Robert Frost (1874-1963)

A selective list of online literary criticism for Robert Frost, favoring signed articles by recognized scholars, articles published in reviewed sources, and web sites that adhere to the MLA Guidelines for Web Pages

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Literary Criticism

Barron, Jonathan N. A substantial introduction to Robert Frost from the Literary Encyclopedia, 12/13/04

Barry, Elaine A selection from Barry's Robert Frost on Writing (Rutgers Univ. Press, 1973), covers on Frost's ideas on the art of poetry, technique, and theory. Friends of Robert Frost

Bidney, Martin. "The secretive-playful epiphanies of Robert Frost: Solitude, companionship, and the ambivalent imagination." Papers on Language and Literature, 7/1/02

Brower, Reuben. On "After Apple-Picking," excerpts from essays on "After Apple-Picking" by eight important critics, including Dr. Brower. At the Modern American Poetry site (Univ. of Ill.)

Faggen, Robert. The Cambridge Introduction to Robert Frost (Cambridge Univ. Press). Publisher's site, preview available.

Francis, Lesely Lee. "Robert Frost and the Child Mother Goose and 'the Imagination Thing.'" Massachusetts Review, Summer 2004

Francis, Lesely Lee. Robert Frost: An Adventure In Poetry, 1900-1918 (Transaction Publishers, 2004). Preview at Google Books.

Freeman, Donald C. Burning gold: for John Robert Ross ["Nothing Gold Can Stay"] Style, Spring-Summer, 2006

Glenn, Karen. "Robert Frost in the Petri Dish." On Frost's interest in science. At the Poetry Foundation

Hammer, Langdon. "The poems 'Mowing' and 'Out, Out--' are interpreted, and the tensions between vernacular language and poetic form that they showcase are explored." "In this second lecture on the poetry of Robert Frost, the poet's use of iambic pentameter in 'Birches' is discussed. Frost's anti-modernity is evidenced in his interest in rural New England culture and his concern with the lives of laborers in 'Home Burial.' The failure of humanity to work real change is sardonically depicted in 'Provide, Provide,' but a hopeful vision of the power of imagination is presented in the final lines of the late poem, 'Directive.'" Yale Univ., English 310, Spring 2007, Open Courseware, transcript.

Hass, Robert Bernard. (Re)Reading Bergson: Frost, Pound and the Legacy of Modern Poetry [modernism]. Journal of Modern Literature, Fall 2005.

Hinrichsen, Lisa. "A Defensive Eye: Anxiety, Fear and Form in the Poetry of Robert Frost." Journal of Modern Literature, Spring 2008

Jarrell, Randall. On "Home Burial." Commentary from seven important critics and poets, including Jarrell, on Frost's "Home Burial." Modern American Poetry site (Univ. of Ill.)

Kearns, Katherine. Robert Frost and a poetics of appetite (Cambridge Univ. Press, 1994). Preview at Google Books.

Liebman, Sheldon W. "Robert Frost, romantic - poet." On whether, and in what sense, Frost was a romantic. Twentieth Century Literature, 12/22/96

Link, Eric Carl. "Nature's extra-vagrants: Frost and Thoreau in the Maine woods." Papers on Language and Literature, Spring 1997

Lynen, John F. A selection from Lynen's The Pastoral Art of Robert Frost (Yale University Press, 1960). Discusses Frost's use of nature and compares him to William Wordsworth. Friends of Robert Frost

Monteiro, G. Selections from Monteiro's Robert Frost & The New England Renaissance (University Press of Kentucky, 1988) cover The Road Not Taken, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, and The Draft Horse; and The Tuft of Flowers, Mending Wall, and Frost's connection to Ralph Waldo Emerson. Friends of Robert Frost

Murphy, James 'A Thing So Small': The Nature of Meter in Robert Frost's 'Design.' Modernism/modernity, April, 2007.

Phillips, Siobhan. "The Daily Living of Robert Frost." Abstract. PMLA, Volume 123, Number 3, May 2008, pp. 598-613 (16)

Stambuk, Andrew. "Learning to Hover: Robert Frost, Robert Francis, and the Poetry of Detached Engagement." Twentieth Century Literature, 12/22/99

Westover, Jeff. "National forgetting and remembering in the Poetry of Robert Frost" [Native Americans]. Texas Studies in Literature and Language, Summer 2004.

Zubizarreta, John. "Octavio Paz and Robert Frost: El polvo y la nieve que se deshacen entre las manos." Comparative Literature, Summer 1995

Burr, Zofia. On similarities and differences in the reception of Maya Angelou's poetry and Robert Frost's. From a talk at the Conference on Contemporary Poetry, Rutgers, 1997 (removed)

Garnett, Edward. A 1915 article in The Atlantic Monthly on Robert Frost by Edward Garnett, hailing Frost as "A New American Poet" (removed)

Sedgwick, Ellery. Article on how Ellery Sedgwick, the editor of The Atlantic Monthly, rejected Frost's early poems. The Atlantic Monthly (removed)

Senst, Angela M. "Regional and National Identities in Robert Frost's and T.S. Eliot's Criticism," CLCWeb, l 3.2 (2001) (moved or removed)

Van Doren, Mark. "Robert Frost's America," an article from the 1951 Atlantic Monthly (removed)

Introduction, Biography, & Lighter Reading

Excerpts of influential critical commentaries for the following poems: Mending Wall, Home Burial, After Apple-Picking, The Wood-Pile, The Road Not Taken, Birches, The Oven Bird, An Old Man's Winter Night, The Hill Wife, Fire and Ice, Good-By and Keep Cold, The Need of Being Versed in Country Things, Design, The Witch of Coos, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, Acquainted With the Night, Gathering Leaves, In a Disused Graveyeard, Nothing Gold Can Stay, Desert Places, Two Tramps in Mud Time, Neither Our Far Nor In Deep, Never Again Would Birds' Song Be the Same, The Gift Outright, Provide, Provide. From Modern American Poetry Site (Univ. of Illinois)

An introductory article on Robert Frost's career, discusses his techniques and ideas, and includes samples of his poems, from the Poetry Foundation

Parini, Jay. Robert Frost: A Life. Preview at Google Books. Reviewed in the NY Times, 4/25/99

Friends of Robert Frost web site provides help for students, articles and book excerpts, a biography, and more

"The rehabilitation of Robert Frost," The New Criterion, June 1996.

Short biographies of Robert Frost by William H. Pritchard and Stanley Burnshaw, and a bibliography. From Modern American Poetry Site (Univ. of Illinois)

On Robert Pinsky's "America's Favorite Poem" Project, which determined that Frost's "The Road Not Taken" is the best loved poem in the U.S.

An short biographical introduction to Robert Frost from Gale Publishing

A narrative account of visiting the Robert Frost Farm in Derry, N.H., from the Literary Traveler web site

(removed) A transcript of John Hollander's 1997 lecture for The Academy of American Poets, "A Close Look at Robert Frost," which focuses on "The Oven Bird"

Web sites

"A Frost Bouquet: Robert Frost, His Family, and the Clifton Waller Barrett Library of American Literature." An online exhibition from the University of Virginia.

Robert Frost reading After Apple-Picking

A description of the Robert Frost documents in the the Jones Library Collection in Amherst, Mass

Publication dates for Robert Frost's works, from the Modern American Poetry Site (Univ. of Illinois)

An account of Robert Frost's sojourns in Texas. From the web site Literary San Antonio by Paul McQuien and Kim G. Hochmeister, at San Antonio College

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