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Frost: Poems
From one of the most brilliant and widely read of all American poets, a generous selection of lyrics, dramatic monologues, and narrative poems--all of them steeped in the wayward and isolated beauty of Frost's native New England. Includes his classics "Mending Wall, " "Birches, " and "The Road Not Taken, " as well as poems less famous but equally great.
POEMS INCLUDED:
Foreword
The Pasture
Into My Own
Ghost House
My November Guest
Love and a Question
A Late Walk
Stars
Storm Fear
Wind and Window Flower
Flower-Gathering
Rose Pogonias
Waiting
In a Vale
A Dream Pang
In Neglect
The Vantage Point
Mowing
Going for Water
The Trial by Existence
The Tuft of Flowers
Pan with Us
A Line-Storm Song
October
My Butterfly
Reluctance
Mending Wall
The Death of the Hired Man
The Mountain
A Hundred Collars
Home Burial
The Black Cottage
Blueberries
A Servant to Servants
After Apple-Picking
The Code
The Generations of Men
The Housekeeper
The Fear
The Wood-Pile
Good Hours
The Road Not Taken
Christmas Trees
An Old Man’s Winter Night
A Patch of Old Snow
In the Home Stretch
The Telephone
Meeting and Passing
Hyla Brook
The Oven Bird
Bond and Free
Birches
Pea Brush
Putting in the Seed
A Time to Talk
The Cow in Apple Time
An Encounter
Range-Finding
The Hill Wife
The Bonfire
A Girl’s Garden
The Exposed Nest
“Out, Out –”
Brown’s Descent
The Gum-Gatherer
The Line-Gang
The Vanishing Red
Snow
The Sound of the Trees
A Star in a Stone-Boat
The Census-Taker
Maple
The Ax-Helve
The Grindstone
Wild Grapes
The Pauper Witch of Grafton
Fire and Ice
Misgiving
Snow Dust
For Once, Then, Something
The Onset
Good-by and Keep Cold
The Need of Being Versed in Country Things
Fragmentary Blue
The Flower Boat
POEMS INCLUDED:
Foreword
The Pasture
Into My Own
Ghost House
My November Guest
Love and a Question
A Late Walk
Stars
Storm Fear
Wind and Window Flower
Flower-Gathering
Rose Pogonias
Waiting
In a Vale
A Dream Pang
In Neglect
The Vantage Point
Mowing
Going for Water
The Trial by Existence
The Tuft of Flowers
Pan with Us
A Line-Storm Song
October
My Butterfly
Reluctance
Mending Wall
The Death of the Hired Man
The Mountain
A Hundred Collars
Home Burial
The Black Cottage
Blueberries
A Servant to Servants
After Apple-Picking
The Code
The Generations of Men
The Housekeeper
The Fear
The Wood-Pile
Good Hours
The Road Not Taken
Christmas Trees
An Old Man’s Winter Night
A Patch of Old Snow
In the Home Stretch
The Telephone
Meeting and Passing
Hyla Brook
The Oven Bird
Bond and Free
Birches
Pea Brush
Putting in the Seed
A Time to Talk
The Cow in Apple Time
An Encounter
Range-Finding
The Hill Wife
The Bonfire
A Girl’s Garden
The Exposed Nest
“Out, Out –”
Brown’s Descent
The Gum-Gatherer
The Line-Gang
The Vanishing Red
Snow
The Sound of the Trees
A Star in a Stone-Boat
The Census-Taker
Maple
The Ax-Helve
The Grindstone
Wild Grapes
The Pauper Witch of Grafton
Fire and Ice
Misgiving
Snow Dust
For Once, Then, Something
The Onset
Good-by and Keep Cold
The Need of Being Versed in Country Things
Fragmentary Blue
The Flower Boat
256 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1997
About the author
Robert Frost
816 books4,659 followersFlinty, 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."
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."
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 70 reviews
May 6, 2017
Frost’s response to the approach of modern schools that sang the praises of free verse is palpable in this chronological selection of his best known poems.
Frost sustains that form is a requirement for the poet and to preserve its aesthetics is his main duty.
Following this train of thought, there is nothing impulsive in Frost’s poems. The mundane aspects of daily life lose their ordinariness when they are delivered in encompassed rhymed and rigorously structured verse.
The topics that concern Frost seem to be related to the quotidian, which he uses as allegory to evoke much more profound questions about ethics, life, love and loss.
“Don’t carry it to someone else this time.
Tell me about it if it’s something human.
Let me into your grief”
Home Burial
Also, the relationship between subject and object becomes crucial to give shape to the poet’s perceptions and to actively engage the reader into a more mutual exchange of viewpoints. And so the birch, the snow, or the maple tree see their traditional meaning inevitably altered to acquire metaphorical substance that bespeaks respectively of freedom, loneliness or identity in the cases at hand.
“I’d like to get away from earth awhile
And then come back to it and begin over.
(…)
I’d like to go by climbing a birch tree,
And climb black branches up a snow-white trunk
Toward heaven, till the tree could bear no more,
But dipped its top and set me down again.”
Birches
Names and words collocation are essential matters in Frost’s poems. The colloquial blends naturally with the formal and the voice we hear when we read these verses is harmonious, sincere and humble, with a pinch of salt in it. Does that ring a bell? Let’s say the most famous Bard ever and Frost would have understood each other’s double or even triple meanings….with gusto.
Frost sustains that form is a requirement for the poet and to preserve its aesthetics is his main duty.
Following this train of thought, there is nothing impulsive in Frost’s poems. The mundane aspects of daily life lose their ordinariness when they are delivered in encompassed rhymed and rigorously structured verse.
The topics that concern Frost seem to be related to the quotidian, which he uses as allegory to evoke much more profound questions about ethics, life, love and loss.
“Don’t carry it to someone else this time.
Tell me about it if it’s something human.
Let me into your grief”
Home Burial
Also, the relationship between subject and object becomes crucial to give shape to the poet’s perceptions and to actively engage the reader into a more mutual exchange of viewpoints. And so the birch, the snow, or the maple tree see their traditional meaning inevitably altered to acquire metaphorical substance that bespeaks respectively of freedom, loneliness or identity in the cases at hand.
“I’d like to get away from earth awhile
And then come back to it and begin over.
(…)
I’d like to go by climbing a birch tree,
And climb black branches up a snow-white trunk
Toward heaven, till the tree could bear no more,
But dipped its top and set me down again.”
Birches
Names and words collocation are essential matters in Frost’s poems. The colloquial blends naturally with the formal and the voice we hear when we read these verses is harmonious, sincere and humble, with a pinch of salt in it. Does that ring a bell? Let’s say the most famous Bard ever and Frost would have understood each other’s double or even triple meanings….with gusto.
July 15, 2019
I read this book in 2 tries. The first time I didn't get past the first 20 pages or so. Somehow the idyllic landscapes and contemplative journeys seemed boring, and for some reason, I didn't get a lot of things. Don't know whether that was because of the language barrier, or because it was poetry...
However, I tried again, and very glad I did. Had to push myself a little to get through the beginning, but then I just got sucked into Frost's world. Man! He has a way of telling an entire story in a couple of pages, complete with warring motivations, feelings, doubts... This was just beautiful. Now nature, the contemplation, the characters he created were vivid, and somehow the barrier was gone - didn't have a problem of "getting" it.
This book made me fall in love with poetry again. Also, it contained the only two Frost's poems I previously knew :) They're still among my favorites.
This is a beautiful edition. Definitely going to buy more books in the "Everyman's Library Pocket Poets" series.
January 5, 2017
As usual with poets, I’d like to dedicate most of this review to the life of the poet since that often explains motives and style.
Robert Lee Frost was born on March 26th in 1874 in San Francisco.
His father was first a teacher and later an editor for the "San Francisco Evening Bulletin". In 1885, when Frost was 11, his father died of tuberculosis, leaving the family with just eight dollars (no idea how since even then editors were usually well paid) so he and his mother moved to Massachusetts to live with his grandfather.
His mother was a Scottish immigrant who joined Swedenborgianism and even had Frost baptized. However, he left the church as soon as he became an adult and I couldn’t find any evidence of him ever having been particularly religious.
Although Frost is especially known for his detailed descriptions of nature scenes, he grew up a city boy.
He published his very first poem in his high school’s magazine.
After high school he went to college, but only for about two months before returning home and helping his mother teach some unruly children and working at different jobs such as delivering newspapers or maintaining carbon arc lamps.
His first published work, My Butterfly. An Elegy was sold in 1894 for what would nowadays be over 400$. Nevertheless, when he proposed marriage (probably confident after the successful publication), he was refused because his girlfriend wanted to finish college first (a little fact I love because it means she was not just one of those girls getting a higher education to become a more desireable wife). Frost went on an excursion into the Great Dismal Swamp in Virginia. When he proposed to his girlfriend again after his return, she had graduaded and accepted so they got married in December 1895.
Two years later he started attending Harvard University but had to leave in 1899 when he became ill.
His mother died of cancer the following year.
His grandfather bought a farm in New Hampshire for Frost and his wife shortly before dying and Frost worked on that farm for 9 years all while writing some of his most famous poems in the morning. After having to admit that he wasn‘t very good at farming, he returned to a teaching position at the Pinkerton Academy from 1906 until 1911 and then at what is now the Plymouth State University.
Apparently, it was difficult for Frost to settle down (at least for long) because in 1912 he moved his family to England (they lived near London).
His first book of poetry was published one year later.
It is noteworthy that Frost’s works were published in the UK first, before becoming popular in his homeland (especially considering that he is one of the most influential poets in American history).
In England he met several important and influential people such as Edward Thomas (who inspired him to one of my favourite poems, The Road Not Taken) and befriended many other poets after the publication of another poetry book in 1914.
During World War I Frost returned to the US and bought yet another farm, again in New Hampshire, where he began his official career in writing, teaching, and lecturing.
This farm remained a summer vacation for his family until 1938 and still exists today as a museum called The Frost Place and poetry conference site.
In the years 1916–20, 1923–24, and 1927–1938 he taught his colloquial approach to language "the sound of sense" at Amherst College.
In 1920 Frost had to commit his younger sister Jeanie to a mental hospital, where she died nine years later.
In 1924 he won the first 4 (!!!) Pulitzer Prizes; he would win another 3 later on.
For 42 years (from 1921 to 1963) Frost spent almost every summer and fall teaching at the Bread Loaf School of English of Middlebury College at its mountain campus at Ripton in Vermont. He is credited as a major influence upon the development of the school and its writing programs, which is probably also why the college now owns and maintains his former Ripton farmstead as a national historic site near the Bread Loaf campus.
Frost's wife, who had heart problems throughout her life, developed breast cancer in 1937 and died of heart failure in 1938.
In 1940 he bought a 5-acre plot in South Miami, Florida, naming it "Pencil Pines"; he spent his winters there for the rest of his life.
His properties also included a house in Cambridge, that today belongs to the National Historic Register.
In 1947 Frost had to commit his daughter Irma to a mental hospital.
Mental illness apparently ran in Frost's family as both he, his mother and his wife suffered from depression (his wife „only“ having bouts of depression however).
In 1960 Frost was awarded a United States Congressional Gold Medal "In recognition of his poetry, which has enriched the culture of the United States and the philosophy of the world." but for some reason received the award from President Kennedy only in 1962 (I guess the reason can be found in the historical context).
Frost was 86 when he read his well-known poem The Gift Outright at the inauguration of President Kennedy in 1961.
Two years later, he died in Boston on January 29, 1963, of complications from prostate surgery.
His epitaph quotes the last line from his poem, "The Lesson for Today“: I had a lover's quarrel with the world.
Hardvard's 1965 alumni directory indicates Frost received an honorary degree there. Although he never graduated from college, Frost received over 40 honorary degrees (amongst others from Princeton, Oxford and Cambridge universities and was the only person to receive 2 even from Darthmouth College).
During his lifetime, the Robert Frost Middle School in Fairfax in Virginia, the Robert L. Frost School in Lawrence in Massachusetts, and the main library of Amherst College were named after him (usually the naming starts only after the respective artist is dead so that, in itself, is remarkable).
It is also noteworthy how much Robert Frost's personal life was plagued with grief and loss. Apart from the aforementioned tragedies, there is also the story of his six children:
his son Elliot died of cholera when he was only 8; his son Carol committed suicide when he was 38; his daughter Marjorie died as a result of puerperal fever after childbirth, aged 29; and his daughter Elinor Bettina died just three days after her birth in 1907. Only his second child Lesley (1899–1983) and fourth child Irma (1903–1967) outlived their father.
Above all else, Frost is known for portraying „mundane“ scenes in a beautiful way, giving each life event (no matter how small and seemingly insignificant) meaning through the beauty of his words. I mean, you don’t win 7 Pulitzers for writing shopping lists!
I usually prefer poets of times long past but Robert Frost drew me in. And yes, my gateway drug was Fire and Ice when I saw a certain awful YA movie with my little sister. However, ever since that I cannot get enough of this man’s fantastic descriptions of his environment. Considering how much loss he suffered in his life, I’m actually rather surprised that there wasn’t more melancholy in his works.
This little book then collects not all of his work (you couldn’t fit that into a single book) but the most well-known and noteworthy ones. Finding out which to include and which not must be one hell of a job and you probably never manage to satisfy everyone. Nevertheless, I liked the composition here very much.
As I mentioned before, Fire and Ice as well as The Road Not Taken were my favourites and still are, but there are many others in here that made my heart swell. Frost’s works have a special kind of charm that I cannot even name. Maybe it really is the fact that he takes „normal“ moments and turns them into something extraordinary, making the reader appreciate life in all its facets.
Robert Lee Frost was born on March 26th in 1874 in San Francisco.
His father was first a teacher and later an editor for the "San Francisco Evening Bulletin". In 1885, when Frost was 11, his father died of tuberculosis, leaving the family with just eight dollars (no idea how since even then editors were usually well paid) so he and his mother moved to Massachusetts to live with his grandfather.
His mother was a Scottish immigrant who joined Swedenborgianism and even had Frost baptized. However, he left the church as soon as he became an adult and I couldn’t find any evidence of him ever having been particularly religious.
Although Frost is especially known for his detailed descriptions of nature scenes, he grew up a city boy.
He published his very first poem in his high school’s magazine.
After high school he went to college, but only for about two months before returning home and helping his mother teach some unruly children and working at different jobs such as delivering newspapers or maintaining carbon arc lamps.
His first published work, My Butterfly. An Elegy was sold in 1894 for what would nowadays be over 400$. Nevertheless, when he proposed marriage (probably confident after the successful publication), he was refused because his girlfriend wanted to finish college first (a little fact I love because it means she was not just one of those girls getting a higher education to become a more desireable wife). Frost went on an excursion into the Great Dismal Swamp in Virginia. When he proposed to his girlfriend again after his return, she had graduaded and accepted so they got married in December 1895.
Two years later he started attending Harvard University but had to leave in 1899 when he became ill.
His mother died of cancer the following year.
His grandfather bought a farm in New Hampshire for Frost and his wife shortly before dying and Frost worked on that farm for 9 years all while writing some of his most famous poems in the morning. After having to admit that he wasn‘t very good at farming, he returned to a teaching position at the Pinkerton Academy from 1906 until 1911 and then at what is now the Plymouth State University.
Apparently, it was difficult for Frost to settle down (at least for long) because in 1912 he moved his family to England (they lived near London).
His first book of poetry was published one year later.
It is noteworthy that Frost’s works were published in the UK first, before becoming popular in his homeland (especially considering that he is one of the most influential poets in American history).
In England he met several important and influential people such as Edward Thomas (who inspired him to one of my favourite poems, The Road Not Taken) and befriended many other poets after the publication of another poetry book in 1914.
During World War I Frost returned to the US and bought yet another farm, again in New Hampshire, where he began his official career in writing, teaching, and lecturing.
This farm remained a summer vacation for his family until 1938 and still exists today as a museum called The Frost Place and poetry conference site.
In the years 1916–20, 1923–24, and 1927–1938 he taught his colloquial approach to language "the sound of sense" at Amherst College.
In 1920 Frost had to commit his younger sister Jeanie to a mental hospital, where she died nine years later.
In 1924 he won the first 4 (!!!) Pulitzer Prizes; he would win another 3 later on.
For 42 years (from 1921 to 1963) Frost spent almost every summer and fall teaching at the Bread Loaf School of English of Middlebury College at its mountain campus at Ripton in Vermont. He is credited as a major influence upon the development of the school and its writing programs, which is probably also why the college now owns and maintains his former Ripton farmstead as a national historic site near the Bread Loaf campus.
Frost's wife, who had heart problems throughout her life, developed breast cancer in 1937 and died of heart failure in 1938.
In 1940 he bought a 5-acre plot in South Miami, Florida, naming it "Pencil Pines"; he spent his winters there for the rest of his life.
His properties also included a house in Cambridge, that today belongs to the National Historic Register.
In 1947 Frost had to commit his daughter Irma to a mental hospital.
Mental illness apparently ran in Frost's family as both he, his mother and his wife suffered from depression (his wife „only“ having bouts of depression however).
In 1960 Frost was awarded a United States Congressional Gold Medal "In recognition of his poetry, which has enriched the culture of the United States and the philosophy of the world." but for some reason received the award from President Kennedy only in 1962 (I guess the reason can be found in the historical context).
Frost was 86 when he read his well-known poem The Gift Outright at the inauguration of President Kennedy in 1961.
Two years later, he died in Boston on January 29, 1963, of complications from prostate surgery.
His epitaph quotes the last line from his poem, "The Lesson for Today“: I had a lover's quarrel with the world.
Hardvard's 1965 alumni directory indicates Frost received an honorary degree there. Although he never graduated from college, Frost received over 40 honorary degrees (amongst others from Princeton, Oxford and Cambridge universities and was the only person to receive 2 even from Darthmouth College).
During his lifetime, the Robert Frost Middle School in Fairfax in Virginia, the Robert L. Frost School in Lawrence in Massachusetts, and the main library of Amherst College were named after him (usually the naming starts only after the respective artist is dead so that, in itself, is remarkable).
It is also noteworthy how much Robert Frost's personal life was plagued with grief and loss. Apart from the aforementioned tragedies, there is also the story of his six children:
his son Elliot died of cholera when he was only 8; his son Carol committed suicide when he was 38; his daughter Marjorie died as a result of puerperal fever after childbirth, aged 29; and his daughter Elinor Bettina died just three days after her birth in 1907. Only his second child Lesley (1899–1983) and fourth child Irma (1903–1967) outlived their father.
Above all else, Frost is known for portraying „mundane“ scenes in a beautiful way, giving each life event (no matter how small and seemingly insignificant) meaning through the beauty of his words. I mean, you don’t win 7 Pulitzers for writing shopping lists!
I usually prefer poets of times long past but Robert Frost drew me in. And yes, my gateway drug was Fire and Ice when I saw a certain awful YA movie with my little sister. However, ever since that I cannot get enough of this man’s fantastic descriptions of his environment. Considering how much loss he suffered in his life, I’m actually rather surprised that there wasn’t more melancholy in his works.
This little book then collects not all of his work (you couldn’t fit that into a single book) but the most well-known and noteworthy ones. Finding out which to include and which not must be one hell of a job and you probably never manage to satisfy everyone. Nevertheless, I liked the composition here very much.
As I mentioned before, Fire and Ice as well as The Road Not Taken were my favourites and still are, but there are many others in here that made my heart swell. Frost’s works have a special kind of charm that I cannot even name. Maybe it really is the fact that he takes „normal“ moments and turns them into something extraordinary, making the reader appreciate life in all its facets.
May 15, 2020
"I’d like to get away from earth awhile
And then come back to it and begin over."
These past few weeks I've crawled into bed with a head full of thoughts and worries. And the only logic solution seemed to be reading a bit of poetry before going to sleep. A well-written verse always calms the soul.
For this project, I chose Robert Frost. Of course I did. His poetry is well-known for its calm rhytm and simplistic beauty. I've never been able to walk by a birch tree without recalling the first few lines of Birches – a beautiful poem that may not be about birches at all but evokes them nevertheless.
Reading this entire collection from beginning to end, I realised that Frost is one of my favourite poets. His authorship is so complex, his poetry heavy with symbolism and yet he has produced universally loved poems such as The Road Not Taken, Fire and Ice and of course my personal favourite: “Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening”.
I've been returning to the famous words of Robert Frost for years, circled around them, written them down and whispered them to myself. Now I've found even more of his poetry to cherish and keep for years to come.
Reading this at this moment in time was the best decision.
"I have been one acquainted with the night.
I have walked out in rain—and back in rain.
I have outwalked the furthest city light."
And then come back to it and begin over."
These past few weeks I've crawled into bed with a head full of thoughts and worries. And the only logic solution seemed to be reading a bit of poetry before going to sleep. A well-written verse always calms the soul.
For this project, I chose Robert Frost. Of course I did. His poetry is well-known for its calm rhytm and simplistic beauty. I've never been able to walk by a birch tree without recalling the first few lines of Birches – a beautiful poem that may not be about birches at all but evokes them nevertheless.
Reading this entire collection from beginning to end, I realised that Frost is one of my favourite poets. His authorship is so complex, his poetry heavy with symbolism and yet he has produced universally loved poems such as The Road Not Taken, Fire and Ice and of course my personal favourite: “Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening”.
I've been returning to the famous words of Robert Frost for years, circled around them, written them down and whispered them to myself. Now I've found even more of his poetry to cherish and keep for years to come.
Reading this at this moment in time was the best decision.
"I have been one acquainted with the night.
I have walked out in rain—and back in rain.
I have outwalked the furthest city light."
September 5, 2020
3 1/2. I think Frost was a frustrated dramatist. All the short poems are amazing, and some of the (really) long ones too. Next time I return to him I’ll choose a slimmer, “selected” volume. For plays I’ll stick with Chekhov.
December 29, 2019
I first studied Robert Frost in one of my poetry classes during a semester in college! I immediately fell in love with his work, and I knew I needed to read a whole collection after the class ended!
Well, here I am!!!!
I just finished this beautiful collection, and I truly can't get over how incredibly talented Frost is! The way he describes a scene and creates such deep metaphors is brilliant!!
There are so many poems of his that I just want to drape over the world like a cozy blanket!
💚
His wish to leave the monotony of everyday society and run away into nature is something I often feel in myself. I also feel the need to get away and swing from the branches of birch trees! 🌿
My heart is happy when I read his words, and that's the most important part of reading poetry.
Well, here I am!!!!
I just finished this beautiful collection, and I truly can't get over how incredibly talented Frost is! The way he describes a scene and creates such deep metaphors is brilliant!!
There are so many poems of his that I just want to drape over the world like a cozy blanket!
💚
His wish to leave the monotony of everyday society and run away into nature is something I often feel in myself. I also feel the need to get away and swing from the branches of birch trees! 🌿
My heart is happy when I read his words, and that's the most important part of reading poetry.
January 23, 2023
Me, reading Robert Frost's poetry:
I switched to text-to-speech after each failed attempt to stay awake, but it honestly didn't make much of a difference since I actively paid little to no attention to it still.
I switched to text-to-speech after each failed attempt to stay awake, but it honestly didn't make much of a difference since I actively paid little to no attention to it still.
July 17, 2015
Lionel Trilling said in his introduction of Anna Karennina (1951) "To comprehend unconditioned spirit is not so very hard, but there is no knowledge rarer than the understanding of spirit as it exists in the inescapable conditions which the actual and the trivial make for it". Trilling might have been talking about Frost, because in his poetry, the actual and trivial fully embodies a spirit both universal and particular.
Frost is often the opposite of the expansive, pantheistic and self-referential Whitman. Most of the poems are accessible, painting the actual and the particular details of a situation, often the wooded forest or farm-work, farmers and their women. Yet often there is a special glint, a spark of insight, a vein of dark fault-line, lying under the rustic and common scenes. That is the Frostian knowledge of human life, both the body and spirit existences in the very particular rural New England.
Frost is often the opposite of the expansive, pantheistic and self-referential Whitman. Most of the poems are accessible, painting the actual and the particular details of a situation, often the wooded forest or farm-work, farmers and their women. Yet often there is a special glint, a spark of insight, a vein of dark fault-line, lying under the rustic and common scenes. That is the Frostian knowledge of human life, both the body and spirit existences in the very particular rural New England.
July 1, 2014
It's a little unconventional, but my favorite Frost poem has to be wind and window flower.
When I think of the man, I recite:
Even though many other poems are immensely popular, hell, I have fire and ice memorize ten million times better than wind and window flower, but when I read wind and window flower, there is such a helpless sad feeling, like grasping love when you can before it's gone.
There is just such a romantic flow to his words. You can't help but to read it and love it and memorize it, if only partially.
When I think of the man, I recite:
She a window flower,
And he a winter breeze.
Even though many other poems are immensely popular, hell, I have fire and ice memorize ten million times better than wind and window flower, but when I read wind and window flower, there is such a helpless sad feeling, like grasping love when you can before it's gone.
Morning found the breeze
A hundred miles away
There is just such a romantic flow to his words. You can't help but to read it and love it and memorize it, if only partially.
April 6, 2019
4 out of 5 stars
Despite the fact that I generally don't enjoy poetry all that much, Frost has long been one of the few poets I'm familiar with that has been exempt from that fact.
Honestly, what I enjoy about his work is how plain spoken it is, while still being moody and witty at the same time. Also, he effortlessly uses nature metaphorically in a number of his poems, in order to shed light on themes of death, life and the struggles people have in day to day life. Also, he doesn't use overly ridiculous language, which I am all for.
Some of my favorites from this collection include obvious standouts such as The Road Not Taken, Fire and Ice, but also Mending Wall, Blueberries,The Fear, and Into My Own.
Despite the fact that I generally don't enjoy poetry all that much, Frost has long been one of the few poets I'm familiar with that has been exempt from that fact.
Honestly, what I enjoy about his work is how plain spoken it is, while still being moody and witty at the same time. Also, he effortlessly uses nature metaphorically in a number of his poems, in order to shed light on themes of death, life and the struggles people have in day to day life. Also, he doesn't use overly ridiculous language, which I am all for.
Some of my favorites from this collection include obvious standouts such as The Road Not Taken, Fire and Ice, but also Mending Wall, Blueberries,The Fear, and Into My Own.
June 5, 2020
My dad liked Robert Frost, and after reading this collection, I can see why. Frost seems to love the simplicity of living on a northeastern farm. His poems celebrate nature and country living, but they each seem to say something a little bit more universal than the specific subject of the individual poem, whether that is a grinding stone, a haystack, or a forest path. I can see myself coming back to the poems one day.
October 31, 2023
Favorites:
A girls garden
The sound of the trees
Fire and ice
The onset
Bound and free
An old man’s winter night
The hill wife
Blueberries
A girls garden
The sound of the trees
Fire and ice
The onset
Bound and free
An old man’s winter night
The hill wife
Blueberries
October 4, 2008
I don't read a lot of poetry, but I do have some favorites, and Frost is one of them. I find that his poems often speak to my heart, and resonate with something inside me, sometimes in ways I don't fully understand until much later. It is only on reflection, for example, that his "Good-by and Keep Cold" seems to me to bring some deeper insight into raising children and the need to allow them space to grow from adversity, and trust that God will bring them through.
"Into My Own" reflects what I have often experienced as a consequence of my travels, both physically in other lands and places, and internally, in the journeys through my own heart and mind. Sometimes I feel that others try to follow my paths, but without much success, and with Frost, I can feel to say:
I do not see why I should e'er turn back,
Or those should not set forth upon my track
To overtake me, who should miss me here
And long to know if still I held them dear
And even so, though I have seen and learned much in those same travels, they have best served to reinforce my most deeply held convictions and faith, and bring me also to the conclusion that...
They would not find me changed from him they knew -
Only more sure of all I thought was true
I recall one time while on a long motorcycle ride, looking ahead to the gathering storm clouds...a passage from "A Line-Storm Song" brings that memory back powerfully, so that I can almost smell the air, pregnant with the coming rain:
The line-storm clouds fly tattered and swift,
The road is forlorn all day,...
Yet later, after ten days gone, I am a block from home, paused a moment in time, sitting astride my machine, and gazing down the street at my home where my family awaits my arrival. Strangely, though I miss them terribly, and can hardly am anxious to hold them in my arms again, yet I also yearn to return to the open road again.
Out through the fields and woods
And over the walls I have wended;
I have climbed the hills of view
And looked at the world, and descended;
I have come by the highway home,
And lo, it is ended.
~~~~
The heart is still aching to seek,
But the feet question "Whither?"
So much of wisdom in "Mending Wall" -- who among us, in one way or another, has not been reluctant to "go beyond his father's saying?"
And among my favorites (though not in this volume) is this passage from "Two Tramps In Mudtime" that describes what I believe to be the profoundest moments of a person's life, those times in which everything has come together in some eternal, fundamental, significant way:
Only where love and need are one
And the work is play for mortal stakes
Is the deed ever really done
For heaven and the future's sakes."
"Into My Own" reflects what I have often experienced as a consequence of my travels, both physically in other lands and places, and internally, in the journeys through my own heart and mind. Sometimes I feel that others try to follow my paths, but without much success, and with Frost, I can feel to say:
I do not see why I should e'er turn back,
Or those should not set forth upon my track
To overtake me, who should miss me here
And long to know if still I held them dear
And even so, though I have seen and learned much in those same travels, they have best served to reinforce my most deeply held convictions and faith, and bring me also to the conclusion that...
They would not find me changed from him they knew -
Only more sure of all I thought was true
I recall one time while on a long motorcycle ride, looking ahead to the gathering storm clouds...a passage from "A Line-Storm Song" brings that memory back powerfully, so that I can almost smell the air, pregnant with the coming rain:
The line-storm clouds fly tattered and swift,
The road is forlorn all day,...
Yet later, after ten days gone, I am a block from home, paused a moment in time, sitting astride my machine, and gazing down the street at my home where my family awaits my arrival. Strangely, though I miss them terribly, and can hardly am anxious to hold them in my arms again, yet I also yearn to return to the open road again.
Out through the fields and woods
And over the walls I have wended;
I have climbed the hills of view
And looked at the world, and descended;
I have come by the highway home,
And lo, it is ended.
~~~~
The heart is still aching to seek,
But the feet question "Whither?"
So much of wisdom in "Mending Wall" -- who among us, in one way or another, has not been reluctant to "go beyond his father's saying?"
And among my favorites (though not in this volume) is this passage from "Two Tramps In Mudtime" that describes what I believe to be the profoundest moments of a person's life, those times in which everything has come together in some eternal, fundamental, significant way:
Only where love and need are one
And the work is play for mortal stakes
Is the deed ever really done
For heaven and the future's sakes."
January 8, 2021
A great collection of Robert Frost poems. I especially enjoyed that the author included many of Frost’s longer poems. As always with Frost, the themes are of simple country living and nature. I was only disappointed that “A Peck of Gold” was missing.
January 7, 2018
This wonderful little collection of Robert Frost's poetry includes mostly poems from his first three books: A BOY'S WILL, NORTH OF BOSTON and MOUNTAIN INTERVAL.
Most poems apparently recount a rural incident or focus on the natural world. They are deceptively simple, however. Frost uses evasion and metaphors in such ways that meaning does not emerge clearly upon a first (or second) reading. He dwells on points of miscommunication, in the isolation of every act of speech and in the gaps that cannot be bridged by words. Also on subjects such as work, love, death and knowledge.
He had an ear for dialect that can be fully appreciated in his longer narrative poems. He developed a poetics of speech that he called "the sound of sense" which captures the vitality of the living speech.
Frost was an early modernist inspired by his experience of living in New England, he was also a classicist by training who reinvented the pastoral tradition in American verse. If you like poetry, you should read Frost.
Most poems apparently recount a rural incident or focus on the natural world. They are deceptively simple, however. Frost uses evasion and metaphors in such ways that meaning does not emerge clearly upon a first (or second) reading. He dwells on points of miscommunication, in the isolation of every act of speech and in the gaps that cannot be bridged by words. Also on subjects such as work, love, death and knowledge.
He had an ear for dialect that can be fully appreciated in his longer narrative poems. He developed a poetics of speech that he called "the sound of sense" which captures the vitality of the living speech.
Frost was an early modernist inspired by his experience of living in New England, he was also a classicist by training who reinvented the pastoral tradition in American verse. If you like poetry, you should read Frost.
December 10, 2012
'Was there even a cause too lost,
Ever a cause that was lost too long,
Or that showed with the lapse of time to vain
For the generous tears of youth and song?'
frost, frost, frost.
nothing more profound than the simplicity of his words.
how do you manage to band together such emotional turmoil from just stringing together 26 alphabets and barely any punctuation?
Ever a cause that was lost too long,
Or that showed with the lapse of time to vain
For the generous tears of youth and song?'
frost, frost, frost.
nothing more profound than the simplicity of his words.
how do you manage to band together such emotional turmoil from just stringing together 26 alphabets and barely any punctuation?
October 18, 2018
Honestly there is not much that I might add by way of comment after flipping through his showy collection of poems. Polysyndetonic syntax however across many of his pieces, it is Frost's life work, perhaps made this collection that more appealing. It's tremendously mirthful a collection despite the poet's reputation for discord.
January 14, 2023
I can't believe I've finally finished this book.
Frost's best poems and my favourites are the short ones that have some extra meaning or second layer behind the obvious. The rest, which are contemplative descriptions of ordinary things or long stories about people, are just too boring for me.
It took me almost four and a half years to read this cover to cover. Never again!
Frost's best poems and my favourites are the short ones that have some extra meaning or second layer behind the obvious. The rest, which are contemplative descriptions of ordinary things or long stories about people, are just too boring for me.
It took me almost four and a half years to read this cover to cover. Never again!
May 5, 2019
I much prefer Frost’s shorter, rhyming poems to the rambling, multi-page blank verse. A couple exceptions to that were “Mending Wall” and “The Mountain,” though both of those were relatively short in that category.
February 11, 2016
Wonderful. If you read Frost in high school and weren't impressed, try again. His poems' stark simplicity and unsentimental tone really hit home with me.
February 5, 2020
Holy snap I’m finally finally FINALLY done with this book! So much for a POCKET book omg. Smh I took me so longggggg.
Okay the 5 star rating is based on the quality of the poems I liked. Overall, if I included the rating of the long poems it’d prob be a 3.5. But I liked the short poems so much that I don’t think it’s fair to bring down the rating bc of the long poems.
When I first started this book I really loved it. This* is what I expect and want poems to be like! I feel like this is actual poetry! Write about nature, write about friends, write about strangers, write about adventure, like there is so much to write about than just fucking heartbreak which is what it seems all modern poets write about (it’s so irritating). These poems have actual content and some make you *think*, they make you try to decipher what the poet is talking about. It’s so much more than the stupid 2 or 3 sentences authors put in their books bc it sounds dramatic or cool or deep.
The only reason I struggled and took so long to get through this book is bc 1. The content and wording is pretty heavy, and 2. The long poems (more like short stories) are what killed me. Not only was the wording heavy like the short poems but I had no idea what was going on. I would be to wrapped up trying to take in the line I was reading at the moment that I would completely forget what I had just previously read. Seeing that a poem was 10 pages long would discourage me. I would love to have a book of only his short poems.
Okay the 5 star rating is based on the quality of the poems I liked. Overall, if I included the rating of the long poems it’d prob be a 3.5. But I liked the short poems so much that I don’t think it’s fair to bring down the rating bc of the long poems.
When I first started this book I really loved it. This* is what I expect and want poems to be like! I feel like this is actual poetry! Write about nature, write about friends, write about strangers, write about adventure, like there is so much to write about than just fucking heartbreak which is what it seems all modern poets write about (it’s so irritating). These poems have actual content and some make you *think*, they make you try to decipher what the poet is talking about. It’s so much more than the stupid 2 or 3 sentences authors put in their books bc it sounds dramatic or cool or deep.
The only reason I struggled and took so long to get through this book is bc 1. The content and wording is pretty heavy, and 2. The long poems (more like short stories) are what killed me. Not only was the wording heavy like the short poems but I had no idea what was going on. I would be to wrapped up trying to take in the line I was reading at the moment that I would completely forget what I had just previously read. Seeing that a poem was 10 pages long would discourage me. I would love to have a book of only his short poems.
August 5, 2017
A dense collection, this is one I'd recommend to people who are already into poetry. This is not for someone who is trying to get into poetry, a comment I would also say of Emily Dickinson.
Richly worded, it is also not easy on the reader and demands a level of attention that might turn people off. I don't share this as a bash against the collection or Frost, but just so that people can have a warning before diving in. As I continue to read more and more poetry, I learn what I like, what I enjoy, and what I absolutely adore. From this collection, the short poems, those slivers of poetic beauty are by far my favorites. The monologues and narratives are interesting, but sometimes you can get lost. This isn't a bad thing, more so, it's a commentary on my attention span perhaps. Those un-rhyming winding 12 page poems? Those I got lost in. Those that were more straight forward and less indulgent in cryptography and more indulgent in life veneration? Those I loved.
Some people say that Robert Frost is their favorite poet. I can completely understand that. But he isn't cannon for me. I never felt desperate to read more and more and devour the book. But I did enjoy it and I would happily enjoy it again. So would I recommend this collection? Of course, but take your time, reread poems, and give it the attention it deserves. Otherwise, you might get some crazy idea that poetry isn't worth you time, and we wouldn't want that.
Richly worded, it is also not easy on the reader and demands a level of attention that might turn people off. I don't share this as a bash against the collection or Frost, but just so that people can have a warning before diving in. As I continue to read more and more poetry, I learn what I like, what I enjoy, and what I absolutely adore. From this collection, the short poems, those slivers of poetic beauty are by far my favorites. The monologues and narratives are interesting, but sometimes you can get lost. This isn't a bad thing, more so, it's a commentary on my attention span perhaps. Those un-rhyming winding 12 page poems? Those I got lost in. Those that were more straight forward and less indulgent in cryptography and more indulgent in life veneration? Those I loved.
Some people say that Robert Frost is their favorite poet. I can completely understand that. But he isn't cannon for me. I never felt desperate to read more and more and devour the book. But I did enjoy it and I would happily enjoy it again. So would I recommend this collection? Of course, but take your time, reread poems, and give it the attention it deserves. Otherwise, you might get some crazy idea that poetry isn't worth you time, and we wouldn't want that.
September 4, 2022
I'm not quite sure what exactly it is about Robert Frost, but his poetry just resonates completely through to my soul, as corny as that may sound. Maybe it's that he writes quite a bit about rural folk or maybe it's that he writes so beautifully and profoundly about the natural world. His writing is pure and simple beauty. I also love his conversational works like "Home Burial," "The Death of a Hired Man," and "The Generations of Men."
I just enjoy his poetry so incredibly much. It's perfect for kicking back with a cup of tea or underneath a tree. I find that with Frost I spend a great deal more time reflecting on his poems after having read them than any other poet. I like to sit and let his words wash over me. I admire him greatly and although he may not be everyone's favorite poet, he certainly is mine. I was sad as I approached the end of this little book. The only reason I gave it four stars instead of five is that I wanted more, and although I realize that this is a pocket edition, many of my favorites weren't there. Still, that is one minor complaint in comparison to the esoteric poetry found within.
I'm a simple person who takes pleasure in the little things in life, and I think that's why his words resonate so deeply with me. I recommend picking this volume up to anyone who enjoys poetry, but it's especially handy for those truly tasting Frost for the first time, as it is a small enough volume with a wide range of his works.
I just enjoy his poetry so incredibly much. It's perfect for kicking back with a cup of tea or underneath a tree. I find that with Frost I spend a great deal more time reflecting on his poems after having read them than any other poet. I like to sit and let his words wash over me. I admire him greatly and although he may not be everyone's favorite poet, he certainly is mine. I was sad as I approached the end of this little book. The only reason I gave it four stars instead of five is that I wanted more, and although I realize that this is a pocket edition, many of my favorites weren't there. Still, that is one minor complaint in comparison to the esoteric poetry found within.
I'm a simple person who takes pleasure in the little things in life, and I think that's why his words resonate so deeply with me. I recommend picking this volume up to anyone who enjoys poetry, but it's especially handy for those truly tasting Frost for the first time, as it is a small enough volume with a wide range of his works.
January 31, 2023
THE NEED TO BE VERSED IN COUNTRY THINGS
For the last year or so, this book has accompanied me on my bedside table. Frost’s words have been an anchor and a compass, grounding me and moving me in ways I could not have imagined. He speaks eloquently on all aspects of life, and returns to nature in the same way the romantics did a hundred years before him. Contrary to them, his words carry a sadness with them, a melancholy note not easily drowned out by the introspective walks he describes. The ecstasy of his predecessors seem lost against the apocalyptic contemplations of fire and ice, destruction and death. His poetry presents a picture of profound loss and despair, and as the lyrical subject navigates these themes, Frost’s personal tragedies become all the more prevalent. Connecting images of flowers and maple trees to violent and distressing events, his words seem an attempt to capture a brittle balance in the world he claims to have ‘a lover’s quarrel with’. More prevailing than the tragedy is the cautious hope that shines through everywhere, enlightening the reader of the perils of the road less traveled by, yet imbuing them with a sense of immovable confidence in a positive outcome. I believe I will return to this collection and to see how time has inflected his words with new meanings, but as for now our roads must diverge as I search for meaning beyond the New English landscape.
For the last year or so, this book has accompanied me on my bedside table. Frost’s words have been an anchor and a compass, grounding me and moving me in ways I could not have imagined. He speaks eloquently on all aspects of life, and returns to nature in the same way the romantics did a hundred years before him. Contrary to them, his words carry a sadness with them, a melancholy note not easily drowned out by the introspective walks he describes. The ecstasy of his predecessors seem lost against the apocalyptic contemplations of fire and ice, destruction and death. His poetry presents a picture of profound loss and despair, and as the lyrical subject navigates these themes, Frost’s personal tragedies become all the more prevalent. Connecting images of flowers and maple trees to violent and distressing events, his words seem an attempt to capture a brittle balance in the world he claims to have ‘a lover’s quarrel with’. More prevailing than the tragedy is the cautious hope that shines through everywhere, enlightening the reader of the perils of the road less traveled by, yet imbuing them with a sense of immovable confidence in a positive outcome. I believe I will return to this collection and to see how time has inflected his words with new meanings, but as for now our roads must diverge as I search for meaning beyond the New English landscape.
May 3, 2020
Poetry is so subjective that I don't know how much utility there is for me to leave a review. I love Robert Frost - always have. I tend to be drawn to poetry about nature and our relationship with it. Hailing from Nova Scotia, the landscape of Frost is one that is familiar, and reading Frost makes me think of home.
As for the anthology, I can't say enough about Everyman's Library Pocket poets. Small but robust collections by the great poets of history, these little collections are great to keep around. Any collection of Frost's work will inevitably be delightful, but I do enjoy the size of this little one.
As for the anthology, I can't say enough about Everyman's Library Pocket poets. Small but robust collections by the great poets of history, these little collections are great to keep around. Any collection of Frost's work will inevitably be delightful, but I do enjoy the size of this little one.
April 30, 2023
Frost, a collection of poetry written by Robert Frost was the book I read for this month. These poems really inspired me to continue writing my own poetry and to write about my emotions and things around me. I enjoyed the different topics that these poems were about. Although they were all different, they were somehow connected by the way they were written. I also liked the variety in the length of the poems. A majority of them fit on one page, but a few took up several pages–for example, Snow which took up seventeen pages. I would recommend this book to anyone wanting to learn more about poetry!
March 25, 2022
If your only experience of Frost is a snowy evening, this is an eye opener. He wanders from format to format, but settles in best with something akin to epic poetry but the subject matter isn't heroes of old, but the working rural folk of New England. He writes complex pictures of quirky folk who sometimes are inexplicable to each other, yet appreciate their own dependance on and home in nature. The pondering and summing up of humanity are in ways alike to and opposite of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Unique.
March 27, 2020
I'm ashamed to admit how little of Frost's poetry I had read up to this point, especially considering how much I enjoyed most of it. A lot of the entries were melancholy or even downright grouchy, but almost all had a touch of beauty somewhere in them. Some were positively magical while others bordered on creepy. The range was a pleasant surprise, but what I loved most was the clear-eyed observation of nature and humanity's interaction with it.
February 15, 2021
This collection of Robert Frost poems was selected and edited by John Hollander, who was himself a poet. There are quite a few long narrative poems that I had never read before, and also some more familiar ones such as Mowing, Mending Wall, After Apple-Picking, and Birches. Reading these poems deepened my appreciation of his work. He was a master of meter and rhyme, and many of his poems suggest deeper meanings that casual readers might not pick up from initial readings.
January 11, 2019
This book is a nice selection of Frost's poems. The way Frost writes in the form of snapshots of thoughts, experiences, and lives to speak about deeper topics is really interesting. His descriptions of nature are beautiful, and his tone is naturally peaceful, making his poems strangely calming. This collection is a good introduction to his work for those who may have only read a few of his poems.
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