Wednesday, June 18, 2014

What are the top three poems that make Robert Frost a best-loved poet?

The three most anthologized Frost poems are probably
"Birches," "The Road Not Taken," and "Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening."  I like
these, but my top three would be "Design," " One Acquainted with the Night," and "After
Apple-Picking."


Frost is a 20th Century modern American
poet.  Though he often writes about modern themes such as loneliness, alienation,
desolation, he, unlike most modern poets, usually uses a strict structure.  Most of his
poems rhyme.  I think his structure and rhyme make him easy to remember and
quote.


Also, much of his appeal lies in his deceptively
simple lines.  Frost uses a simple vocabulary to convey his ideas, and yet the ideas are
quite complex.  A poem about ground being covered by snow becomes more a statement about
man's own desolation, as in "Desert Places."  A poem about trees in an ice-storm becomes
a statement of the desire to temporarily escape the world's troubles and woes, as in
"Birches."  A poem about two paths in the woods becomes a poem about individual choices,
as in "The Road Not Taken."  Most readers enjoy the depth of Frost's poems as well as
their simple elegance and well-crafted structure.

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