The Influence of Others

I believe many poets obtain their ideas and thoughts from previous poetry. Many literature pieces today are "inspired" or "influenced" by literature of the past. In reading the poems of this week, I focused much attention to Robert Frost and his theme of "Nature." In his poem, "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening," he references nature indirectly throughout the entire poem. He writes about the frozen lake, the woods filling up with snow, a house in the village. All of these references are directly related to the theme of nature. Much like that of Blake from the previous poems we read such as, "From Songs of Experience," where Blake writes about evening dew, dewy grass, ancient trees, "O Earth O Earth return!" Frost like Blake express their writings and thoughts with reference to nature and the "natural world." I think Frost like other peots realized the effectiveness of previous poets works and was directly influenced by it.
Another poet who seems to reference the theme of nature in his poem is E.E. Cummings in "All in Green Went My Love Riding." Cummings writes of the silver dawn, white water, a gold valley, riding the mountain down and a green mountain. I noticed when reading this poem that Cummings referenced the "silver dawn" more so than any other thought of nature. The last line of the first, fifth, ninth, and thirteenth stanza reads, "into the silver dawn." It is a direct reference to the theme of nature once again. I think Cummings like Frost was influenced by previous poets writings of nature. The nature theme seemed to be popular in poetry and many poets from the later years were able to pick up on the popularity of this "natural world" theme and started to write about it after seeing its effectiveness.
I think in all writing it is hard not to be influenced by the writings of others. I first became interested in writing because of authors I have been fascinated with. To say a poet or a writer becomes a writer/poet just because they feel like it, is injust. Most thoughts and ambitions come from somewhere and for writers, in my opinion, it is safe to say they are definitely influenced by the works and writings of others.