Come in and Other Poems

by Robert Frost (Editor)

Hardback book

Genres: Poetry

Library Binding

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Flinty, moody, plainspoken and deep, Robert Frost was one of America's most popular 20th-century poets. Frost was farming in Derry, New Hampshire when, at the age of 38, he sold the farm, uprooted his family and moved to England, where he devoted himself to his poetry. His first two books of verse, A Boy's Will (1913) and North of Boston (1914), were immediate successes. In 1915 he returned to the United States and continued to write while living in New Hampshire and then Vermont. His pastoral images of apple trees and stone fences -- along with his solitary, man-of-few-words poetic voice -- helped define the modern image of rural New England. Frost's poems include "Mending Wall" ("Good fences make good neighbors"), "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" ("Whose woods these are I think I know"), and perhaps his most famous work, "The Road Not Taken" ("Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-- / I took the one less traveled by"). Frost was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for poetry four times: in 1924, 1931, 1937 and 1943. He also served as "Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress" from 1958-59; that position was renamed as Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry (or simply Poet Laureate) in 1986.

Frost recited his poem "The Gift Outright" at the 1961 inauguration of John F. Kennedy... Frost attended both Dartmouth College and Harvard, but did not graduate from either school... Frost preferred traditional rhyme and meter in poetry; his famous dismissal of free verse was, "I'd just as soon play tennis with the net down."

Reviews

[Willa · Rating 3 out of 5]

sexy and spooky. i live for the bones

[Kelley · Rating 5 out of 5]

The copy I read was from 1943. The poems were compiled and commented on by Louis Untermeyer and beautifully illustrated by John O'Hara Cosgrave II with wonderful wood cut engravings tied to the poems. Even the title page has a simple, classic beauty.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been quite interested in Robert Frost's poems since I found one on the website 'Poemhunter'. I like how his work is familiar in its wording, written in modern English, and yet carries a certain weight that has been lost in more recent works. They have a flavor that lingers in the mind long after the actual poem is forgotten. I find a kind of contentment when reading his poems, and maybe that is, after all, what any of us could ever want from the act of reading.

For obvious reasons, I would place this book in the 'poertry' category of the wide reading assignment. The book consists entirely of Robert Frost's poems, but the book itself was arranged and edited by another person. Robert Frost had created books of poetry himself and this is not among those. Before almost every poem, the editor had written a note, explaining the key features or sometimes displaying his own feelings and thoughts on the poem - which was useful, as there were many poems that I could not comprehend immediately. While these notations gave insight that I welcomed, they also lavished praise upon the poem before I had read it and seen for myself what the editor was praising. Frost's poems usually begin on a simple subject, and yet, more often than not, I finish reading with the distinct feeling that I had missed the idea that the poem was trying to convey. Of course, this meant that a relatively short book of poems took me much longer to read than it ought to, as I had to reread the majority of the poems a second time. I'm sure I will need to return to this, or another collection of Frost's poems in future, so I can try again at puzzling meaning from his words.

One stanza from 'Sitting by a Bush in Broad Sunlight', which is one of the three poems I have decided to review, I would like to share is:

"And if men have watched a long time
And never seen sun-smitten slime
Again come to life and crawl off,
We not be too ready to scoff."

I think this particular stanza exhibits the effortless way Frost writes of all matters, whether they be great or small. His wistful tone lightly conveys his deeper thoughts and his words are lulling. There is a kind of cheerful amusement many of his poems, they are intimate and casual, like a neighbour sharing a joke from across the fence. His voice, I should think, will carry through multiple generations as of yet.

(Here are links to sites with the three poems I will be discussing.
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/ghost-...
http://quotations.about.com/cs/poemly...
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-broo...)

From these poems, I learnt about where a stray thought could lead you if you pursued it - more than anything else. The poems all seem to begin with an odd idea, which flowers into a piece of art. This is what I think makes them thoughtful, philosophical and often wonderfully trivial. Also, I guess I have also learnt the value of a beautiful thought. I am surprised that he has managed to capture musings so delicate.

The setting of the the ghost house is well described, and reflects the sad mood of the poem. The house itself a reminiscent of times long gone and is as much a ghost as the spirits there are. I feel like the setting is extremely appropriate. I admire how Frost explains what has happened to the people, the ghosts, through suggestions in the portrayal of the setting and that, though most of the poem seems to talk only of the house, the reader is still given a detailed impression of the narrator through the way the surroundings are characterized.

In 'A Brook in the City', the brook is the subject, the main 'character'. It is about its unjust treatment and dejection from the perspective of one that has known it before the city was built. The brook is conveyed as a living force, who may object to its own misuse and might take its revenge on the city. It is an idle poem, rich with wonderings and captivatingly original.