The Poems of Robert Frost: An Explication

In writing this book, my intention is to fill a need not met by any of the excellent critical books and collections of essays about Robert Frost’s poems. But none offers, as this work does, a basic commonsensical explication of all 355 poems in The Poetry of Robert Frost (1969) edited by Edward Connery Lathem, now the standard collection of Frost’s poems. I introduce this material with concise summaries of Frost’s life, theories, techniques, and themes as a review for the initiate and as important background for the newcomer. —FROM THE INTRODUCTION