I wonder if I shall ever see/ A poem like a Tab PC/ ...

This altered plagerized couplet came to mind as I read a tanscript of John Hollander's February, 1997 Master Class titled A Close Look at Robert Frost.

I'm going to talk this afternoon about Frost as a myth-maker, which is usually not how we think of him. I'm going to look closely at that poem of Frost's called "The Oven Bird," which I think very easy and very difficult at once.

Two thoughts came to mind as I read Hollander's lecture. A simple comparison captures both thoughts as I consider a four year old reading the word "cow" and my brother Richard who reads the same word. One has never seen a bovine and the other was responsible for milking a herd of 25,000 cows twice daily for years. Each reads the same squiggles that represent vastly different images.

First, Hollander implicitly challenged the myth that schooling and education are the same. He demonstrated how an educated person reads the same words a fifth grade school student reads.

He highlighted neuances of origins and juxtapositions of words that I could have added to my surface acceptance of the poem I "read" in school, if I had learned Latin.

Second, mobile PCs have neuances as poetic in their juxtaposed mechanical and programming elegance as words in a poem. I marvel at the way designers, engineers, and programmers can bring together their understanding of electronic impulses so I can read over the Internet on my Tablet PC Robert Frost's "The Oven Bird".

I know Tablet PC software engineers who are also poets. Wouldn't it be great if one of them (or maybe you, Teacher, or one of your students!) would write a poem about a Tablet PC. Perhaps this poem, too, will elevate differences between completing a school assignment and displaying the wisdom of an educated person.


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