Robert Frost
Frost achieved poetic maturity before the beginning of poetic modernism, which was ushered in by the early 20th century movement known as imagism. He therefore had more in common with the 19th century poets and with the Georgians-poets who carried the Victorian tradition into the 20th century-than with Ezra Pound, T. S. Eliot, and others who dominated the first half of the 20th century. It is possible to say then, without implying any value judgement, that Frost is a transitional poet between the two centuries.
Frost was an "outsider" during most of his poetic career-a time when those "inside" believed that "a poem should not mean but be." Frost's poems are intended to mean. He thought that a poem should "begin in delight and end in wisdom."
Frost's characteristically defensive posture was not due solely to the fact that his poetic manner was about to be rendered "old-fashioned" by younger poets when his first volume appeared. Demanding density of texture, complex verbal ironies, symbolism, and the avoidance of outright statement, they seemed to be relegating Frost's poetry to the high schools, ladies' poetry societies, and popular anthologies. As Frost saw it, he had to survive as a poet in an intrinsically hostile climate and he did very successfully.
However, even going against the pattern and poets of the age, Frost proved to be a leading poet of any age.
Though Robert Frost has become such a national institution that he was called on the read a poem at the 1961 Presidential Inauguration, it is still difficult to understand just how deep his 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 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...
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