Robert Frost Criticism
Robert Frost (1874–1963) stands as a monumental figure in American poetry, celebrated for his evocative depictions of New England's rural landscapes and his use of the vernacular language that captures the essence of everyday life. Although initially perceived as a "farmer-poet," his work transcends its regional roots to engage deeply with existential themes like isolation and humanity's confrontation with an indifferent universe. Critics such as T. K. Whipple and Harriet Monroe underscore Frost’s ability to blend accessible narratives with philosophical depth, reflecting his embodiment of New England's character and a broader existential inquiry.
Despite some criticism of his work for its perceived simplicity and uneven quality, Frost's poetry is renowned for its rich symbolism and exploration of universal human experiences. His unique style is exemplified in works like North of Boston, where Amy Lowell discusses his capture of New England's decline free from European influence. Mark Van Doren highlights Frost's indirect yet profound communication style, which immerses readers in the poet's appreciation for the country life, while John Ciardi notes Frost's technical prowess and human insights, particularly in poems like "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening."
Frost's poetry is notable for its realistic portrayal of human and natural experiences, balancing traditional forms with modernist elements, as per Richard Eberhart and Randolph Perazzini. His exploration of existential randomness and themes of social progress, discussed by Robert B. Thompson and Laurence Goldstein, further enriches his body of work. While some, like Yvor Winters, view his conversational style as lacking classical depth, others, such as Marion Montgomery, emphasize his exploration of human barriers as central to his art.
In his literary journey, Frost encountered early challenges, publishing his initial works in England before achieving national fame in America, where he earned four Pulitzer Prizes. His poetry, as Ezra Pound, Robert Littell, and Jeffrey Hart suggest, engages with modernist themes while remaining rooted in regional identity. Critics like John C. Kemp observe his transcending of regional boundaries to explore broader themes of isolation and uncertainty. Through his innovative adaptation of traditional forms, as noted by Robert Graves, Frost redefined American prosody and cemented his status as a global literary icon, leaving a legacy of profound existential inquiry and technical mastery.
Contents
- Frost, Robert (Vol. 1)
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Frost, Robert (Lee)
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Robert Frost
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In the following essay, T. K. Whipple argues that Robert Frost, while asserting his global literary appeal, is inherently a New England poet whose work reflects the peculiarities of the region's character, combining an intimate understanding of rural life with a transcendent perspective that imbues ordinary facts with deeper significance.
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Robert Frost
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In the following essay, Harriet Monroe argues that Robert Frost embodies the quintessential Yankee spirit in his poetry, skillfully blending rural life, human character, and personal reflection, while maintaining a humorous and philosophical perspective that celebrates Frost's New England roots and his unique personal and artistic identity.
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Robert Frost
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In the following essay, Richard Church argues that Robert Frost's poetry introduces a unique blend of quietism and New England Puritanism, marked by simplicity and laconic humor, which serves as a profound reflection of American identity and cultural heritage.
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Parnassus Divided
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In the following essay, Peter Viereck argues that Robert Frost, often misjudged as simplistic and conventional, is a deeply original and profound poet whose cheerfulness masks a tragic understanding of life, and he criticizes the avant-garde for overlooking Frost’s deep originality in both style and meaning.
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The Themes of Robert Frost
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In the following essay, Robert Penn Warren analyzes Robert Frost's poetry, particularly "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" and "After Apple-Picking," arguing that Frost's works consistently explore the tension between action and contemplation, and the necessity of grounding ideals in the tangible realities of human experience.
- John T. Ogilvie
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Robert Frost and the Edge of the Clearing
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In the following essay, James M. Cox argues that Robert Frost's public persona as a farmer poet is both a natural extension of his poetry and a key to understanding his work, highlighting how Frost's engagement with his New England roots and self-awareness distinguishes his poetry through irony, wit, and dramatic narrative, while also exploring themes of solitude and existential struggle.
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The Old Poetry and the New
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In the following essay, Roy Harvey Pearce argues that Robert Frost adopts and adapts Emersonian ideals in his poetry to reflect a grounded and individualistic worldview, positioning himself against modernity and emphasizing personal limitations, thus diverging from the transformative aspirations of Emerson and Whitman and embracing a more static, introspective perspective.
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Introduction
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In the following essay, Robert Graves argues that Robert Frost is the first American poet to achieve global master-poet status by respecting traditional meter while innovatively adapting it to American culture, emphasizing themes of freedom, nature, and the enduring power of poetry even in a materialistic age.
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Robert Frost: Some Divisions in a Whole Man
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In the following essay, Isadore Traschen argues that Robert Frost's poetry, while masterful and appealing in its simplicity and realism, suffers from a critical flaw of detachment, as Frost fails to fully immerse himself in and be transformed by the deeper existential and tragic experiences, leading to a division between theme and execution.
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Robert Frost
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In the following essay, Elaine Barry examines Robert Frost's poetry as a reflection of his pragmatic philosophy, emphasizing his exploration of human identity, freedom, and conflict while intentionally avoiding absolute resolutions, and considering his work as a nuanced balance between affirmation and negation, grounded in human experience and the limitations of knowledge.
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The Difference Made for Prosody
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In the following essay, Donald J. Greiner argues that Robert Frost revolutionized American poetry by insisting on a definite form, dramatic elements, and vocal intonations in his work, which provided a "momentary stay against confusion" and led to innovative and sophisticated variations within traditional structures.
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Robert Frost
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In the following essay, W. J. Keith argues that Robert Frost deliberately uses varied narrative perspectives to maintain artistic detachment and universality in his poetry, exploring themes of individual and universal experiences in works like 'The Most of It,' 'Mending Wall,' and 'The Road Not Taken,' while challenging readers to engage with the poems' broader implications.
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Robert Frost
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- Frost, Robert (Vol. 9)
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Frost, Robert (Vol. 15)
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'A Boy's Will'
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In the following essay, Ezra Pound praises Robert Frost's A Boy's Will for its sincerity and simplicity, highlighting its naturalistic depiction of New Hampshire, devoid of pretentiousness and affectation, and distinct from the influence of other noted poets.
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'North of Boston'
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In the following essay, Louis Untermeyer argues that despite Robert Frost's disregard for traditional poetic conventions, his work captures the essence of New England life with clarity and subtlety, achieving poetic effect through its honest portrayal of character and setting rather than overtly poetic lines.
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Stone Walls and Precious Stones
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In the following essay, Robert Littell argues that Robert Frost's title poem "New Hampshire" exemplifies a journey through diverse human experiences with a blend of prose and poetry, while contrasting the style with his more emotive, jewel-like poems, highlighting Frost's mastery in both restrained and expressive forms.
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North of Eden
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In the following essay, Van Doren evaluates "West-Running Brook," appreciating the unique excellence of certain poems where Frost captures profound images in seemingly simple scenes, highlighting his mastery in portraying a wintry, northerly paradise, yet noting the limitations in Frost's succinctness and universal themes.
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Robert Frost and the Interrupted Dialogue
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In the following essay, Harold H. Watts examines Robert Frost's poetry, highlighting the tension between Frost's engagement with nature and his more skeptical, detached approach to human society, ultimately suggesting that Frost's work is marked by a preference for natural process over social constructs.
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Frost and Eliot
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In the following essay, Jeffrey Hart examines the thematic and stylistic contrasts between Robert Frost and T. S. Eliot, arguing that Frost's poetry embodies a skepticism and rationalism rooted in eighteenth-century thought, focusing on the primacy of earth and rejecting both utopian transcendence and literary terror, while engaging in a subtle literary dialogue with Eliot's modernist themes.
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John C. Kemp
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In the following essay, John C. Kemp examines Robert Frost's complex relationship with New England identity, arguing that while Frost is often celebrated as a regional poet, his greatest works transcend regional stereotypes by exploring themes of isolation and uncertainty, highlighting Frost's development from Romantic influences to innovative poetic perspectives.
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'A Boy's Will'
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- Frost, Robert (Vol. 3)
- Frost, Robert (Vol. 4)
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Frost, Robert (Vol. 13)
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Amy Lowell
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In the following essay, the critic examines Robert Frost's "North of Boston" as a profoundly American work, highlighting its photographic precision in depicting the decaying New England life through a stark, straightforward verse style that eschews European influences, while capturing the region's cultural decline with irony and a lack of humor.
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Mark Van Doren
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In the following essay, Mark Van Doren argues that Robert Frost's poetic indirectness, ranging from mere obscurity to profound subtlety, reflects a deeply personal and reticent communication style that immerses the reader in his profound love for the country without direct expression.
- Louis Untermeyer
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Robert Frost: The Way to the Poem
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In the following essay, John Ciardi examines Robert Frost's poem "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening," arguing that the poem's enduring power and meaning arise from Frost's spontaneous and skillful blending of technical artifice and human insight, particularly evident in his improvisational repetition of its final line.
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Lawrence Thompson
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In the following essay, Lawrence Thompson explores Robert Frost's use of lyrical poetry as a means of self-discovery, emphasizing themes of fear, isolation, and spiritual salvation, while highlighting Frost's original approach to traditional religious and philosophical concepts through paradoxical and ambiguous expressions.
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Robert Frost: His Personality
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In the following essay, Richard Eberhart argues that Robert Frost's poetry reflects a deeply integrated personality, celebrating the tangible and human aspects of life with a skeptical view of the afterlife, and his work remains influential for its realistic portrayal of human experiences and nature, appealing to both unsophisticated and sophisticated readers.
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Randolph Perazzini
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In the following essay, Randolph Perazzini explores Robert Frost's ability to balance traditional poetic forms with modernist elements, emphasizing his use of the "colloquial" to maintain American individualism, and argues that Frost's dramatic monologues and mastery of tension uphold the heroic dignity of everyday life.
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Frost's 'Accidentally on Purpose'
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In the following essay, Robert B. Thompson explores Robert Frost's poem "Accidentally on Purpose" as an expression of Frost's philosophical shift towards existentialism, highlighting the poet's darkly romantic response to the universe's inherent randomness and his skepticism of any ultimate design or purpose.
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'Kitty Hawk' and the Question of American Destiny
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In the following essay, Laurence Goldstein argues that Robert Frost's poem "Kitty Hawk" encapsulates his natural philosophy and reflects an alignment with the American vision of social progress while highlighting the poet's acknowledgment of limits and the role of science, contrasting the immediacy of historical events with the delayed poetic understanding.
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Amy Lowell
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Frost, Robert (Vol. 10)
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Robert Frost: Or, the Spiritual Drifter as Poet
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In the following essay, Yvor Winters critiques Robert Frost's poetry as lacking in classical qualities, arguing that his reliance on conversation-like style, romantic sentimentality, and rejection of rational thought limit his work's depth and coherence, leading to an incomplete and whimsical treatment of human experience.
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Robert Frost and His Use of Barriers: Man vs. Nature Toward God
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In the following essay, Marion Montgomery examines Robert Frost's poetry, highlighting Frost's portrayal of nature as an impersonal entity distinct from humanity, emphasizing the theme of barriers—between man and nature, among humans, and between man and God—and arguing that Frost's work consistently explores man's limitations and the quest for understanding through faith, reason, and art.
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Robert Frost
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In the following essay, Hayden Carruth critiques Robert Frost's poetic career by arguing that while Frost produced some genuinely great poems, particularly from his early works, his later poems often suffered from an over-reliance on contrived techniques and a failure to remain open and submissive to spontaneous experience, resulting in more editorial-like verses.
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Emily Dickinson and Robert Frost
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In the following essay, George Monteiro explores how Robert Frost's early poetry was influenced by Emily Dickinson, highlighting thematic and stylistic similarities between them, such as the use of imagery, treatment of mortality, and formal elements, while also noting the divergences that shaped Frost's development as a distinct poetic voice.
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Robert Frost: Or, the Spiritual Drifter as Poet
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