The Road Not Taken and Other Poems: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)

by Robert Frost

Book Overview

Frost's early poems, selected by poet David Orr for the centennial of "The Road Not Taken"

A Penguin Classics Deluxe edition

For one hundred years, Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken" has enchanted and challenged readers with its deceptively simple premise--a person reaches a fork in the road, facing a choice full of doubt and possibility. The Road Not Taken and Other Poems presents Frost's best-loved poem along with other...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0143107399
• ISBN13: 9780143107392
• Release Date: August 2015
• Publisher: Penguin Classics
• Length: 144 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 4.7" x 7.7"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 12 and higher

Customer Reviews

Robert Frost has perfect poetry

i am doing a report on Robert Frost in my English 3 class. Robert Frost is the greastest. No poem is alike. My two favorite books of his were Stopping by woods on a snowy evening and a road not taken. he has a way with words that i have never seen. I give him him and is writings 5 stars!!!!

The Essence of a Moment ? Poetry by Frost

Frost, like no other poet, captures a moment that we all have experienced at one time in life. He paints a picture with such vivid strokes of literary imagery that the mind brings the reader back to a moment in time, almost feeling the sensations of past experiences.For example, I recently made a decision where I was torn between family and career interests. To ease the anxiety of a lost professional opportunity, I reasoned that the chance would present itself again someday, maybe. Thinking of Frost I realized that he captured that very self-rationalization in the Road Not Taken. "Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back." As others have pointed out already, the largest drawback of the book is lack of thickness. Even though one of my all-time favorites, "Stopping By the Woods on a Snowy Evening," is not present, others like "An Old Man's Winter Night" make up for it. If you need a small book to stick in a backpack while hiking for moments of inspiration while on the trail, you could do worse than to carry along a little bit of Frost.

The Road Not Taken�Untermeyer's Invitation

It could be said that art, including poetry, should never be taught, only presented. A sure death knell to reader endeavor is having an artist's work forced on reluctant subjects at very young ages. Frost's universal appeal and critical success made him a favorite of the pedantic, institutional teaching of the 50's and 60's. His late-life ties to Kennedy?s Camelot made the situation worse, as increased recognition diverted plaudits askew from the real measure of his work. The negative experience of my own such introduction forced in me a habit of deliberately overlooking celebrated well-knowns for the shadowy lesser-knowns. This practice unearthed for me a few rare delights in reading, music and general discovery. Then, in my late twenties I picked up a copy of the Frost/Untermeyer, The Road Not Taken, read a couple of poems along with some of the commentary and thought well enough of it to actually buy it. I summarily read it cover to cover (something I'd rarely done with books of poetry). There were the same poems again--the ones I'd been lead to read as a youngster...but not quite. Untermeyer teaches, not out of pedantic duty, but as a true friend and scholar of Robert Frost, the man. There may be less skewed critical evaluations of Frost's poetry; but these are usually set apart from the work, and most often geared to literary scholars. In essence, Untermeyer presents rather than evaluates Robert Frost, and does it in the same manner Frost wrote--simple, deliberate, and non-intrusive.This (an earlier edition of the one offered here) is one of my most treasured books--not so much for the poems within, but for what Louis Untermeyer offers--an access to opportunity missed. Frost ?doubted if [he] should ever come back,? to where the roads diverged; yet, Untermeyer offers us a second chance, and this time (for all who think they know enough of Robert Frost), it may very well make ?all the difference.?

A lump in the throat...

I recommend this book to all those who have wondered at the world in all it's forgotten glory and revelled in the faintest scent of flower and form that God has thrown into our hurried paths, who have stumbled through the woods deliriously yet, meditatively and choked on the overwhelming delicateness of silence that leads voices to whisper and tense jaws to slacken. Here in this volume of poetry you will find a companion whose reverence for life reverberates through verse after verse. This collection exemplifies Mr. Frost's idea that a poem should not be planned but should begin as "a lump in the throat."

Buy it!

Excellent collection of Frost Poetry. Plus, the analyses by the author are a nice addition.