Early Poems

by Frost, Robert; Robert, Faggen

• ISBN13: 9780141180175
• ISBN10: 014118017X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1998-06-01
• Publisher: Penguin Classics

Summary

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."

Author Biography

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.

Table of Contents

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