Selected Poems

Selected Poems (1923) is a collection of poems by American poet Robert Frost. Dedicated to Edward Thomas, a friend of Frost’s and an important English poet who died toward the end of the First World War, Selected Poems is a wonderful sampling of poems from Frost’s early collections, including A Boy’s Will and North of Boston. Known for his plainspoken language and dedication to the images and rhythms of rural New England, Robert Frost is one of America’s most iconic poets, a voice to whom generations of readers have turned in search of beauty, music, and life.

＂Mowing＂ envisions the poet’s work through the prism of rural labor. ＂There was never a sound beside the wood but one / And that was my long scythe whispering to the ground. / What was it it whispered?＂ The speaker does not know, but continues his task, hypnotized by its rhythm and simple music. In ＂After Apple-Picking,＂ as fall gives over to winter, the poet remembers in dreams how the ＂Magnified apples appear and disappear, / Stem end and blossom end＂ as he climbs the ladder into the heart of the tree. Both a symbol for life and a metaphor for the poetic act, apple picking leaves the poet ＂overtired / Of the great harvest [he himself] desired＂, awaiting sleep as he describes ＂its coming on,＂ wondering what, if anything, it will bring. ＂The Road Not Taken,＂ perhaps Frost’s most famous poem, is a meditation on fate and free will that follows a traveler in an autumn landscape, unsure of which path to take, but certain he cannot stand still.

With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Robert Frost’s Selected Poems is a classic of American literature reimagined for modern readers.