Customer Reviews

Robert Frost: Collected Poems, Prose, and Plays (Library of America)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I do not really I believe that all the stuff here merits five stars (books like these throw in the kitchen sink when covering their subjects). Yet, when I ask myself--"how can I possibly not give some of the stuff here more than five stars?" I cannot sufficiently answer the question.

A poet like Frost comes around maybe once in a generation (if we're lucky). Some of his works are undeniably for the ages. This volume is filled with the treasures Frost left to us.

Works like "The Tuft of Flowers," "The Death of the Hired Man," "Blueberries," "The Road Not Taken," "Fire and Ice," and "Mending Wall" (a poem that literally changed my life) are genuine contributions to world literature.

A ton of Frost's poetry is to be found in this edition. I am struck by how consistent and sure he is in his poetry. This man was a great poet. I am not a big fan of reading plays. I'd rather see them interpreted by actors on a stage. I'm not going to lie and say Frost was a great playwright--he was not. But all the same, I am glad to have read the works contained in this volume.

I must say that The Library of America's volume are all handsomely done and attractively presented. The texts are extremely readable for only being in ten-point font. For the most point, I ignored the notes (I prefer to make heads or tales of things on my own.) The few that I read surprised me because they actually were enlightening.

I recommend this volume most highly.

Are you someone who buys for the art of the book as much for the art of the contents? If so, you can't do better than any of the stellar titles from the Library Of America series of books... This splendid collection of Frost will not dissapoint...One of the many treats of this volume as is virtually true with all of the Library Of America volumes is the ease with which you can hold it comfortably in your hand...Exclusively thin acid free paper is the secret and this volume packs in a two inch thick volume what normal paper would weigh you down with five or six inches of...

What nice unedited and thorough Frost you get here!...Speaking of editing, the true Frost afficionado will want to be sure to avoid items edited by an Edward Latham...This edition is Latham free and contains Frost's work as he originally wrote it...Unfortunately, from the late sixties on, several editions of Frost went forward with unnecessary "clean up" editing by this very punctuation weilding word meister...He added to many editions extra commas and punctuation in places Frost never originally put it...If you'd like to read a much more thorough analysis of this than I can describe here, be sure to pick up a copy of writer Donald Hall's " Breakfast Served Anytime" and read the article he wrote exposing Latham and his added cleansing of Frost's work...This Library Of America edition captures Frost unedited and at his purest and best...

The reader can choose here from a smorgasbord of outstanding selections and offerings...Poetry, prose, plays...there is quite a variety of choice fare offered here...

In the words of Mr. Frost.." I'm going up to the meadow to check the newborn calf,...I shan't be long...You come too!"

Reading Robert Frost aloud is one of the most peaceful interludes in life. I live in New England and taking this volume for a walk in the woods and reading it there makes me more appreciative of nature and the creativity of this great author. I learned to enjoy him at Amherst College, where he once taught, reading an American Literature assignment outdooors on a warm Octobee afternoon. This is the best of the three collections I own. The Library of America publishes quality books and I'm sure this particular volume will outlive the other Frost collections I own.

Very attractive, solid and sturdy, materials are very well organized. Not the cheapest, but well worth it -- especially at the discount Amazon provides... And then there's the content -- top notch stuff, perfect.

An excellent book that contains all of this works to perfect form. This book as letters that he sent to other people. I have read this whole book a few times, it is perfect. Get the book.

Robert Frost is a unique American voice that many people love. A few reject him, but the majority of those whom he was writing for still love and admire his poetry. His fans always have favorites and can quote lines and whole poems from memory. When a poet gets into people's memories and hearts it is not a sure sign of greatness, but it is a good indicator of something special.

In some ways his works have aged because they are about an America that has passed. One poem that I think catches a lot of the issues surround Frost is "The Literate Farmer and the Planet Venus". This piece is about the electrification of rural America and the strangeness of it all. It talks about the speeding up of life and wonders if the future will simply do away with beds because there won't be time to sleep. The poem is set in 1926, but was published in 1942 as part of "A Witness Tree". I don't know when it was written, but if it was written around the Second World War its nostalgia seems a bit more cynical to me (which I suspect to be the case). However, if it was written back in the late 1920s then it has more whimsy and an earnest wonder.

This poet does have a capacity for irony and bite as well as humor and whimsy. His words are more conversational than lyric and that is fine. They have less music, but a great deal of color and subtle observation. It really doesn't matter what any critic says about Frost. He will outlast all of them. What matters is what he says to you. He is certainly a more worthwhile read than most of what gets published nowadays, just expect to have to deal with some words and references to an America from a century ago.

This volume from the Library of America is terrific. The table of contents in the front refers to the whole volume. The Collected Poems is the reprint that takes up most of the book and has its own table of contents as well. There is also a chronology of Frost's life, notes on sources, and many very helpful notes that can help you understand certain references. There is an index of titles and first lines, and an index of prose titles.

I always feel grateful to the Library of America whenever I get a chance to read their volumes. Heck, they are simply great to hold and flip through!

What an incredible compendium. I would like to see the US create something similar to Japan's Cultural National Treasure and Robert Frost would certainly be included as such.

Robert Frost was an amazing poet. This is the most complete collection of his writings to include his essays and lectures, which are very instructional for writing and understanding poetry, as well as some letters and short plays. His ideas and explanations were new at the time and not necessarily accepted as he would first "put them out there", but today, our greatest poets seem to have followed his lead with their own creations.

Frost was bold, this collection is evasive of time (still relevant today), and complete. I highly recommend this volume to all who are interested in American Literature and one of the best poets America has offered to the world up to and through the 1960's.

David J. Gluck author of "Life's Pages"

I took a class last semester on Robert Frost, and it was quite an experience. Frost was truly a wonderful poet who deserves every bit of praise he gets (and who is unfairly ignored in academia it seems). His words are so often true and lifechanging and beautiful and honest. Nobody is fully educated until they have read Frost's classics: "The Death of the Hired Man," "Mending Wall," "Birches," "After Apple-Picking," "Storm Fear," "Meeting and Passing," etc. There are so many good ones.

The Library of America edition is a great way to be exposed to Frost's poetry. It's true that there are a lot of pretty bad poems since everything, good and bad, is included in the volume; the uncollected poems here were meant to stay uncollected. Nevertheless, that everything is here is really a great strength to the book. It's great being able to place a single poem in Frost's entire oevre. I also liked seeing how his command of the language and the forms of poetry. Seeing everything also helped to see how his conception of his role changed. Most importantly, I loved that Frost's prose and his plays were included here. There are a number of gems to be found there. I particularly enjoyed the "'Sermon' at the Rock Avenue Temple" and Frost's children's stories. The ability to read Frost's prose alongside his poetry really enhances the reading of both.

Overall, Frost was a magnificant poet who cannot be given less than five stars, and by reading everything in this edition, one can certainly gain a greater appreciation of the poet at his finest.

For most of us most poets live through a few poems of theirs we have read in anthologies. It may be that in the case of a poet we especially love we have gone and read most of their poetry.
This volume presents a wonderful opportunity for the devotees of Frost to have in one book the work of a lifetime.
For me Frost is "The Road Not Taken" and "Birches" and "Mending Wall" and a host of scattered lines, " Good fences make good neighbors" and " The land was ours, before we were the land's".
Frost is also however, I must admit , for me the poet whose life casts a shadow on his work. Unfortunately perhaps I long ago read parts of the Thompson biography of Frost the central theme of which was his inveterate cruelty to all those around him.
All this has left me, you will excuse this, a bit 'cool toward Frost' and I personally prefer the more musical metrics of Wallace Stevens to the canny, often pithily wise lines of Frost.