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20th Century Views

Robert Frost a Collection of Critical Essays

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A symposium of sensitive and thoughtful criticism written about the poetry of Robert Frost.

Ranging from high praise to severe judgment, eleven critical writings indicate the conflicts of opinion which have gathered around this major poet.

More important, these thoughtful appraisals mark the beginning of a new phase in Frost criticism. Earlier critics defined Frost as being against the main currents of modern poetry. In the second stage of Frost criticism, he is appraised and accepted as one of the great poets of the century.

Robert Frost's theory of poetry / Lawrance Thompson --
The case against Mr. Frost / Malcolm Cowley --
Robert Frost and New England : a revaluation / W.G. O'Donnell --
Robert Frost : or, The spiritual drifter as poet / Yvor Winters --
To the Laodiceans / Randall Jarrell --
Robert Frost and the interrupted dialogue / Harold H. Watts --
"A momentary stay against confusion" / John T. Napier --
Robert Frost and his use of barriers : man vs. nature toward God / Marion Montgomery --
A speech on Robert Frost : a cultural episode / Lionel Trilling --
A momentary stay against confusion / George W. Nitchie --
Frost as modern poet / John F. Lynen.

205 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1962

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About the author

James M. Cox

12 books1 follower

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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
Profile Image for Ted.
515 reviews740 followers
February 21, 2019
He has not completed poems to make his books but has made his books from completed poems.


Went downstairs to fetch this today, thought I might flip through it a bit as I worked through Frost's poetry this year.

Was surprised to find that I'd apparently used it quite a bit over half a century ago, must have been one of the two semesters I was an English major in college. Quiet a bit of underlining, notes etc seemingly in my handwriting.

Of course something like this is overkill for most poetry readers, there isn't usually an interest in "critical essays", just want to read and enjoy the poetry. If someone would like to delve into this sort of thing for Frost, this volume could be useful.

Has eleven essays, several by names that I still recognize - Malcolm Cowley, Randall Jarrell, Marion Montgomery, Lionell Trilling. Nice Introduction by James M.Cox. The quote above is from Cox. It refers to the fact that when Frost published his first slim volume (A Boy's Will) in 1913, he was 39 years old, and had simply collected in it what he thought to be related poems that had been written over the two decades previously. His second volume (North of Boston), published the next year, was similarly put together with poems he had already written; and so it went throughout his career, always writing, always staying ahead.

Critical Essays was published in 1962. Cox opens by writing how
it is difficult to comprehend just how deep [Frost's] roots go down into time. When he published "My Butterfly" in the Independent in November 1894, Henry James had not yet entered his major phase and Stephen Crane had not published The Red Badge of Courage. A year earlier, Yeats had published The Celtic Twilight, but Poems had not yet appeared, and Conrad, having closed his career in the merchant service, was beginning one as a professional writer. The careers of Lawrence, Joyce, Eliot, and Pound had of course not begun; Fitzgerald, Faulkner, and Hemingway had not even been born.




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Previous review: Julius Caesar
Next review: The French Revolution Thomas Carlyle
Older review: The Once and Future King

Previous library review: The Sound and the Fury
Next library review: The Poetry of Robert Frost
804 reviews11 followers
May 2, 2009
Some of these essays on Frost are helpful and well-written - Malcolm Cowley, Lionel Trilling, and Randall Jarrell are represented among others.
38 reviews
July 6, 2009
Frost and about Frost is always interesting.
My book, which seems to have the same data, except:
Twentieth Century Views series S-TC-3
205 pp.
Profile Image for Michael Arnold.
Author 2 books24 followers
July 15, 2015
I must admit, I didn't read every essay - but this is a good collection of early Frost criticism. I'm not sure how useful it will be outside of Trilling's speech though.
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