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My sister was here this past weekend, and, as we sat outside visiting on a perfect autumn day, we started discussing Frost's early collection of poetry, North of Boston. My sister had already read and reviewed it, and she loved it, and I. . . well, I just liked it.Why did I like it, instead of love it? Was I a Frost fan or wasn't I? Was I dissing Robert Frost?Given the nature of same-gender siblings, I was pretty sure that one of us was going to end up face down in the fallen leaves, or in hand-...
I don't know what it was exactly about North of Boston that made it better than Frost's first book, A Boy's Will. Perhaps it's more human than the previous collection. That may be the wrong way to put it, but North of Boston captures something about the human spirit that was missing from A Boy's Will. Most of the poems in this latter collection are lengthy, narrative pieces with dialogue, which may begin to explain the difference. Perhaps by creating characters (which are admittedly flat, and no...
"The Pasture," a two stanza poem, is another of those perfect works that uses only the words that are required to create only the lines that are required to constitute only the required stanzas to create perfect images that exactly fit together, but no sense of stinginess with words follows; no sense of erasing and editing down, down, down, falls; no sense of a minimalist having minimalized shrinks a postcard into a pixel. Exactly natural beauty somehow comes just right, like the wonder of a joy...
These poems often showcase tensions between a more intellectual and a more earthy voice.
The title North of Boston refers to Derry, New Hampshire, where Robert Frost and his family worked a farm for twelve lean and very cold years, years when Frost composed at least the first draft of many of these poems, but it also alludes to the great shift of cultural attitudes you encounter—or once encountered--as you move from the intellectual life of Boston to the pastoral atmosphere of New Hampshire and Vermont. Frost is too organic a writer to develop things schematically. Sometimes, as in
Great. Compared to the first Frost volume which was more lyrical and contemplative, this one was everything I love about narrative character sketches. Neighbors mending a fence, hired men dying, couples arguing after the death of a child, stalwart old women, mentally unstable homemakers, injured men figuring out how to provide for their families, and more! I liked this volume as much as others of a similar type like Masters' Spoon River Anthology or Sandburg's The People, Yes.
I haven't read Frost since high school. I'm blown away with everything I hadn't noticed before. Loved every second of it.
Robert Frost is recognized as a prominent poet from the last century. Frost is associated with modernism, however, his poems deal with New England themes, farmers, and by favouring short dramas or dialogues in a narrative poetry style.The author demonstrates a bleak and deeply pessimistic style in his own swing poetic manner. In addition, Frost's technical verse consists of dramatic monologues or dialogues with a remarkable conversational rhythm of his speakers. "Mending Wall" is Frost's most fa...
Not excited about reading a collection of poems? How can I excite you, then? How about this - do you like the short story format? Well, these early poems of Frost's are some of his longer, mostly non-rhyming (though still following meter, but don't get caught up in those kinds of specifics unless you need to or want to) poems that read more like a short story. A super powerful knock-your-socks-off short story! Couples, friends, neighbors having conversations - remember those? Conversations that
Interestingly mostly almost poetry in the form of short stories/plays, as opposed to his shorter, rhyme-loving poems of ‘A Boy’s Will’. I liked it.Favourites:• Mending Wall (absolute favourite)• The Death of the Hired Man• The Fear
Something there is that doesn't love a wall…Good fences make good neighbors.4 ½This second collection of sixteen poems was published the year after Frost's first one. It must be the case that most, if not all, were written in the years preceding, and were just waiting to be assembled together by the writer and loosed on the world. The title refers to the small-town, rural New England, the state of New Hampshire. Frost had a farm here which his grandfather had bought for him, at which he and his
A very lovely, subtle (yes) brief collection published in 1914.
The poems remind me of Andrew Wyeth's paintings.
Even readers who aren't into poetry themselves usually recognize Frost's name as one of the giants of 20th-century American (and indeed world) poetry. This collection is one of his earliest (originally published in 1914), and is relatively short, with just 15 poems; but it's sufficient to demonstrate to readers who appreciate poetry that his stature is deserved.Fiction tends to be my favorite literary form; I'm attracted to the idea of story, which is the essence of fiction. Not surprisingly, my...
4,5 stars.Well, I must start by saying that I have absolutely no ability (AT ALL!) to understand poetry. :v (Except maybe for Maya Angelou and Ramón Sampedro.)I honestly needed to check analysis for each of the poems... Once I understood the poems, of course, they tended to 'sound' better. (Yes, unweaving the rainbow makes it even more beautiful.) It does beg the question if my previous rating of poem books is "fair". :v I might give a couple of poets another 'chance'.A couple of poems were just...
Frost called North of Boston his “book of people” and it’s such a perfect description. I loved Mending Wall an The Death of the Hired Man above all the others.
I am not sure what I was expecting in Robert Frost's second collection of poetry, North of Boston, but it most certainly was not the poetry that I read in this most astonishing collection. Yes, there was the familiar poem Mending Wall, and another that was more popular, The Death of the Hired Man, but most of these obscure poems I had never read or heard of and, in my opinion, they were nothing short of incredible, not simply because of their literary excellence, but because they were something
Before I built a wall I’d ask to knowWhat I was walling in or walling out,And to whom I was like to give offense. Something is there that doesn’t love a wall,That wants it down.— Mending Wall
My only previous exposure to Robert Frost was his poem, "Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening." This book opened my eyes to a different form of poetry. I loved the stories told in verse, and experienced them as a new discovery on my part. Stopping By Woods continues to be my favorite, but I have now more poems to enjoy.
Ask my wife: I've never been a Robert Frost aficionado. My favorite lit professor was the only person or thing that ever convinced me to consider his poetry. Thirty years later after reading this collection, i can still say that i remain in the not an aficionado category. His monologue and dialogue poems aren't what i want from poetry. I'm not saying that they aren't poems; i'm just saying they're not the types of poems i positively respond to. And much of the rhyming verse is too singsongy for