robert Frost
Why study this text?
MERIT AND CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE
Robert Frost is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential 20th-century American poets. His poems are acclaimed for their naturalism and dramatic renderings of ordinary life. He was awarded four Pulitzer Prizes for Poetry. he following poems have been chosen for study: ‘The Tuft of Flowers’, ‘Mending Wall’, ‘Home Burial’, ‘After Apple-Picking’, ‘Fire and Ice’, ‘Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening’.
NEEDS AND INTERESTS OF STUDENTS
Frost’s poetry is immediately accessible, drawing on events, speech and characters encountered in everyday life. The selected poems look at aspects of human relationships and how we negotiate life. Aspects of discovery in the poems are linked to knowing more about oneself and about how one relates to others and to the natural world.
OPPORTUNITIES FOR CHALLENGING TEACHING AND LEARNING
Students will have the opportunity to examine how Frost draws on everyday life using the rhythms of spoken language to explore complex social and philosophical ideas. Through close examination and analysis of Frost’s work, students will appreciate its great technical proficiency and control of language and structure. The use of characterisation, imagery and description, naturalistic speech and dramatic monologue in the poetry all afford opportunities for intensive language study.
Many of the poems set for study here present less of a discovery than two opposing sides of a "truth". It is up to the reader to discover how these competing truths relate to each other. This means that when you read the poems you need to ask yourself:
- What is the "truth" in the poem (the meaning behind the story in the poem)?
- What is the perspective of each side (the character/s? the narrator?)
- How do the two perspectives relate to each other (are they complementary? contradictory?)
- How do you discover these perspectives (what language forms and features did Frost use?)
- What do you discover when you think about these different perspectives?
Getting started
Study Guides can be found at:
Gradesaver [http://www.gradesaver.com/the-poetry-of-robert-frost] is a simple starting point, but ignore the advertising: DON'T buy anything here!
Schmoop [http://www.shmoop.com/robert-frost/] has detailed biographical information which describes the context of Frost's life and writing
Sparknotes [http://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/frost/context.html] outlines the context of Robert Frost's work and some of the key language forms and features in his poems.
Amer Minhas [http://www.slideshare.net/irmaratel/robert-frosts-themes?next_slideshow=1] has put together a Slide share of Frost's key concerns. not all of these points are in the poems you will study.
Bear in mind that none of these study guides relates to discovery - this is something you will have to develop for yourself. A good essay on themes and characters that does not answer the AOS question will not get you marks!
Going Deeper
After Apple-Picking
Read the poem here [http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/173523]
Sparknotes [http://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/frost/section5.rhtml] includes a copy of the poem along with some useful analysis
Schmoop [http://www.shmoop.com/after-apple-picking/] features a detailed investigation of the themes of the poem and an outstanding analysis of the language forms and features. This is essential reading!
Modern American Poetry [http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/a_f/frost/apple.htm] includes a range of perspectives from respected scholars.
Safi Mahmood Mafouz [http://journals.ju.edu.jo/DirasatHum/article/viewFile/3237/2805] has written about the visual imagery in the poem, comparing it other Frost poetry and to contemporary paintings
Robert Penn Warren 's lecture includes a detailed analysis of the literal events described in the poem and the metaphorical themes we can discover from these events. [https://www.lsa.umich.edu/UMICH/hopwood/Home/Lecturers%20&%20Readers/Hopwood%20Lectures%20PDF/HopwoodLecture-1947%20Robert%20Penn%20Warren.PDF]
Fire and Ice
Read or listen to the poem here [http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/173527]
Sparknotes [http://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/frost/section9.rhtml] includes a copy of the poem along with some useful analysis
Schmoop [http://www.shmoop.com/fire-and-ice-frost/] features a detailed investigation of the themes of the poem and an outstanding analysis of the language forms and features. This is essential reading!
Modern American Poetry [http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/a_f/frost/fireice.htm] includes a range of perspectives from respected scholars.
This blog [http://analysisfireandice.blogspot.com.au/] has an excellent analysis of the poem, including links to other Frost poems.
Home Burial
Read the poem here [http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/238120] or watch this discussion by American High school students [http://aosdiscovery.weebly.com/home-burial.html]
Sparknotes [http://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/frost/section4.rhtml] includes a copy of the poem along with some useful analysis
Schmoop [http://www.shmoop.com/home-burial/] features a detailed investigation of the themes of the poem and an outstanding analysis of the language forms and features. This is essential reading!
Modern American Poetry [http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/a_f/frost/burial.htm] includes a range of perspectives from respected scholars.
Mending Wall
Read the poem here [http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/173530]
Sparknotes [http://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/frost/section3.rhtml] includes a copy of the poem along with some useful analysis
Schmoop [http://www.shmoop.com/mending-wall/] features a detailed investigation of the themes of the poem and an outstanding analysis of the language forms and features. This is essential reading!
Modern American Poetry [http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/a_f/frost/wall.htm] includes a range of perspectives from respected scholars.
Stanley Burnshaw's lecture [https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/text/transcript-robert-frosts-contrarieties] discusses the open-ended nature of many of Frost's poems and the role of the narratorial voices in creating "contrarities" that force the reader to discover something new about life.
Mark Dewyea [https://scholar.vt.edu/access/content/user/markd13/ePortfolio-Mark%20Dewyea/Critical%20Analysis.pdf] has written a detailed university-level analysis of this poem
Tuft of Flowers
Read the poem here [http://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/frost/section2.rhtml] or watch it on this video [http://aosdiscovery.weebly.com/the-tuft-of-flowers.html]
Amer Yousaf [http://www.slideshare.net/irmaratel/the-tuft-of-flowers] has a slide share which lists some of the main concerns and techniques used in this poem.
Sparknotes [http://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/frost/section2.rhtml] includes a copy of the poem along with some useful analysis
Frances Dickey [http://www.jstor.org/stable/1559769?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents] has an academic article about the way people and communities are represented in this poem. You can access this article through your local or state library.
Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening
Read the poem here [http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/171621]
Sparknotes [http://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/frost/section10.rhtml] includes a copy of the poem along with some useful analysis
Schmoop [http://www.shmoop.com/stopping-by-woods-on-a-snowy-evening/] features a detailed investigation of the themes of the poem and an outstanding analysis of the language forms and features. This is essential reading!
Modern American Poetry [http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/a_f/frost/woods.htm] includes a range of perspectives from respected scholars.
Safi Mahmood Mafouz [http://journals.ju.edu.jo/DirasatHum/article/viewFile/3237/2805] has written about the visual imagery in the poem, comparing it other Frost poetry and to contemporary paintings
Robert Penn Warren 's lecture includes a detailed analysis of the literal events described in the poem and the metaphorical themes we can discover from these events. [https://www.lsa.umich.edu/UMICH/hopwood/Home/Lecturers%20&%20Readers/Hopwood%20Lectures%20PDF/HopwoodLecture-1947%20Robert%20Penn%20Warren.PDF]
Essay Writing
Anna McHugh has written a sample essay [http://discoveryhsc.blogspot.com.au/2014/11/a-sample-essay-robert-frost-and-man-who.html] about Robert Frost's poems.
Macmillan [http://macmillanmakeyourmark.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Frost-sample-pages.pdf] has an essay for you to deconstruct in it's robert Frost Study Guide (Yes - we will be ordering the book!)
Don't plagiarise these essays - your teacher's have read them too!
For Teachers
James Guimond [http://faculty.georgetown.edu/bassr/heath/syllabuild/iguide/frost.html] _has some pointers about teaching Frost.
Penguin [http://www.penguin.com/static/pdf/teachersguides/PoemsByFrostTG.pdf] has produced a teaching guide to accompany their Signet edition of Frost's poems
Peter Stanlis [http://www.theimaginativeconservative.org/2012/04/rehabilitating-robert-frost-unity-of.html] has written an interesting review critiquing the perspective of critic william H. Pritchard and biographer Lawrence Thompson.
Elaine Barry [http://www.frostfriends.org/FFL/Frost%20on%20writing%20-%20Barry/barrytitle.html] has written an interesting article about Frost as a literary critic
Ernest Suarez's review [http://www.nhinet.org/suarez21-1.pdf] looks at the philosophy behind Frost's poetry
Robert Penn Warren [https://www.lsa.umich.edu/UMICH/hopwood/Home/Lecturers%20&%20Readers/Hopwood%20Lectures%20PDF/HopwoodLecture-1947%20Robert%20Penn%20Warren.PDF] highlights the interpenetration of the literal and metaphoric worlds in Frost's poetry