Amazon.com
Joseph Brodsky, Seamus Heaney, and Derek Walcott, Nobel laureates all, have written perceptive, affectionate, admiring essays on Robert Frost. Eschewing both of the prevailing caricatures of Frost (the irascible but beloved cracker-barrel philosopher and the shallow megalomaniac), these writers pay careful attention to the poems themselves. They open doors into the world of words that Frost constructed, and help readers understand the music and the ideas in those worlds. Derek Walcott's dark reading of Frost's much-quoted classic, "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening," is alone worth the price of Homage to Robert Frost. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

This is a wonderful companion to hearing Frost's seemingly off handed reading of his material
This is a marvelous little book to be savoured at every chance and to be re-read as well. Its instructive for both the reader of poetry and the writer of poetry and every student of poetry should read this little masterpiece.It contains many insights and adds a much needed depth to the Frost that many may suspect is not there. Brodsky's erudite rendering of Frost as a student of Virgil makes me want to run back to Virgil and read other works by him besides the Aeneid and go to The Eclogues, also called Bucolics.

Brodsky's explanation of Frost's work is the best I've seen
If you need to read one critical examination of Robert Frost,buy this& read Joseph Brodsky's fantastic, accessible take on "Home Burial".What a great book this is--three fine poets examining a brilliant poet.But it is Brodsky who best holds to the Frost credo--he speaks clearly and plainly.

A glimpse into how poets read poets
Brodsky, Heaney, and Walcott helped me hear the music of Frost's poetry. They don't analyze all that many poems but the insights they offer open the door to others. For example, I learned about Frost's idea of "Sentence-Sounds" in Brodsky's review of "Home Burial" and his idea of the "Sounds of Sense" in Heaney's discussion of "Desert Places". Then when I read Frost's "To a Thinker", which does not appear in "Homage to Frost", I came across the line "...From sound to sense and back to sound", and of course I recognized a familiar theme. If you like Frost, this book makes a nice companion reader. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

ALLUSIVE & ELUSIVE FROST SOUGHT ASTUTE READERS
Frost was quite simply a poetic genius of the first rank, on a par with his only rivals Hardy and Yeats for Premier Poet of the 20th Century.

This book shows how Frost built multi-layered meanings and nuances of allusion into his poems that required sensitive,
crafty,astute readers to read them right. While not wanting to be misread any more than other authors, he enjoyed playing some poetic pranks on unsuspecting,naive readers who don't pay attention to his irony,double-entendre,gentle spoofing,and
tricksterish legerdemain, all in good fun of course. Those readers choosing to read him straightforwardly on a superficial
level will often find they are reading the opposite of what Frost intended. But in most cases, we'll simply never know just exactly what he intended, since he left that to the reader to figure out.

The author does a commendable job of showing us how to be more
'Frost-wise' in our reading of his masterworks. Of his 345 poems in the collected edition, Randall Jarrell said 1/3 are dispensable; 1/3 are eminently readable,even repeatedly, holding many surprises that reward further exploration over the years;
and the rest (115 or so of the anthologized masterpieces) are ones worth dog-earing,memorizing,recitation,meditation,intensive
study and lifelong plumbing to even begin to approach their depths as works of art of the highest calibre in modern times.

Frost's ingestion of the Bible,Shakespeare,Greek/Roman Classics in youth/college were his fount-fillers,providing the raw material and potential to be unleashed with power in his poetry.
First published in 1913 when nearly 40,living in England, his work would continue to crescendo until age 89,garnering an
unprecedented 4 Pulitzers and President Kennedy's Inaugurational reading.

This book is indispensable for mastering the work of the master.
Read in conjunction with Timothy Steele's 'All the Fun's in How
You Say a Thing', and Richard Wilbur's essays and poetry, will enhance the appreciation of Frost's genius and make better readers of us all.

Insightful
I am working on a paper for an M.A. in literature on Frost's poetry, and I found this book in our university library. I was already planning to approach it from a reader response framework, and was delighted to find that Oster had done the same thing. I am finding the book insightful, helpful and extremely readable. I'm not sure if it's good or bad, but the author's love of Frost's work is more than a little obvious throughout. I have been most pleased that she has addressed the very issues I intended to write on, including theories of Stanley Fish and his "interpretive communities" as related to Frost. She points out that Frost's intentional ambiguity lends itself perfectly to this framework. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

No Service to an Important Friendship
Too few Americans know that Frost had his first success as a poet in England, and that the English poet and literary journalist Edward Thomas contributed to that success.
Frost called Thomas "the only brother I ever had."The two had many things in common, and they formed a close friendship from their first meeting in October 1913 until Thomas was killed in battle in France in April 1917.They took long walks together while Frost was living in Gloucestershire in 1914, and both wrote poems about this--Frost's "Iris by Night" and Thomas's "The sun used to shine."
Thomas helped Frost refine his theories of "the sound of sense" and wrote reviews praising his second book, North of Boston. Frost prompted Thomas to discover his own poetic talent, and Thomas wrote over 140 poems in about two years, some of which--like "I Remember Adlestrop"--were loved and learned by generations of English schoolchildren.
So this assembly of the surviving correspondence between the two offers readers some insight into the nature of the friendship, but holds disappointments as well.The editor, Matthew Spencer, offers no explanation for the surprising six-to-one imbalance of the letters in favor of Thomas, though available sources, including some in his bibliography, indicate that Thomas burned most of his correspondence before going to France. Nor does he provide an index, though the letters contain numerous references to well-known writers of the time.Spencer does outline the circumstances that led Frost to England, but he skips over the publication of Frost's first book, A Boy's Will.His account of Thomas's years of freelancing under a cloud of depression and the brief flourishing of his friendship with Frost may be a useful review for readers already acquainted with the story, but will hardly help newcomers understand the fragmented version of it in the letters.
Michael Hofmann's Foreword and Christopher Ricks's Afterword might have provided helpful insight into the friendship, but these two writers choose instead to ride their own hobby-horses.Hofmann takes off on a weird psychosexual interpretation of the friendship, and Ricks entertains himself with a series of rhapsodies on the theme of Anglo-American rivalry, all the while noting that it doesn't apply to Frost and Thomas!
There are much better sources for understanding the Frost-Thomas friendship, including Edward Thomas: The Last Four Years by Eleanor Farjeon and "The Only Begetter," a chapter in John Evangelist Walsh's Into My Own. ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (3)

An insightful study
This book helped me see Frost in a new light, as a thinker grappling with the problems science poses to religion and to poetry. There is an enormous amount of scholarship brought to many poems, and we see the ways Frost thought not only about Darwin but about Lucretius, Milton, James, Bergson, Emerson, and Thoreau. The Frost that emerges is both dark and complex--a subversive and subtle pastoralist. Though the book is written in clear prose with very little jargon, it is a heavy read. But well worth it.

Faggen's Masterful Study
Professor Faggen has written a remarkable book.We might have considered Frost a sentimental, a provincial poet, but in this volume we discover that Frost (far from the potato-hoeing grandpa of our collective memories) is a poet of the first order and among the most challenging of the moderns.Frost's revaluations of the Romantic and the Miltonic myths in Darwinian terms place him as our chief poet of the scientific, the skeptical turn of mind.The evidence amassed for his argument is daunting and Faggen has contributed to our understanding of the place of Darwin--biological and social--in modern poetry.Faggen's individual readings are acute and original.We will from now on see "The Road Not Taken," "The Oven Bird," and "The Need of Being Versed in Country Things," in a different way.We will see them not as melancholy mood poems, but as tough and riddling explorations of human and animal existence.We may now begin to see Frost's place in American literature, and that a high position indeed!We may thank Robert Faggen for deepening our understanding and broadening our view.

An essential, ground-breaking study.
Many books and articles have been written about the poetry of RobertFrost, but this book, astonishingly, makes almost all of them obsolete. Frost's critics have found him haunted by a dark vision but they have beenhard pressed to say exactly what it was. They have struggled to find thereal context of his thinking, but the poems, in spite of many melancholyreadings, have remained elusive.What are these elegant meditations reallyabout? Where does the impetus for these disturbing dramatic monologues andstark dialogues come from?Faggen's brilliantly researched and forcefullywritten book finally tells us the answer: Frost was obsessed with Darwinand his vision of the natural world.He said so many times (though none ofhis critics was willing to listen).And once you have recognized thisfact, the grave, witty, tender, and frightful poems acquire a new clarityand force.Frost was no "spiritual drifter," no vague perveyorof "metaphysical terror," as earlier writers have thought, butthe most sophisticated and tough-minded poet of science that modern culturehas produced--the nearest thing we have to a Lucretius.This book takes afigure who has seemed conservative or even backward to his readers andshows him to be the most forward-looking artist of his generation.And itaccomplishes this task with an easy mastery of detail that removes alldoubt."Never again would bird's song be the same," Frostwrote--never the same after reading Darwin, that is, nor will this poem bethe same after reading Faggen.The romantic Frost is dead, and a new Frostis afoot. Some will mourn, some will rejoice at the news, but scholarshipis seldom as conclusive as this and hardly ever as exciting. ... Read more

Book Description
A new edition with index added.This book consists of a selection of interviews spanning a period of nearly half a century: from 1915, the year Frost returned to America from England, through 1962, just a few weeks before his death.These interviews have a special importance.They present Frost informally, sometimes casually, yet always in the character of a performer--for performance was ever at the heart of what he aspired to as artist and man: the seeking of an attainment, a mastery, combining both substance and form.Within these interviews is found much of significance that is nowhere else preserved.They contain an invaluable documentation centering upon the life and thought of Frost: his views, impressions, and concepts at different times.The best of them capture and project his presence and manner with a directness and vividness that cannot be derived from his works alone nor from recordings of his readings and talks. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Self Portrait in Words
Getting tp know Robert Frost through these interviews is an enlighteningexperience.Following him through his years of being unknown to greatnoteriety and finding him gentle but firm in who and what he is about is anaffirmation for anyone who wants to believe in him/herself.Hisrevoutionary ideas of education that stirred the world in his day should bekept vibrant and continuing to stir our world today and on into the future. His definition of a good teacher is one that should be reviewed by allteachers."A good teacher asks good questions."Teachers asListeners could gain a great deal of insight with these interviews. Students would not only be learning but would also be sharing the newwisdom that comes with each new individual.Try it, you'll like it andenjoy the growing. ... Read more

Book Description
"Mending Wall." "The Road Not Taken." "Birches." Many of Robert Frost's poems have become part of modern American culture. Frost used the pleasures and trials of rural New England life to create poetry of universal meaning and appeal.Lea Newman's Robert Frost: The People, Places, and Stories Behind His New England Poetry is a fascinating exploration of the world of Robert Frost. Concise essays accompanying each of thiry-six of Frost's early New England poems invite readers to discover the life and work of America's favorite poet. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

An Invaluable Companion
Leah Newman's Robert Frost: The People, Places, and Stories Behind His New England Poetry provides an invaluable companion to the beloved poetry of Robert Frost.Newman not only provides the context of Frost's personal history as a backdrop for his poetry, but also provides key literary references, literary criticism, and annotations on the reception of his work in his lifetime.The essays accompanying Frost's poems are lively and warm, often punctuated by Frost's own words.Newman brings Frost's relationships to his family and his work to life in this collection, without diminishing the richness or subtlety of his poetry. I highly recommend this volume to life-long students of Frost's work as well as newcomers.

For anyone who ever thrilled to this great man's genius
Lea Newman is able to make her reader's introduction to a major American poet easy, fun and memorable in Robert Frost: The People, Places And Stories Behind His New England Poetry. Newman's concise and informative essays accompany each of thirty-six of Frost's early New England poems including his "The Road Not Taken"; "Mending Wall"; "The Death Of The Hired Man"; and "Birches". Biographical information and his own commentaries provides insights into what Frost was doing and thinking when he wrote each poem. Newman's format of combining essay and poetry enables the reader to experience Frost's poetry with a fresh appreciation and insight. Robert Frost is "must" reading for anyone who ever thrilled to this great man's poetic genius and enduring wisdom. ... Read more

Amazon.com
Robert Frost, the farmer-poet of New England, actually spent his formative early years in San Francisco. His mother moved the family east after the death of her husband--a hard-living journalist from whom Robert took his willful perversity. He attended Dartmouth and Harvard, leaving both prematurely, and after putative stabs at teaching and journalism became a poultry farmer in New Hampshire. It took a trip to England in 1912 (to live "under thatch") for his poetry finally to be published, and when he returned to America in 1915 his reputation had preceded him. Until his death in 1963, he worked assiduously at consolidating his position as America's premier voice; reading at Kennedy's inauguration and meeting Khrushchev were just two of the scenes he stole. So why does Jay Parini need to reclaim him?

The answer lies with Lawrance Thompson. Thompson was one of Frost's most earnest disciples, and for years the poet, ever eager to shape his own image, allowed him a Boswellian intimacy. Unfortunately, Thompson came to despise his former mentor, and his exhaustively documented volumes portray Frost as a kind of solipsistic monster, in marked contrast to the awe with which he had previously been described. Parini, also a biographer of John Steinbeck, in a wave of perspective seeks a corrective to Thompson's bile. His writing is intelligent yet breathlessly generous, and he is at his best when considering the poems themselves. He rightly ascribes to Frost the innovation of the colloquial voice in serious verse--a legacy that appears immense today when so much contemporary poetry consists of little else. Frost's mastery lay in the freedom he found within conformity and the dark corners he discovered by probing, which contribute to a melancholic spirituality beyond the rusticity for which he is popularly celebrated. While Thompson's egg is cracked and dry, Parini prefers a softer boil, and his elegantly reverential tone is imbued with a perception that reminds readers how great a poet Frost remains. The clergyman who advised him at an early age that his verse was "too close to speech," and thus gave him his voice, deserves eternal gratitude. --David Vincent, Amazon.co.uk Book Description

Customer Reviews (14)

Sympathetically reveals the man behind the public mask
I have always loved Frost's poetry, but this biography gave me a much greater appreciation for the depth of intellect and erudition behind it.By embracing the inherent paradoxes in Frost's personality and philosophy rather than trying to cram Frost into a self-consistent mold, Parini crafts a delightfully vivid portrait of the poet.

Contrary to another reviewer's claim that "why [Frost's children] were afflicted by mental illness is not explored," Parini presents compelling evidence that mental illness ran in Frost's family--severely afflicting his sister--with Frost maintaining his own psychological balance only by dint of a constant conscious struggle.

Robert Frost: A Man and his Poems
One of my first memories of Robert Frost is watching him attempting to read a poem he had written for John F. Kennedy's Presidential Inauguration.Struggling with the bright sunlight reflecting off the fresh snow on that crisp winter's day, he abandoned his effort to recite an older poem from memory.

I remember thinking the image of this short, stocky white-haired old man was as close to a wood nymph as I would ever come.Later, I was to learn that Frost lead anything but a simple life.Biographer drawing on this image, often sensationalized the details of his life at the expense of the precious poetry he created.

Jay Parini, the Axinn Professor of English at Middlebury College, does not travel that path.Rather, he provides his readers with insight into how Frost lived day-to-day, poem to poem.He animates Frost's daily struggles with depression, anxiety, self-doubt and confusion.The poet's family life was not happy; he experienced bad luck with his children.Yet, he exhibited tremendous force of will, love for his children and dedication to creating a lasting body of creative work.

Unlike Frost previous biographers, Parini skillfully weaves the details of the poet's life with poetry he created.Frost's desire to "lodge a few poems where they can't be gotten rid of easily" is woven into a picture of an artist attempting to rescue his sanity by creating what he called a "momentary stay against confusion."

For me, reading Frost's poetry is a labor of love; reading Parini's biography is like reliving a best friend's life.This biographical study offers an unusual glimpse into the life, poetry and times of Robert Frost, a man who ranks as one of the world's greatest poets.

Terrific!
I am not a fan of biographies...as a New Englander, I AM extremely fond of Frost...so I gave the biography a try...

Through a poet's eye...sensitively (and beautifully) written...engaging...a delight!

A Sensitive Roadmap
Although many of Robert Frost's poems revolve around traditionally American themes, even a European, like I am, can easily recognize his genius.

This biography offers a major reassessment of the life and work of America's premier poet--the only truly "National Poet" the U.S. has, so far, produced.

Author Jay Parini began working on this biography in 1975, through interviews with friends and associates of Frost's and working in the poet's archives at Dartmouth, Amherst and elsewhere.

In prose that is both elegant and simple, Parini traces the stages of Frost's colorful life:his boyhood in San Francisco (no, he was not a native New Englander!), his young manhood in New England, his college days at Dartmouth and later at Harvard, his years of farming in New Hampshire, his three-year stay in England where he became friends with people such as Ezra Pound, Edward Thomas and other important figures of modern poetry.

Following Frost's meteoric rise upon his return to America from England in 1915, Parini traces the path Frost took from poet to cultural icon, a friend and intimate of presidents, a sage whose pronouncements attracted the attention of the world press.

Yet, the beauty of this book lies in the fact that Parini never loses sight of Frost at his deepest and most human, the man behind the gorgeous and sensitive poetry that enraptured a nation.Always managing to take us back to the poetry and Frost's roots, Parini, in this beautiful book, offers a sensitive roadmap of both Frost, the man and his incredible talent.

A poet's perspective.
Jay Parini bring's a poet's perspective to this excellent biography. By combining a compelling look at Frost's life with an informed commentary on his poetry, Parini has avoided the common pitfall of many biographers;forgetting the work while describing the life. I feel I now have a muchgreater understanding of the man and his work after reading this book whichshould be the goal of all biographies and so rarely is. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Impressive
Mark Richardson has a profound command of the work of Robert Frost. This book was an absolute delight to read. I would recommend it not only to those readers interested in Robert Frost, but in the study of poetry ingeneral.

.
Exceptionally good book, and a must-read for anyone interested in Frost, or occupied with the study of his work. Thoughtful and rewarding. Highly recommended. ... Read more

Book Description
Even critics who may dispute that Robert Frost was the major poet of 20th century concede his eminence as a poet both popular and sophisticated. In this text, which includes an introduction by Harold Bloom and an extensive biography of Frost, Thomas March, Malcolm Cowly, and Seamus Heaney, examine the work of this author. Topics include the argument for Frost, the case against him, and his creative genius of everyday life.

This series is edited by Harold Bloom, Sterling Professor of the Humanities, Yale University; Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Professor of English, New York University Graduate School; preeminent literary critic of our time. The lives of the greatest writers of the world are explored in the new series Bloom's BioCritiques. In addition to a lengthy biography, each book includes an extensive critical analysis of the writer's work, as well as critical views by important literary critics throughout history. These volumes are the perfect introduction to critical study of the important authors currently read and discussed in high schools, colleges, and graduate schools. ... Read more

Book Description
"A happy and unexpected coordination of images, linguistic and photographic." -- Jay Parini

Inspired by the writings of Robert Frost and his view of man and the natural world, professional photographers Betsy and Tom Melvin present beautiful, and sometimes poignant, scenes of the New England landscape in some of its many moods and seasons.

Each full-page color photograph is accompanied by a poem, verse, or phrase from Frost which, though often familiar, may provoke us to savor the New England environment anew. The imaginative pairing of photographs and text also conjures up some of the same ambiguity, profundity, and freshness continually offered in Frost's poems. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Not what i expected
Not alot of reading goes into this book. Alot of beautiful pictures with what seem like exerpts from his poetry. Didnt love it. But I do like it.

nice idea
This book elegantly pairs Frost's poems with corresponding photos.Often the poems accompany a two page photo spread.The photography is good, although the image quality on paper isn't fabulous.It's nice to read his poems and have images of New England bring them to life. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

A review from Ardsley, PA
September 5, 2007
Ardsley, PA

The audio version of this biography accompanied me to work.

I have been a lifelong fan of Robert Frost's poetry, but never knew much about the man.This book gave me an excellent look into Robert Frost's life.I must admit now that I like Robert Frost's poetry far more than him.

Mr. Meyers does a very good job examining the many influences in Frost's life and gives numerous examples of how they are reflected in his poetry.(I wish it told me a bit about who Brad McLaughlin was ... see Starsplitter.)

It is hard for me to reconcile the picture I had of Robert Frost before I read this biography with the more accurate picture I now have of who this great poet was.I would recommend this biography to anyone familiar with Robert Frost's work who is interested as I was in knowing more about the man.However, I would warn you to be prepared to be somewhat let down by the time you finish this biography.

Finally, regardless of Robert Frost, the man, his poetry has a special place in my heart and has accompanied me on many a walk in the woods.Although this biography gives me an unflattering view of Frost, it does not detract from the joy I derive from his wonderful work.I recommend you read this biography to learn more about Robert Frost and that you read Robert Frost's Poetry to learn more about yourself and this fascinating world in which we live.

Cordially,
Joe Rooney

"To warm the frozen swamp as best it could
With the slow smokeless burning of decay." ... Awesome!

All Kinds Of Grief Shall Arrive
Jeffrey Meyers' Robert Frost: A Biography is a thorough, if disjointed, episodic, and often uncomfortably apologetic account of the poet's tumultuous and psychically violent life. While the broad American public continues to lionize Frost and his collected verse, Meyers' volume reveals that there was little to admire in the individual man (a list of character traits in the index includes, among others, "accident-prone," "competitive," "domineering," "egotistic," "fears insanity," "hears voices," "hypersensitive," "insecure," "jealous," "puritanical," "restless," "self-promoting," "temperamental," "tendency to gossip," "uses illness to escape responsibility," and "vanity.")At one extreme, neurotic personalities take their illnesses out on themselves; the aggressively competitive Frost fell into the opposite camp, so that it was his family and intimate friends who suffered primarily, and often fatally, from the grossly irresponsible attitude he adopted towards his own pathology.

Both of Frost's parents, as well as his only sibling, were physically and mentally unstable: "bad blood" clearly ran freely in the family's veins. Emotionally smothered by and dependent upon his "terribly queer" mother, the young Frost was equally at the mercy of his alcoholic, brutal, and vindictive father. Both parents died relatively young after lives of dissolution and extreme hardship.

The circumstances of Frost's youth set the course for his adult existence: year after year, decade after long decade, the poet replicated his fundamental "family romance" and thus found himself surrounded by, and indeed, further afflicting, a variety of tragically disturbed people and families. Generational patterns of mental instability and violent "accidents" were the norm, not the exception, in the lives of the people Frost embraced. Amazingly, the fatalistic and cowardly Frost never became fully conscious of the destructive role he played in the lives of those closest to him. Nor did he learn how to master himself or take healthy control over the calamitous events of his personal life. Tellingly, the poet openly mocked anyone who sought out professional psychological help, which he strenuously avoided receiving himself.

No single event illustrates Frost's grandiose immaturity and reckless disregard for the lives and emotional health of his family more blatantly than the episode in which Frost woke his six year old daughter Lesley in the middle of night, escorted her downstairs where his sobbing wife was waiting, and, pointing a gun at himself and then at his spouse, told her, "Take your choice. Before morning, one of us will be dead!" Perhaps understandably, three decades later, Frost's only son, Carol, 38, committed suicide in front of his own small son under identical circumstances.

Frost's children were raised in isolation on various New England farms and schooled at home; they grew up in a constricted environment dominated by their severe, tyrannical father and exhausted, physically stricken, and ineffectual mother. With the exception of Lesley, Meyers fails to communicate the children's side of their stories to the reader. The author's intermittent presentation of Frost as a loving father who spent much of his free time nurturing his children falls flat.

Frost survived into his 89th year as a wealthy, respected, and world-renowned poet who lunched with American presidents and honored foreign dignitaries, including Nikita Khrushchev, with his presence. It is more than interesting to note that, like an engine of destruction in the mythological guise of a respectable patriarch, Frost's health grew more robust as he aged and as his wife, Elinor ("rather silent, sad and dour" even before her marriage to Frost), and family withered, became severely mentally ill (both Carol and daughter Irma suffered some kind of psychosis; in her 45th year, Irma was committed "as a hopeless case to a hospital for the insane," as was Frost's sister, Jeanie), or otherwise died young (favorite daughter Marjorie at 29).Only Lesley, who Meyers unaccountably refers to as a "harsh and sinewy old harridan" in later life, survived him.

Meyers provides a detailed account of Frost's friendships with other famous poets, including Ezra Pound, T. S. Eliot, Edward Thomas, William Butler Yeats, Carl Sandburg, and Robert Lowell. His analysis of Frost's work is sound if not always persuasive; his evaluation of the influence of Thomas Hardy's poetry on Frost's feels particularly strained. Meyers' discussion of Frost's classic "The Road Not Taken" in conjunction with one of the poet's letters includes this incomprehensible sentence: "The words "lonely cross-roads," "converged" and neither "much traveled" in the letter become "Two roads diverged" and "less traveled by" at the beginning and end of the poem, and the inevitability of "converged" turns into the perplexity of "diverged."

Meyers also makes a blatant error when attributing an Irish peasant's narrative about capturing and living for several weeks with a fairy, which appears in Lady Gregory's Visions & Beliefs in the West of Ireland (1920), to Yeats himself. Yeats accompanied and assisted Lady Gregory in her field work for the book, but the narrative in question was clearly not his own, as any reader Gregory's book, which is still in print, can see (the memorate is attributed to "an old man, Kelleher," and his wife). Whether Meyers is repeating a mistake that Frost made concerning the subject, or is making the mistake himself, is impossible to discern from the text, as no source is provided. Considering the extraordinary nature of the claim, Meyers' inaccuracy is difficult to overlook.

Meyers also adopts Frost's biased image of competitor Carl Sandburg, who appears throughout the book as manipulative pseudo-bumpkin perpetually strumming his "geetar" for a gullible public.

Frost placed his poetical ambition and personal fame ahead of everything else in his life, a situation for which his family and loved ones paid dearly, and for which Elinor never forgave him. Ultimately, Meyers' biography is a casebook example of how the human suffering of others can be the price paid for respectability as well as for great art.

A REVIEW, FROM SOMEWHERE NORTH OF BOSTON...
This is a solid, workmanlike biography of Robert Frost. It will probably appeal more to the reader who wants to know about Frost the man as opposed to the reader who is more interested in the poetry. There are some excerpts from the poetry but not a lot, and very little analysis. Probably the best thing about the book is the balanced attitude Mr. Meyers takes towards the poet. The author doesn't gloss over Frost's faults, but doesn't demonize him either. Yes, Frost had a tremendous ego. (Show me an artistic person that doesn't!) He loved to receive praise. He "collected" honorary degrees. Towards the end of his life he made it clear that he wanted degrees from Oxford and Cambridge, so that he could equal the achievement of Longfellow and James Russell Lowell. He was famous enough and knew enough of the "right" people that he was able to get what he wanted. He was extremely competitive and made nasty comments about other poets who he perceived to be a "threat", both in terms of popularity and talent- such as Carl Sandburg, Ezra Pound and T.S. Eliot. Frost made fun of Sandburg's self-created "folksy" persona- playing his "geetar" and combing his long, white hair over his eyes. But Mr. Meyers makes clear that Frost wasn't alone in his competitiveness. Though Sandburg was apparently a very nice fellow, Eliot and Pound had plenty of nasty things to say about Frost and other poets as well. Where Mr. Meyers is most sympathetic is in discussing Frost's relationship with his family. In the past, Frost has been portrayed as a selfish "monster" who ignored his wife and children and caused their unhappiness, mental problems and, in the case of Frost's son Carol, a suicide. It seems clear that mental illness ran in Frost's family, going back at least to his father and mother. Frost heard "voices" in his youth and they came back in times of severe stress, such as right after Frost's wife Elinor died in 1938. Frost had an unnatural fear of the dark and apparently suffered from some degree of depression. He managed to overcome these problems and to live a long, creative life. He did the best he could to be a good husband and father. He remained faithful to his wife despite the temptation of female students "throwing" themselves at him. (After all, even in middle-age, he was a handsome man, as well as being charismatic, artistic and famous.) He tried to be emotionally present for his children, giving advice (if also at times trying to control them) and he was always generous with money. Again, this book is strong on Frost's personal life. But it is a bit weak on analyzing the poetry and it covers Frost's teaching career in too cursory a manner, "flitting" about from place to place too quickly. Some of this is inherent in Mr. Meyers' decision to write a relatively brief biography. He tries to cover in 350 pages the personal life and career of a man who lived to be 88 years old, and who remained creative for approximately 70 of those years. Mr. Meyers had to make choices about what to include and what to leave out and other things had to be compressed. Unfortunately, it shows. This book is not the definitive biography of Frost. That remains to be written. But it is a good introduction, a book that succeeds in being fair-minded and will leave you wanting to know more about the man and the poetry.

Weak biography
Disappointly poorly done.Statements made without support, poorly written, contributes little if anything new to one's understanding of the man or his work.

Robert Frost and the Barrier of Silence
In spite of the barrier of silence choking it, the vitality of American identity and consciousness continues to survive, thanks to clues, planted in Robert Frost: a biography, written by Jeffrey Meyers.The first majorhint that America is alive and struggling for breath comes with theaffirmation of the importance of Frost's identity as a native SanFranciscan; the second is the remembrance of Lionel Trilling's valiantattempt in 1985 to put into sharper focus the image of Frost's work and hisreputation.Nevertheless, author Meyers does not develop the latter pointin which Trilling stated that Frost's reputation had been created over amisinterpretation of his work.In fact Trilling's was a major effort toraze the barrier of silence, to state and restate lines of research in thedevelopment and study ofliterature in America from the East Coast to theWest, from Columbia University to the University of California at Berkeley(Lizarraga 1999a y b).In response to criticism both professional andpersonal, published in major literary reviews of the East Coast, Trillingmade a valiant attempt to defend the remarks made on that historicalevening, recording in permanent form by way of the Partisan Review both hisspeech and his will to defend it.Although Meyers describes the reactionof Frost on that evening as one of surprise, the poet was not a stranger tothe effects of the barrier of silence.A letter written in 1929 by Frostto Lincoln MacVeagh (Thompson 1964:362), as well as subsequent events inthe 1930's, not only establish Frost's initial attitude toward 'thesilencers', but also servesas a vindication of Trilling.The letterreads as follows "The first poem I ever wrote (La Noche Triste) was onthe Maya-Toltec-Aztec civilization and there is where my heart still is,while outwardly i profess an interest more or less perfunctory in newEngland.Never mind, I'm lucky to be allowed to write poetry on anythingat all".Actually, this was but a prelude to continuingmanifestations of the relation of poetry, politics, religion andrepression, experienced in 1936, when Frost achieved the publication of anumber of works.Key among them is the booklet titled A Further Range,which includes the poems "The Vindictives 'The Andes"and"The Bearer of Evil Tidings 'The Himalayas"and for which he wonthe Pulitzer Prize, and the booklet entitled from Snow to Snow, which,apparently, was the initial publication of the poem "The Road NotTaken"and which by the end of the Thirties as an integral text hadbeen banished to oblivion by Frost himself.It is here that a concept ofAngloAmerican literature, which rejects the primacy of geography in theformation of consciousness, begins to be formulated; and, timeis divorcedfrom space.This then created a dichotomy in the Americas, centering in the north of america concepts of Angloamerican and Western culture,grounded in language only, as opposed to South and/or Latin Americanliterature in which geographical space and language serve as thecornerstones (Falcon, Huayanca, Lizarraga 1999).If we are to formulate aviable concept of an integrated American culture and education, today wemust face this contradiction , a continuing source of repression and chaos. Focusing on this point,the alert reader becomes aware that the truemeasure of Robert Frost is to be taken by how he dealt with "thesilencers" and the consequences this has had, not only on his ownlife, but also the lives of the rest of us, and not by the shadow of KayMorrison and her unconventional love life of which Frost was but a part. Channeling a force with the strength to do this is not only to "keepat bey the silencers' but also to demolish the barrier of silence, itself,and"breathe free". ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Somewhat obscure, difficult-to-find brilliant poet included
The oft-difficult to find poetry of Robert Francis is included in this nice collection.Hopefully the publishing companies will realize that the poetry lovers out there will appreciate more Robert Francis. ... Read more