Two volumes of early poetry: A Boy's Will was Frost's first collection of poems (1913). North of Boston followed in 1914. Together they contain many of the poet's finest and best-known works, among them "Mending Wall," "After Apple-Picking," "The Death of the Hired Man," and more. Reprinted complete and unabridged. Alphabetical lists of titles and first lines.
A Boy's Will and North of Boston (mobi)
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A poet's beginnings,
This review is from: A Boy's Will and North of Boston (Dover Thrift Editions) (Paperback)
Robert Frost came into public view with "A Boy's Will" and "North of Boston," his first short collections of poetry. While Frost's "voice" is a bit unformed in these poems, the rich ponderings of nature and love are never stronger, full of "sun-saturated meadows," melancholy looks at life and death, and pearly streams.
"I should not be withheld but that some day/Into their vastness I should steal away," Frost announces in the first poem of "A Boy's Will." He follows up this statement with everything from eerie story-poems ("Love and a Question") to exultant ("A Prayer in Spring") to melancholy meditations on nature's beauty, love, and broken hearts. "Something there is that doesn't love a wall," is the first line of one of Frost's more typical poems in "North of Boston," a nuanced work about neighbors rebuilding a wall between them. But then there are poems like "Death of the Hired Man," a long conversation between a man and his wife, about a former worker who has returned home to die. Another is just about a mountain, as told by a farmhand. Poets take awhile to reach their peak, and Frost was still starting out in these books. That said, it's astounding how good he was even in his first volume of poetry (though at times the rhymes are a little too simple, and the subjects don't vary much). Most striking is Frost's passion -- his enthusiasm, sorrow and thoughts seem to spill off the page. "A Boy's Will" and "North of Boston" are pretty different, though. The first collection is far less grounded, more ethereal and almost dreamy. Both possess Frost's exquisite phrasing ("A bead of silver water more or less/Strung on your hair won't hurt your summer looks") but the second focuses on more mundane things like hotels, farms and strangers. And more of the poems are long conversations, instead of meditations on nature and life. The first, however, has a poem about a moonlit search for a brook, the God Pan, and the stirring historical poem "In Equal Sacrifice," about Douglas carrying Robert the Bruce's heart to the Holy Land On an emotional level, the poems are about equal -- "A Boy's Will" is beautifully written, while "North of Boston" is powerful. Some readers might not be thrilled about the conversational poems, which are mostly composed of two people talking in a rather grounded fashion. ("Stark?" he inquired. "No matter for the proof."/"Yes, Stark. And you?"/"I'm Stark." He drew his passport.) But it is quite intriguing to see Frost expanding his poetry and seeing what else he was capable of doing. "A Boy's Will and North of Boston" encompasses the first two volumes of Robert Frost's classic poetry, and give a look at a poet expanding his talents and finding his unique voice.
3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Greatest Poetry Collection Of The 20th Century?,
By Notnadia (Currently upstairs.) - See all my reviews
This review is from: A Boy's Will and North of Boston (Dover Thrift Editions) (Paperback)
On January, 20, 1961, President John F. Kennedy invited the aged Robert Frost to come south from his New Hampshire farm and recite a poem on the occasion of his inauguration. Asked by a reporter why he chose to honor Frost with this invitation, Kennedy quite sincerely said, "It is Mr. Frost who honors me."
I can say with no disrespect to the office of President that Kennedy's sentiment was very true, for our Chief Executives come and go, but the works of Robert Frost will surely endure thru millennia. Robert Frost is probably America's most well-know poet and arguably its best, and in these collections we are privileged to read the words Frost penned in his relative youth, with so much acclaim lying unseen ahead of him. Here are the words that stir the soul and call us into cold New England autumns of long ago. Here are the lines that would later resonate in ten-million minds, bravely sent forth into an uncertain reception by a Frost still young and yet unheralded. Here, on the once-blank page, the spirit of rural New England of nearly a century ago is waiting to speak to all of us. An unqualified achievement of absolute genius. I truly pity anyone who passes through a lifetime without reading these poems.
2 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Robert Frost is great,
By A Customer
This review is from: A Boy's Will and North of Boston (Dover Thrift Editions) (Paperback)
This has to be Robert Frost's best piece of writing. I've never read poetry this great. I would really recommend it.
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