Robert Frost

by Robert Frost

An introduction to the life of Robert Frost accompanies a selection of his poems.

Genres: Poetry

64 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1988

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

[Jason Arbuckle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Book 60 - Robert Frost - The Illustrated Poets (ed.Geoffrey Moore)

Am not a poetry person...but there are some that have stuck in my mind since my youth...’From a Railway Carriage’ by Robert Louis Stevenson - linked forever with old transfer papers; ‘Sir Smashem Uppe’ by E.V.Rieu - I had to learn it when I was in P7 and used it for an Art project when I taught P7; ‘The Spring is Sprung’ by Anon. - Dad used to recite this each morning when we were getting ready for school; then there was Sassoon and Owen from my O’ Level days....brrr...shiverrrrrr

Then there is Robert Frost...shows my lack of knowledge...he was American, I had no idea...1874 - 1963...’The Road not Taken’ and ‘Stopping by woods on a Snowy Evening’ are the ones I knew but ‘After Apple-picking’ is the one that stood out for me this time.

Is it about a man who is bringing the harvest of apples in ? Is it about how tired he is after toiling in the orchard ? Or is there more to it ? Is it someone looking back over their life at all the ‘apples’ they could have gathered and regretting those that have fallen away and they ignored ?
Is it someone preparing for their eternal rest ?

Hmmm...poetry ? Am not a fan...but it really can make you ponder and that must always be worth a second look.

[Niya · Rating 4 out of 5]

As I've said recently, poetry is not my thing. The too sloppy and etc. story. Here were some nice and not so tedious poems like this one ( it's one of my fav, not all time but in this book):
Fire and Ice
"Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.

From what I’ve tasted of desire

I hold with those who favor fire.

But if it had to perish twice,

I think I know enough of hate

To say that for destruction ice

Is also great

And would suffice."
And btw if I had to choose fav poet it'd probably be Poe.