Date of Award

1970

Document Type

Thesis

Department

English

First Reader

Dr. Gilbert Morris

Abstract

The most important American poet since Walt Whitman is the New Englander, Robert Frost. People who have never thought of reading poetry take to Frost. His words are simple words; the images are simple, most often country, things. The music of his poetry is the sound of everyday talk, and the ideas, on the surface, anyway, are plain and straight. Subjects of Frost's poetry are such things as nature, love and friendship, self-trust, fear, and courage.

Thus, Robert Frost occupies a unique position in modern poetry. Unlike most contemporary poets, he has managed to win a wide popular audience while earning the almost universal acclaim of critics and scholars. No doubt there are three or four other modern poets whose claims to a permanent place in literature are equally secure, but none is better known than Frost, and few, if any, better loved. In order to see Robert Frost more realistically, and not merely as a myth, it is necessary to look at his life and at his personality. It is not the purpose of this brief examination to attempt to criticize the works of Frost, but instead to get a clearer picture of what Frost was really like.

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