The Robert Frost Reader

Robert Frost was the most emblematically American of poets, a forthright advocate of both the art and craft of verse who was recognized and cherished as few other poets have ever been. This reader offers students and scholars a plethora of his speeches, interviews, correspondence, one-act plays, and other materials, as well as lengthy selections from all of Frost's books of verse. Though many have been drawn to the poet's seemingly old-fashioned simplicity, this diverse collection in fact reveals that Frost's work was often dark or ironic in tone—and always subtle and complex.

Robert Frost (1874-1963) is widely regarded as one of America's finest poets. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry on four different occasions, and also served as Consultant in Poetry at the Library of Congress.

Introduction
A Brief Chronology

I. Poetry: Selections from Eleven Books
A Boy's Will
North of Boston
Mountain Interval
New Hampshire
West-Running Brook
A Further Range
A Witness Tree
Steeple Bush
In the Clearing
A Masque of Reason
A Masque of Mercy

II. Other Samplings: Of Various Periods and Kinds
Childhood Letters
Early Verse
High School Prose
My Butterfly
Letters about "My Butterfly"
Stories for His Children
Among the Poems He Left Behind: Group One
Stories for Chicken Farmers
Letters about A Boy's Will and about Writing
Getting the Sound of Sense: An Interview
Early Letters to Untermeyer
A Way Out: A One-Act Play
Among the Poems He Left Behind: Group Two
We Seem to Lack the Courage to Be Ourselves: An Interview
Some Observations on Style
Education by Presence: An Interview
Six Rhymed Letters
Coaching a Younger Writer
Education by Poetry: A Meditative Monologue
Among the Poems He Left Behind: Group Three
A Letter to The Amherst Student
Introduction to Robinson's King Jasper
Ten of His Favorite Books
On Crudities and Opposites: Two Letters
Among the Poems He Left Behind: Group Four
Poverty and Poetry: A Talk
The Poet's Next of Kin in a College: A Talk
This Is My Best: A Choice of Sixteen Poems
A Selection of Couplets
What Became of New England?: A Commencement Address
On a Passage in Paradise Lost: A Letter
The Figure a Poem Makes: An Introduction
The Doctrine of Excursions: A Preface
The Constant Symbol: An Introduction
Speaking of Loyalty: A Talk
Poetry and School: Remarks from His Notebooks
The Prerequisites: A Preface
Don't Get Converted. Stay: Excerpt from an Address
Aphoristic Lines of Poetry
Letters to an Incipient Biographer
Among the Poems He Left Behind: Group Five
Observations and Declarations of a Poet-Statesman
On Extravagance: A Talk
Last Poem
Last Letter

A Selected Bibliography
Index