1. Make a list of subjects that you have not found treated elsewhere in
poetry. Test the truth of the treatment by your own experience and decide
whether Mr. Frost has converted these commonplace experiences into a new
field of poetry.
2. Read in succession the poems concerning New England life and decide
whether they seem more authentic and more valuable than the others. If
so, why?
3. Is Mr. Frost's realism photographic? Consider in this connection his
own statement: "There are two types of realist--the one who offers a good
deal of dirt with his potato to show that it is a real one; and the one
who is satisfied with the potato brushed clean.... To me the thing that
art does for life is to strip it to form."
In view of the last sentence it is interesting to consider the kinds of
details that Mr. Frost chooses for presentation and those that he omits.
4. Read several of the long poems to discover his relative strength in
narrative and in dramatic presentation.
5. Examine the vocabulary for naturalness, colloquialism, and
extraordinary occasional fitness of words.
6. Try to sum up briefly Mr. Frost's philosophy of life and his attitude
toward nature and people.
7. What do you observe about the metrical forms, the beauty or lack of
beauty in the rhythm? Do many of the poems sing?