Back Robert Frost—Sixteen Poems to Learn by Heart

Jay Parini: Robert Frost—Sixteen Poems to Learn by Heart

Celebrate Robert Frost’s 150th birthday with a keepsake edition featuring 16 of his greatest poems—with brilliant essays highlighting his special genius and the power of memorization to unlock the magic of his language

Overview

Overview
Interviews “You Want to Possess the Words”: Jay Parini on Why We Can’t Stop Reading Robert Frost
May 15, 2024

Video How to Memorize a Robert Frost Poem (and Why It Matters)
May 8, 2024

Video Robert Frost: Our Poet for All Seasons, with Jay Parini and Tracy K. Smith
April 16, 2024
Once, during a public reading, Robert Frost was asked why he so frequently recited his poems from memory. “If they won’t stick to me,” he replied, “I won’t stick to them.”

In this keepsake edition, acclaimed poet and biographer Jay Parini has chosen sixteen of Frost’s greatest works to learn by heart. In accompanying commentaries, Parini explores Frost’s stylistic genius and imaginative power and offers insight into what each poem can tell us about one of our most beloved and enduring poets, and about ourselves.

“The goal of this little book is to encourage readers to slow down—to listen to Frost’s words and phrases, to locate their deepest rhythms, and hear the tune of each poem as it unfolds,” Parini writes in his introduction. “Memorizing a poem can teach us much about a poem’s structure and argument, and about the resonance of particular words. And best of all, memorization makes a poem part of our inner lives. Once committed to memory, a poem is available to us for recall at any time—and the occasions for remembering it will make themselves known to us. It isn’t something we have to work at.”

The poems:
- Storm Fear
- Mowing
- Reluctance
- Mending Wall
- After Apple-Picking
- The Wood-Pile
- The Road Not Taken
- Hyla Brook
- Birches
- Putting in the Seed
- ‘Out, Out—’
- The Sound of Trees
- Fire and Ice
- Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
- Design
- Directive
Jay Parini, the D. E. Axinn Professor of English and Creative Writing at Middlebury College, is a poet, novelist, biographer, and critic. He is the author of Robert Frost: A Life, Why Poetry Matters, and Borges and Me: An Encounter, among many other works of nonfiction. His books of poetry includeNew and Collected Poems, 1975–2015 and The Art of Subtraction.

This special hardcover publication features acid-free paper and a unique design with specifications differing from those of Library of America series titles.

Robert Frost: Sixteen Poems to Learn By Heart is published with support from Elizabeth W. Smith, in memory of her father.

18.00 List Price: $24.00 (Save: 25%) Free shipping on orders $50 and over

Or buy from our partners

Buy the eBook

Phone orders: 1-800-964-5778 Request product #410533

ISBN: 978-1-59853-770-3 147 pages

LOA books are distributed worldwide by Penguin Random House

Related Books

Edward Hirsch: The Heart of American Poetry

Robert Frost: Collected Poems, Prose, & Plays LOA N°81

Walt Whitman Speaks

American Sonnets: An Anthology

American Religious Poems: An Anthology by Harold Bloom

Library of America

CURATOR

A champion of America’s great writers and timeless works, Library of America guides readers in finding and exploring the exceptional writing that reflects the nation’s history and culture.

Learn More

PUBLISHER

From poetry, novels, and memoirs to journalism, crime writing, and science fiction, the more than 300 volumes published by Library of America are widely recognized as America’s literary canon.

Browse our books Subscribe

NON-PROFIT

With contributions from donors, Library of America preserves and celebrates a vital part of our cultural heritage for generations to come.

Support our mission

Jay Parini: Robert Frost—Sixteen Poems to Learn by Heart

Related Books

Get 10% off your first Library of America purchase.