Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-02288-1 - Robert Frost in Context Edited by Mark Richardson Frontmatter More information ROBERT FROST IN CONTEXT Th is new critical volume off ers a fresh, multifaceted assessment of Robert Frost’s life and works. Nearly every aspect of the poet’s career is treated: his interest in poetics and style; his role as a public fi g- ure; his deep fascination with science, psychology, and education; his peculiar and diffi cult relation to religion; his investments, as thinker and writer, in politics and war; the way he dealt with problems of mental illness that beset his sister and two of his children; and, fi nally, the complex geopolitical contexts that inform some of his best poetry. Contributors include a number of infl uential scholars of Frost, but also such distinguished poets as Paul Muldoon, Dana Gioia, Mark Scott, and Jay Parini. Essays eschew jargon and employ highly readable prose, off ering scholars, students, and general readers of Frost a broadly accessible reference and guide. MARK RICHARDSON is Professor of English at Doshisha University, Kyoto, Japan. He is the author of Th e Ordeal of Robert Frost (1997); coeditor, with Richard Poirier, of Robert Frost: Collected Poems, Prose, and Plays (1995); and editor of Th e Collected Prose of Robert Frost (2007). He is also a coeditor of Th e Letters of Robert Frost, Volume 1: 1886–1920 (2014), the fi rst volume of a new, comprehensive four- volume edition of the letters. © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-02288-1 - Robert Frost in Context Edited by Mark Richardson Frontmatter More information © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-02288-1 - Robert Frost in Context Edited by Mark Richardson Frontmatter More information ROBERT FROST IN CONTEXT Edited by MARK RICHARDSON Doshisha University © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-02288-1 - Robert Frost in Context Edited by Mark Richardson Frontmatter More information 32 Avenue of the Americas, New York NY 10013-2473, USA Cambridge University Press is part of the University of Cambridge. It furthers the University’s mission by disseminating knowledge in the pursuit of education, learning, and research at the highest international levels of excellence. www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9781107022881 © Cambridge University Press 2014 Th is publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 2014 Printed in the United States of America A catalog record for this publication is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication data Robert Frost in Context / [edited by] Mark Richardson, Doshisha University. pages cm. – (Literature in Context) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-107-02288-1 (hardback) 1. Frost, Robert, 1874–1963 – Criticism and interpretation. I. Richardson, Mark, 1963– editor of compilation. PS 3511. R 94 Z 9166 2014 811′.52–dc23 2013044143 ISBN 978-1-107-02288-1 (hardback) Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URL s for external or third-party Internet Web sites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that any content on such Web sites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. In the Clearing , Th e Secret Sits, Once by the Pacifi c, Bereft, Two Tramps in Mud Time, Th e Birthplace, Afterfl akes, Design, Directive, On a Bird Singing in Its Sleep, Clear and Colder, Voice Ways, A Mood Apart, A Masque of Reason , Build Soil, All Revelation, Provide, Provide, Th e Cow in Apple Time, Not To Keep, To E.T., U.S. 1946 King’s X, Our Hold on the Planet, A Leaf-Treader, I Could Give All to Time, Th e Flower Boat, From Iron: Tools and Weapons, Desert Places, Th e Bear, Skeptic, Take Something Like a Star, Accidentally on Purpose, New Hampshire, Th e Runaway from Th e Poetry of Robert Frost , edited by Edward Connery Lathem. Copyright © 1916, 1923, 1928, 1947, 1949, 1962, 1968, 1969 by Henry Holt and Company, LLC. Copyright © 1934, 1936, 1940, 1942, 1944, 1945, 1947, 1951, 1956, 1960, 1962 by Robert Frost. Copyright © 1947, 1964, 1970, 1973, 1975, 1977 by Lesley Frost Ballantine. Copyright © 1988 by Alfred Edwards. Reprinted by permission of Henry Holt and Company, LLC. Excerpts from the essay “Th e Figure a Poem Makes” from the book Th e Selected Prose of Robert Frost , edited by Hyde Cox and Edward Connery Lathem. Copyright © 1939, 1967 by Henry Holt and Company, LLC. Reprinted by permission of Henry Holt and Company, LLC. Excerpts and defi nitions from the brochure Robert Frost: Th e Man and His Work. Copyright © 1920–1930 by Henry Holt and Company, LLC. Reprinted by permission of Henry Holt and Company, LLC. Excerpts from Th e Selected Letters of Robert Frost , edited by Lawrance Th ompson. Copyright © 1964 by Henry Holt and Company, LLC. Reprinted by permission of Henry Holt and Company, LLC. Excerpts from Th e Letters of Robert Frost to Louis Untermeyer , edited by Louis Untermeyer. Copyright © 1963 by Henry Holt and Company, LLC. Reprinted by permission of Henry Holt and Company, LLC. Frost’s essay on Amy Lowell is reprinted courtesy of the Estate of Robert Lee Frost, as are extracts from the poet’s unpublished letters. Chapter 1 is adapted from an essay originally published in Raritan ; Chapter 7 appeared fi rst in Virginia Quarterly Review . © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-02288-1 - Robert Frost in Context Edited by Mark Richardson Frontmatter More information Contents Contributors page ix Editor’s Preface by Mark Richardson xvii Abbreviations xxiii Part I Stylistic Contexts 1 . Th e Fate of the Frost Speaker 3 Margery Sabin 2 . Th e Figure Frost’s Prose Makes 14 Joseph M. Th omas and Mark Richardson 3. Robert Frost and Sports: Pitching into Poetry 29 Alec Marsh 4. Robert Frost as a Man of Letters 38 Robert Faggen Part II Literary–Historical Contexts 5. Robert Frost’s Design 49 Paul Muldoon 6 . Th e Lay of the Land in Frost’s Steeple Bush 6 2 Jay Parini 7. Robert Frost and the Modern Narrative Poem 72 Dana Gioia 8. Robert Frost and Modernism 85 John Xiros Cooper v © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-02288-1 - Robert Frost in Context Edited by Mark Richardson Frontmatter More information vi Contents 9. Frost and Modern Drama 92 Yasuko Shiojiri 10. Frost and the Masque Tradition 99 David Chandler 11. Frost and Anthologies 107 Mark Scott 12. “Measuring Myself against all Creation”: Robert Frost and Pastoral 114 Robert Bernard Hass 13. From Th omas Aquinas to Th e Voyage of the Beagle : Frost’s Reading 123 David Tutein Part III Philosophical and Religious Contexts 14. Robert Frost and Pragmatism 135 Jonathan Levin 15. Frost and the Provocation of Religion 142 James Barszcz 16. Frost and the Bible 151 Robert Faggen Part IV Political and Historical Contexts 17. Frost’s Political Identity 163 Steven Gould Axelrod 18. Frost and the Great Depression 171 David Evans 19. Th e Post-Reconstruction Frost 180 Mark Richardson 20. Robert Frost and the First World War 190 Tim Kendall 21. Robert Frost and the Second World War 198 Grzegorz Kosc © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-02288-1 - Robert Frost in Context Edited by Mark Richardson Frontmatter More information Contents vii 22. Frost and the Cold War 207 Steven Gould Axelrod Part V Geopolitical Contexts 23. “What Became of New England?”: Frost and Rural Sociology 217 Donald G. Sheehy 24. Figures of the Tourist and Guide in Frost 225 Marit MacArthur 25. Robert Frost and a “Native America” 233 Eric Anderson 26. Reading Robert Frost Environmentally: Contexts Th en and Now 241 Th omas Bailey Part VI Biographical Contexts 27. Frost and the Problem of Biography 253 William Pritchard 28. Th e Derry Years of Robert Frost 263 Lesley Lee Francis 29. All the Diff erence: Robert Frost in England, 1912–1915 271 Sean Street Part VII Vocational Contexts 30. Frost and Education 281 Mark Scott 31. Frost and the Institutionalization of Poetry 288 Mark Richardson 32. Th e Artifactual Frost: Th e Book Trade, Collectors, and Fine Printing 297 Pat Alger 33. Robert Frost in the Magazines 307 Jonathan N. Barron © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-02288-1 - Robert Frost in Context Edited by Mark Richardson Frontmatter More information viii Contents 34. Meet the Press: Robert Frost as Pundit 317 Lisa Seale 35. Robert Frost and the Public Performance of Poetry 324 Tyler Hoff man Part VIII Scientific and Psychiatric Contexts 36. Frost and Astronomy 333 Henry Atmore 37. Frost and “Th e Future of Man” 343 Henry Atmore 38. “Everybody’s Sanity”: Metaphor and Mental Health in Frost 351 Donald G. Sheehy Part IX Frost and Gender 39. Education by Poetry: Robert Frost, Women, and Children 369 Karen L. Kilcup 40. Robert Frost, Heroic Normativity, and the Sexual Politics of Form 380 Paul Morrison Further Reading 389 Index 395 © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-02288-1 - Robert Frost in Context Edited by Mark Richardson Frontmatter More information Contributors PAT ALGER , an award-winning songwriter and recording artist based in Nashville, Tennessee, is among the most distinguished private collec- tors of Frost’s manuscripts and books in the United States.