9780141180175

This volume presents Frost's first three books, masterful and innovative collections that contain some of his best-known poems, including "Mowing," "Mending Wall," "After Apple-Picking," "Home Burial," "The Oven Bird," "Birches," and "The Road Not Taken."

Robert Lee Frost was born in San Francisco in 1874. When he was ten, his father died and he and his mother moved to New England. He attended school at Dartmouth and Harvard, worked in a mill, taught, and took up farming, before he moved to England, where his first books of poetry, A Boy’s Will (1913) and North of Boston (1914), were published. North of Boston brought him recognition as the preeminent voice of New England and as one of America’s major poets. In 1915 he returned to the United States and settled on a farm in New Hampshire. Four volumes of his poetry, New Hampshire (1923), Collected Poems (1930), A Further Range (1936), and A Witness Tree (1942) were all awarded the Pulitzer Prize. He died in 1963.

Robert Faggen teaches at Claremont McKenna College.

INTRODUCTION

xi

(30)

SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING

xli

(2)

A NOTE ON THE TEXTS

xliii

A BOY'S WILL

3

(46)

Into My Own The youth is persuaded that he will be rather more than less himself for having forsworn the world.

3

(1)

Ghost House He is happy in society of his choosing.

4

(2)

My November Guest He is in love with being misunderstood.

6

(1)

Love and a Question He is in doubt whether to admit real trouble to a place beside the hearth with love.

7

(2)

A Late Walk He courts the autumnal mood.

9

(1)

Stars There is no oversight of human affairs.

10

(1)

Storm Fear He is afraid of his own isolation.

11

(1)

Wind and Window Flower Out of the winter things he fashions a story of modern love.

12

(2)

To the Thawing Wind He calls on change through the violence of the elements.

14

(1)

A Prayer in Spring He discovers that the greatness of love lies not in forward-looking thoughts;

15

(1)

Flower-Gathering nor yet in any spur it may be to ambition.

16

(1)

Rose Pogonias He is no dissenter from the ritualism of nature;

17

(1)

Asking for Roses nor from the ritualism of youth which is make-believe.

18

(1)

Waiting--Afield at Dusk He arrives at the turn of the year.

19

(1)

In a Vale Out of old longings he fashions a story.

20

(1)

A Dream Pang He is shown by a dream how really well it is with him.

21

(1)

In Neglect He is scornful of folk his scorn cannot reach.

22

(1)

The Vantage Point And again scornful, but there is no one hurt.

23

(1)

Mowing He takes up life simply with the small tasks.

24

(1)

Going for Water

25

(1)

Revelation He resolves to become intelligible, at least to himself, since there is no help else;

26

(1)

The Trial by Existence and to know definitely what he thinks about the soul;

27

(3)

In Equal Sacrifice about love;

30

(2)

The Tuft of Flowers about fellowship;

32

(2)

Spoils of the Dead about death;

34

(2)

Pan with Us about art (his own);

36

(2)

The Demiurge's Laugh about science.

38

(1)

Now Close the Windows It is time to make an end of speaking.

39

(1)

A Line-Storm Song It is the autumnal mood with a difference.

40

(2)

October He sees days slipping from him that were the best for what they were.

42

(1)

My Butterfly There are things that can never be the same.

43

(2)

Reluctance

45

(4)

NORTH OF BOSTON

49

(88)

The Pasture

49

(2)

Mending Wall

51

(2)

The Death of the Hired Man

53

(7)

The Mountain

60

(5)

A Hundred Collars

65

(8)

Home Burial

73

(5)

The Black Cottage

78

(4)

Blueberries

82

(4)

A Servant to Servants

86

(6)

After Apple-Picking

92

(2)

The Code

94

(4)

The Generations of Men

98

(9)

The Housekeeper

107

(10)

The Fear

117

(5)

The Self-Seeker

122

(10)

The Wood-Pile

132

(2)

Good Hours

134

(3)

MOUNTAIN INTERVAL

137

(68)

The Road Not Taken

137

(1)

Christmas Trees

138

(3)

An Old Man's Winter Night

141

(1)

A Patch of Old Snow

142

(1)

In the Home Stretch

143

(9)

The Telephone

152

(1)

Meeting and Passing

153

(1)

Hyla Brook

154

(1)

The Oven Bird

155

(1)

Bond and Free

156

(1)

Birches

157

(2)

Pea Brush

159

(1)

Putting in the Seed

160

(1)

A Time to Talk

161

(1)

The Cow in Apple Time

162

(1)

An Encounter

163

(1)

Range-Finding

164

(1)

The Hill Wife

165

(4)

I Loneliness--Her Word

165

(1)

II House Fear

165

(1)

III The Smile--Her Word

166

(1)

IV The Oft-Repeated Dream

166

(1)

V The Impulse

167

(2)

The Bonfire

169

(4)

A Girl's Garden

173

(2)

The Exposed Nest

175

(2)

"Out, Out--"

177

(2)

Brown's Descent or the Willy-Nilly Slide

179

(3)

The Gum-Gatherer

182

(2)

The Line-Gang

184

(1)

The Vanishing Red

185

(1)

Snow

186

(16)

The Sound of the Trees

202

(3)

POEMS TO 1922 (Later published in New Hampshire)

205

(60)

A Star in a Stone-Boat

205

(3)

The Census-Taker

208

(2)

Maple

210

(7)

The Ax-Helve

217

(4)

The Grindstone

221

(3)

Paul's Wife

224

(5)

Wild Grapes

229

(4)

Place for a Third

233

(3)

Two Witches

236

(9)

The Witch of Coos

236

(5)

The Pauper Witch of Grafton

241

(4)

Fire and Ice

245

(1)

Dust of Snow

246

(1)

To E. T.

247

(1)

The Aim Was Song

248

(1)

For Once, Then, Something

249

(1)

Blue-Butterfly Day

250

(1)

The Onset

251

(1)

Good-by and Keep Cold

252

(1)

Not to Keep

253

(1)

A Brook in the City

254

(1)

Evening in a Sugar Orchard

255

(1)

The Valley's Singing Day

256

(1)

Misgiving

257

(1)

A Hillside Thaw

258

(2)

Plowmen

260

(1)

On a Tree Fallen Across the Road

261

(1)

The Lockless Door

262

(1)

The Need of Being Versed in Counry Things

263

(2)

EXPLANATORY NOTES

265

(6)

INDEX OF TITLES AND FIRST LINES

271

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Early Poems

Early Poems

014118017X

Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials