Customer Reviews

The Road Not Taken and Other Poems (Dover Thrift Editions)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

These early poems of Frost ( 1916) already display his characteristically clear and cold lines, his fine delineations of Nature, his moral meanings. "Two roads diverged in a wood- and I / I took the one less traveled by/ and that has made all the difference.
Frost was a tremendously ambitious and hardworking poet, who some biographers have accused of sacrificing life and family to art. His poetry has a stark beauty about it, the beauty of the birches he devotes a major poem to.
This collection lacks many of his major poems , but nonetheless gives the feeling and flavor truly of a major American poet.

This collection of Robert Frost poems is a clear 5 star for the low price. Dover consistently provides great literature at an extremely low price. Despite the great bargain, you may want to spend more and purchase a book of Frost's complete poerty. Although this book has a nice selection, some of his greatest poems are missing from this collection, notably "Mending Wall" and "Fire and Ice." Still, if you just want a few selected poems to carry you back to another era into a New England woods on a snowy evening you can't go wrong here.

Frost, like no other poet, captures a moment that we all have experienced at one time in life. He paints a picture with such vivid strokes of literary imagery that the mind brings the reader back to a moment in time, almost feeling the sensations of past experiences.

For example, I recently made a decision where I was torn between family and career interests. To ease the anxiety of a lost professional opportunity, I reasoned that the chance would present itself again someday, maybe. Thinking of Frost I realized that he captured that very self-rationalization in the Road Not Taken. "Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back."

As others have pointed out already, the largest drawback of the book is lack of thickness. Even though one of my all-time favorites, "Stopping By the Woods on a Snowy Evening," is not present, others like "An Old Man's Winter Night" make up for it. If you need a small book to stick in a backpack while hiking for moments of inspiration while on the trail, you could do worse than to carry along a little bit of Frost.

I recommend this book to all those who have wondered at the world in all it's forgotten glory and revelled in the faintest scent of flower and form that God has thrown into our hurried paths, who have stumbled through the woods deliriously yet, meditatively and choked on the overwhelming delicateness of silence that leads voices to whisper and tense jaws to slacken. Here in this volume of poetry you will find a companion whose reverence for life reverberates through verse after verse. This collection exemplifies Mr. Frost's idea that a poem should not be planned but should begin as "a lump in the throat."

My favorite is the title poem, "The Road Not Taken." I enjoyed this book and any poetry lover will as well. The reader will meditate and reflect on life as Frost did.

I was looking forward to reading 'Stopping By the Woods on a Snowy Evening', but came away disappointed. Of course, 'The Road Not Taken' is worth the price of admission regardless. It is chock-full - as chock-full as 53 pages can possibly be - of other Frost goodies.

Overall, a good book for the price and a great addition to your order, but for serious Frost devotees I would suggest a more comprehensive collection.

These poems seem firmly rooted in New England and seem to be timeless, though decidedly pre-modern feel to them (this was originally published in 1916). Some of these poems may seem familiar ... "The road not taken" is popular at high school graduations. There are poems of nature such as The Oven Bird ("There is a singer everyone has heard,/ Load, a mid-summer and mid-wood bird,") or "Birches ("and they seem not to break; though once they are bowed/ for low for long, they never right themselves") but with wider significance. There are also poems of rural isolation such as "The Hill Wife" and "Snow". His poetry plays by literary and poetic rules, and may not be simple to read, but he does not oversimplify life.

Classic Robert Frost - probably the preeminent American "modern" poet. This is a reprint of Mountain Interval in the original format.

It is easy to order this, for a couple of dollars, add it to the shelf. It is a great intro for those interested in well known poems. I had a request from my daugher for books on poetry - there are a few in this series, for similar prices and the experience in these, for my daughter, is priceless. It is more affordable to order these books than to copy or print them off.

No brainer if you are looking at this. All a gain.

I did submit a review last week, but, as we were having computer problems related to the extreme heat, perhaps it did not arrive.

I am sure this will make a nice gift; I was hoping that the poem which contains the lines: ...but I have promises to keep and miles to go before I sleep..." would be included.

Still, Robert Frost is truly one of the great ones of American poetry.

Sister Elizabeth Ann