Robert Frost the Terrible
February 14, 2007
From Subterranean Frost, Adam Kirsch’s review of the recently published Notebooks of Robert Frost:
Trilling insisted on calling Frost, to his face, “a terrifying poet.” Really, he had less in common with Longfellow than with Sophocles, “who made plain … the terrible things of human life.”
As of late, there’s been some interesting discussion of Frost on the NewPoetry list too. It’s amazing how many people still think of Frost as ” guy who wrote the “two roads” poem, a stanza of which was featured on a poster in their 8th grade classoom. Every year I see more in his work… a deeper, darker point of view, yes, but also one that is in awe of the complication, waste, excess, and terrible beauty that surrounds us.
Tags:
poetry
All me-stream all the time.
content rss
February 15th, 2007 at 9:10 am
That’s hilarious about the maple syrup defense.
“Terrifying? Nonsense! A little maple syrup for yer pancakes?”
February 19th, 2007 at 6:08 am
I read something by Robert Frost about 15 years age, in Readers Digest, which has stuck with me - though it was really short.
Although he published thousands of words in his lifetime, he said:
“In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.”