The Poetry of Robert Frost

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.

  • Group Leader(s): ALAN HELMS
  • Days: Tuesdays
  • Times: 3:30 to 5:30 pm
  • Start Date: 3/31/2020
  • End Date: 5/5/2020
  • Sessions: 6
  • Exceptions: recurring
  • Venue: Arlington Street Church
  • Teaching Style: Seminar
  • Weekly Preparation: None
  • Biography: Alan Helms is professor emeritus of U Mass Boston and the University of Paris and is also an authority on Walt Whitman. For twenty years he has reviewed ballet and modern dance for the South End News and Bay Windows and the world’s largest dance website, DanceTabs.com.
  • Address: 351 Boylston Street, Boston, MA 02116