I have loved Robert Frost’s work since 1963 when I chose his poem “Two Roads Diverged” as the theme for my no doubt cliched and trite valedictorian speech for my high school graduation.  I cringe to recall my banal and naive words about the value of a liberal education, but  here we are today, and I still love Frost.

Parini, a professor at Middlebury College, has written 13 books of literary criticism along with a handful of novels and poetry volumes, and among them is a biography of Frost.  The latter, upon graduating as co-valedictorian from Lawrence, MA high school (his future wife was his co-), matriculated at Dartmouth.  Though he dropped out after a short time, Frost remains a presence at the university in Hanover, NH.  A good friend from the Dartmouth Class of 1961 recently showed me his class’s 50th reunion gift, a wonderful rendering of Frost writing ‘Mending Wall’ on a hill overlooking this classic Ivy campus pictured above.

I’ve enjoyed reading Frost’s work through the years.  It ranges from the brief and straightforward (think, ‘Fire and Ice’) to the long and complex (think ‘Home Burial’), from the homespun New England farmer (think ‘Mending Wall’) to the intricate and complex (think ‘Directive’).  Parini has chosen as his filter for this volume, poems that are short enough to commit to memory and powerful enough to be among Frost’s best.

It’s a fine collection with each poem followed by Parini’s analysis, both well-informed and creative. Parini concludes his informative introduction with “A good poem is a prayer, and—like prayer itself—it brings us into conversation with eternity.  We move from delight to wisdom, and we find ourselves at home.  The poem offers a clarification of life, as Frost wrote, and that is, at the least, something to provoke gratitude.  Read these poems, let them sink into memory, and let them help shape your life.”  At my age, it has proven to be hopeless to try to memorize a poem, but it is priceless to still be able to read Frost and marvel at his reach and messages.

I agree with Parini—-read these poems.