The Road Less Traveled
(A Critical Analysis of the Poetical Works of Robert Frost)
“Robert Lee Frost stands as a towering personality among the American poets not only of the twentieth but probably all the centuries to come,” (Hasni). Although this opinion would be seen as a matter of fact for most, many will still pause to ask why. What makes Robert Frost’s poetry so successful? Why is it highly regarded by both critics and the general public. The answer lies within Frost’s forms, meanings, and settings. These elements of literature are present in all of Robert Frost’s poetry, such as “Acquainted With the Night,” “Mending Wall,” and “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.” In each of these poems, Frost uses the pastoral setting of New England, where he spent most of his younger years, as well as language and concealed messages in their context. Despite the apparent simplicity of his poetical works, Robert Frost was an exceptional American poet due to his masterful use of structured verse forms and conversational dialect, hidden philosophical connotations, and natural, pastoral settings.
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He undoubtedly knew how important nature was to the survival and well-being of man. Pastoral poetry, or rustic poetry, often criticizes the materialism of society and appreciates the simplicity that life has to offer. Other literary geniuses who understood this concept of nature include the Transcendentalist authors, such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Walt Whitman. Emerson, in fact, wrote an entire essay dedicated to nature’s structure and beauty, which he correctly titled “Nature.” “In the presence of nature, a wild delight runs through the man, in spite of real sorrows,” (Emerson). Both Frost and Emerson believed that nature had the power to heal and bless mankind. Thus, both used nature as a setting for their greatest literary