IN THE LYRICAL POEMS of Robert Frost there is almost always something wrong, a dissatisfaction or distress. The poet attempts an explanation and a correction. He is not successful. But he has, often in metaphoric language, named whatever it is that disquiets him. At the same time, in the same passages, the poem is so pleasant—so very pleasant—to read or to hear. In fact we are hearing two different messages: everything is all right, say the meter and the rhyme; everything is not all right, say the words. This makes of the poem a complex discourse, although it is not felt to be so by the
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