which give solace to thought and inspiration to the thinker. Looking out my window to see sunlit trees and a gentle blue Vermont sky, this expression of grace is like fresh water to grow new ideas, and this landscape remains an inspiration for artists of all kinds.

Indeed, when seeing Robert Frost’s name Saturday afternoon, and the trees towering behind the site, it represented the perfect combination of a beautiful landscape and a writer very much at home within it. That’s a familiar feeling for me, and it’s a joy to share the abundant inspiration gleaned from the wide world of nature. Like life itself, nature is always beaming with renewal and hope, whether the skies are cloudy or sunny. It’s a world always ready to inspire, and that goodness doesn’t diminish — it’s alive, and it’s here to uplift us all.

— Gareth Henderson