Robert Lee Frost (March 26, 1874 – January 29, 1963) was an American poet. His work was initially published in England before it was published in America
Book: The Letters of Robert Frost, Volume 1: 1886-1920
Hardcover:848 pages
Publisher: Belknap Press; annotated edition edition (February 17, 2014)
Language: English
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Robert Frost writes, at age 39, in a letter to a friend,
“To be perfectly frank with you I am one of the most notable craftsmen of my time. … I alone of English writers have consciously set myself to make music out of what I may call the sound of sense.”
This statement may lead us to believe Mr. Frost was a little too full of himself but, upon further investigation, Volume 1 of his letters reveal that he was like most of us, a multi-faceted personality. Frost was sometimes (over) confident, sometimes insecure and always deeply affected by the goings on in the world around him.
Frost was sensitive to the opinions of the more modernist poets of the time, William Yeats who admired Frost’s work and Ezra Pound who criticized it. In retaliation to Pound’s critical review of Frost’s writing in his debut book of Poetry in 1913, Frost writes in October 1913:
“Pound is an incredible ass and he hurts more than he helps.”
To close, a favorite Frost poem:
Reluctance
by Robert Frost
Out through the fields and the 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 leaves are all dead on the ground,
Save those that the oak is keeping
To ravel them one by one
And let them go scraping and creeping
Out over the crusted snow,
When others are sleeping.
And the dead leaves lie huddled and still,
No longer blown hither and thither;
The last lone aster is gone;
The flowers of the witch hazel wither;
The heart is still aching to seek,
But the feet question ‘Whither?’
Ah, when to the heart of man
Was it ever less than a treason
To go with the drift of things,
To yield with a grace to reason,
And bow and accept the end
Of a love or a season?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sources for parts of this post:
- NPR Book Reviews February 13, 2014 – Robert Frost’s Letters Reveal: He Really Cared What Readers Thought
- Wikipedia – Robert Frost
Related:
William Yeats
Ezra Pound
bookpeeps.wordpress.com 