Robert Frost is one of America’s greatest poets, and I would gladly put him in competition with the world’s best. For one thing, he’s technically superb. He’s the last great sonneteer and one of the best in a line stretching from Shakespeare through Milton and Keats to Yeats and the present.

In this class we will discuss his poetry in depth. The level of quality in his poetry is amazingly high (the worthless in Wordsworth is probably 50%, in William Carlos Williams at least 80%, but in Frost it’s barely 1%). Frost is also a poet of profound philosophy, touching on every aspect of the human condition. Of all the poets I know, he’s also the one most given to rereading and even memorization. If I had to pack up for that proverbial desert island, the two books I couldn’t do without are Shakespeare and Frost.

Required text:
Frost: Poems (Everyman’s Library Pocket Poets Series), selected and edited by John Hollander, Alfred A. Knopf.