Poet Robert Frost 1874-1963 Poet’s Region U.S., New England

Background Since 1915, Frost’s position in American letters had been rooted and he was considered the unofficial poet laureate of the U.S. (honored for creative or intellectual achievement). Frost’s poems stand at the crossroads of 19th century American poetry and modernism.

Poems He found sensuous pleasure in nature and remained clear of religion, politics, and mysticism (belief that union with the Deity may be attained through self-surrender). Frost does not illustrate regional unity or sense of community; rather, his protagonists are individuals who are forced to confront their individualism. The tragic view of life in many of his poems is adapted by his metaphysical or abstract use of detail. For example, a lonely man looks the natural world for metaphors of his own condition. Frost focuses on the seen and the unseen, the tangible and the spiritual overlap.

Birches Subjects Trees & Flowers, Winter, Relationships, Time & Brevity, Growing Old, Nature, Youth, Love, Disappointment & Failure, Living, Weather, Romantic Love, Classic Love Poetic Terms Blank Verse The poem “Birches” is an example: it contains the image of slender trees bent to the ground temporarily by a boy’s swinging on them or permanently by an ice-storm. But as the poem unfolds, it becomes clear that the speaker is concerned not only with child’s play and natural phenomena, but also with the point at which physical and spiritual reality merge.

Mending Wall Subjects Friends & Enemies, Landscapes & Pastorals, Nature, Relationships Poetic Terms Blank Verse “Mending Wall,” the leading poem in North of Boston, describes the friendly argument between the speaker and his neighbor as they walk along their common wall replacing fallen stones; their differing attitudes toward “boundaries” offer symbolic significance typical of the poems in these early collections.

The Road Not Taken Subjects Time & Brevity, Nature, Landscapes & Pastorals, Living, Midlife, Fall Poetic Terms Rhymed Stanza Like the monologues and dialogues, these short pieces have a dramatic quality. “Birches,” discussed above, is an example, as is “The Road Not Taken,” in which a fork in a woodland path transcends the specific. The distinction of this volume, the Boston Transcript said, “is that Mr. Frost takes the lyricism of A Boy’s Will and plays a deeper music and gives a more intricate variety of experience.”

Poet 1830-1886 Poet’s Region U.S., New England Emily Dickinson Poet 1830-1886 Poet’s Region U.S., New England

Background Her education in a science-heavy curriculum made a strong impact on her poetry (i.e. planets and nature). Dickinson encountered the death of friends, mentors, and family members with regularity at an early age. Many of her most well-known poems dwell on mortality.

Poems Only a few of Dickinson’s poems were published during her lifetime ––although anonymously, heavily edited, and without her consent. 1,800 of her poems were discovered after her death, neatly organized into small booklets. Her poems display her internal struggles and her strong engagement with the natural and social worlds.

Because I could not stop for Death – Subjects Living, Death From an early age, Dickinson encountered the death of friends, mentors, and family members with staggering regularity. It’s not surprising, then, that many of her most well-known poems dwell on mortality. From perhaps her most famous poem, “Because I could not stop for Death – (479)”, Dickinson’s artistic approach ranged from the philosophical to the deeply personal.

I felt a Funeral, in my Brain, Subjects Living, Disappointment & Failure, Sorrow & Grieving Poetic Terms Metaphor, Simile, Common Measure*, Imagery *A quatrain that rhymes ABAB and alternates four-stress and three-stress iambic lines. It is the meter of the hymn and the ballad.

They shut me up in Prose – Subjects Coming of Age, Reading & Books, Living, Arts & Sciences