In the Clearing [Hardcover]

Robert Frost (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Henry Holt & Company, Inc.; First edition (September 1995)
• ISBN-10: 0030310105
• ISBN-13: 978-0030310102
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,728,012 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Robert Frost, August 28, 2007

By 

RESEARCHER SMITH - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: In the Clearing (Hardcover)

Several memorable Frost poems in this collection. Especially the piece entitled "In the Clearing." No one captures the mysterious nature of the human predicament in the way that Robert Frost did. Book arrived from seller in a timely manner complete with dust jacket.

3.0 out of 5 stars And wait to watch the water clear..., September 27, 2005

By 

Betty Burks "Betty Burks" (Knoxville, TN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: In the Clearing (Hardcover)

This is his last book with new poems. He is regarded as one of America's greatest poets. Among his many honors are four Pulitzer Prizes and an appointment as Consultant in Poetry at the Library of Congress.

At John F. Kennedy's inauguration on Jan. 20, 1961, he was called the Poet Laurete of U. S. A. to be acknowledged by such an educated president to take part. He was such an old man, he fumbled his papers, as he read "The Gift Outright." This was the first time when a poet had been so honored and marked a high point in his long and distinguished career.

When the English poet W. H. Auden wrote an essay in praise of Robert Frost, he made the observation that he was literally in a class by himself: "the class of nature poets who have worked with the land and actually know how to milk cows and, in general, can life the life of a Yankee farmer. In his elder years, in Florida, he planted orange groves and other fruits.

He was more than a poet and man of letters. He was a public figure and had by the time of his death in 1963 become a nation's symbol. His most famous poems are "Stopping by Wood on a Snowy Evening" and "Mending Wall." In his book, NORTH OF BOSTON, you will find a long poem/fable called "The Generations of Man."

Since I am a bird fancier, I chose "Looking For a Sunset Bird in Winter" (as I look for birds year round in this town which hates starlings and pigeons.

The west was getting out of gold,
The breath of air had died of cold,
When shoeing home across the white,
I thought I saw a bird alight.

In summer when I passed the place,
I had to stop and lift my face;
A bird with an angelic gift
Was singing in it sweet and swift.

No bird is singing in it now.
As gilt to gold that wouldn't show,
A brush had left a crooked stroke
Of what was either cloud or smoke --
From north to south across the blue.
A fpercing little star was (shining) thru.

In YOU COME, TOO, Noel Perrin write in his foreword, that Frost was determined to use "the ordinary language of ordinary people, and to transmute that plain Yankee speech into shining verse."
President Kennedy is quoted, "...has bequeathed his nation a body of imperishable verse from which Americans will forever gain joy and understanding."

NORTH OF BOSTON was written along with all sorts of briefer things in rhyme in a form suggested by the eclogues of Virgil. He'd tried for years to get his poems published in 'Atlantic Monthly who automatically rejected each and every thing he submitted. I used to love poetry but could not write it; Tristan, on the other hand, was such a writer, though his dad Zach was more into prose like his old mom, except for the science fiction and sports. Robert Frost was a true classic.