The Road Not Taken: A Selection of Robert Frost's Poems

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Summary: Buy it!
Review: Excellent collection of Frost Poetry. Plus, the analyses by the author are a nice addition.

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Summary: Robert Frost has perfect poetry
Review: 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!!!!

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Summary: The Road Not Taken'Untermeyer's Invitation
Review: 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.'