I first owned this volume of poetry in 1978. That book simply fell apart after more than 20 years of reading and handling (sometimes roughly by my children). I replace this book with a new one just last year.
The old favorites are all here; Fireflies in the Garden, The Road Not Taken, Fire and Ice, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, and a hundred more. In my opinion this is the definitive volume on Frost.
I have always been awed by the number of poems Frost wrote about the stars. A Star on a Stoneboat, The Star Spitter, Stars, Canis Major and many others. Truly Robert Frost is the astronomers poet.
Also in this volume is perhaps my favorite Frost poem, Brown's Descent.
If you love reading Frost on a crispy fall evening, then you'll love reading him when the crickets chirp. You'll need to own this book.

Robert Frost was and is America's greatest poet. Excepting, perhaps, W. B. Yeats, he may be the greatest poet to write English in the twentieth century. (To me, it's a toss-up.) To read this volume systematically or desultorily is to become convinced of that. But Frost is, above all, accessible, so the casual reader may not appreciate the difficulty of what he does. Like much of the greatest art his looks easy, even inevitable.

All of Frost's poems are here, plus his two dramatic Masques. When this book first appeared (in 1969) it caused a furor: the editor, it was angrily asserted, presumed too much. He dared to clarify - inserting a hyphen here, excising a comma there. That furor has since died down, as people realize that he did not do away with the sacred texts (any emendation was noted), but simply performed his job as editor. He regularized spelling and the use of single and double quotes (though not Capitalization, which can legitimately be thought of as integral to the poet's expression (think of e.e. cummings!)), and corrected other obvious errors. The notes give the published variants for each poem, so if you wish you may make your own call on some of these finicky issues.

I cannot emphasize enough: BUY THE HARDCOVER! After all, you will be reading this book for the rest of your life. It is a beautifully-built volume, of an easy size and heft for use, with understated appealing typefaces and an exemplary design. Put out by Frost's long-time publisher, this is one of the few essential books of American literature.

"It is absurd to think that the only way to tell if a poem is lasting is to wait and see if it lasts, The reader of good poem can tell the moment it strikes him that he has taken an immortal wound-that he will never get over it...The proof of a poem is not that we have never forgotten it, but we knew at sight we would never forget it."

Robert Frost

I have to admit it! When I first met Robert Frost's poetry in Freshman English class I took an immortal wound-that I will never get over it. Perhaps the then recent memory of the white haired poet who inaugurated Camelot that cold, January day conditioned me to receive the wound. Maybe Fr. Sheridan's teaching opened these poems for me. Most of all, I think that it is the words themselves which have made the poetry of Robert Frost such an important part of my life for almost 35 years.

This complete collection complemented the high school text book to which I had so often referred over the years. Here is the source of lines which I have often quoted. Many family vacations have begun with: "I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep" (Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening).

When my son tries to silence his sister's singing he is reminded that "Of course there must be something wrong In wanting to silence any song" (A Minor Bird).

Here we find philosophical reflections. "Good walls make good neighbors" counters "Something there is that doesn't like a wall" (Mending Wall).

Here "The Death of a Hired Man" challenges us to reflect upon how we value and treat others while "Christmas Trees" reminds us that not all things have prices. Here we are invited to follow the road of the poet who wrote "I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference" (The Road Not Taken).

I have writen just a sampling of the treasures to be found in this collection, but I have written enough. It is now time to indulge again with words I have never forgotten. "I shan't be gone long-You come too." (The Pasture).

The author's passion for roses shows on every page. The details on soil, nourishment, planting location, climate are highly valuable. Even creating new roses is covered. The photos and history of every selected plant show lots of devoted research. The listing of Rose nurseries and organizations saves lots of planning time. Love that book.

This book is as useful as a reference as it is lovely to look at. Growing roses at my home in USDA hardiness zone 3 limits choices to a few shrubs found at the local garden center, but 'Hardy Roses' provides well-organized lists of additional choices one can find in catalogs. Want a rose that smells divine? Use the charts that indicate the degree of fragrance. Require disease resistant varieties? The lists tell you which ones are easy to keep healthy. Equally valuable are the lists of catalog suppliers, because chances are, these varieties won't be available at the local outlets. Cultural information is here too, but seems slanted toward shrub rose growers rather than us die-hards determined to grow hybrid teas at any cost in impossible conditions. Along with Ortho's 'All About Roses', 'Hardy Roses' is the most-used of my 20 or so books on roses, and is a very good value. I recommend that after you receive it, keep a dust cover on the paperback version so you can carry it around shopping with you without damaging its pretty cover.

This book inspires cold-climate gardeners to grow roses. The writing is clear and easy to understand and the photos are beautiful. It covers information from where to plant your roses (including a discussion on microclimates) to growing to starting roses from seed and cuttings. It reviews over 100 hardy roses and is written by someone who knows and loves roses. Great for beginners and seasoned rose growers

This book helped me see Frost in a new light, as a thinker grappling with the problems science poses to religion and to poetry. There is an enormous amount of scholarship brought to many poems, and we see the ways Frost thought not only about Darwin but about Lucretius, Milton, James, Bergson, Emerson, and Thoreau. The Frost that emerges is both dark and complex--a subversive and subtle pastoralist. Though the book is written in clear prose with very little jargon, it is a heavy read. But well worth it.

Professor Faggen has written a remarkable book. We might have considered Frost a sentimental, a provincial poet, but in this volume we discover that Frost (far from the potato-hoeing grandpa of our collective memories) is a poet of the first order and among the most challenging of the moderns. Frost's revaluations of the Romantic and the Miltonic myths in Darwinian terms place him as our chief poet of the scientific, the skeptical turn of mind. The evidence amassed for his argument is daunting and Faggen has contributed to our understanding of the place of Darwin--biological and social--in modern poetry. Faggen's individual readings are acute and original. We will from now on see "The Road Not Taken," "The Oven Bird," and "The Need of Being Versed in Country Things," in a different way. We will see them not as melancholy mood poems, but as tough and riddling explorations of human and animal existence. We may now begin to see Frost's place in American literature, and that a high position indeed! We may thank Robert Faggen for deepening our understanding and broadening our view.

Many books and articles have been written about the poetry of Robert Frost, but this book, astonishingly, makes almost all of them obsolete. Frost's critics have found him haunted by a dark vision but they have been hard pressed to say exactly what it was. They have struggled to find the real context of his thinking, but the poems, in spite of many melancholy readings, have remained elusive. What are these elegant meditations really about? Where does the impetus for these disturbing dramatic monologues and stark dialogues come from? Faggen's brilliantly researched and forcefully written book finally tells us the answer: Frost was obsessed with Darwin and his vision of the natural world. He said so many times (though none of his critics was willing to listen). And once you have recognized this fact, the grave, witty, tender, and frightful poems acquire a new clarity and force. Frost was no "spiritual drifter," no vague perveyor of "metaphysical terror," as earlier writers have thought, but the most sophisticated and tough-minded poet of science that modern culture has produced--the nearest thing we have to a Lucretius. This book takes a figure who has seemed conservative or even backward to his readers and shows him to be the most forward-looking artist of his generation. And it accomplishes this task with an easy mastery of detail that removes all doubt. "Never again would bird's song be the same," Frost wrote--never the same after reading Darwin, that is, nor will this poem be the same after reading Faggen. The romantic Frost is dead, and a new Frost is afoot. Some will mourn, some will rejoice at the news, but scholarship is seldom as conclusive as this and hardly ever as exciting.

According to my trusty and well worn Concise Oxford Dictionary "exquisite" means "of consummate excellence or beauty". I looked the word up because it was the word that came to mind whilst enjoying this work. Much pleasure to return to many familiar poems of Robert Frost eg MENDING WALL and STOPPING BY WOODS ON A SNOWY EVENING and to discover unfamiliar gems such as BEYOND WORDS. But the photos too have a clarity and depth and composition not to mention colour which helps the contemplative richness of Robert Frost's words. And not a human in sight! Especially rewarding work for those moments of repose, of calm, when one wants to escape the hurly burly, the flim flam, the gibbering and bustle,and drift, dissolving into the natural world. But, returning to the world of commerce, I can tell you this book is a bargain.

For any fan of lovely poetry and pictures, this book is a must-have. The pictures are simple and yet they convey the wonder of nature's beauty and the poems compliment them very well.

I have a fairly extensive collection of art and fine photography books:This modestly priced book represents the VERY BEST photography one could hope to gaze upon.This collection of photographs is an antidote to alot of the "eye candy"stuff that passes for landscape photography these days!This book also offers the best argument for color to those black and white"purists"out there.Do yourself a favor and purchase an armful of these books(I am assuming you have good friends who enjoy fine gifts!)

I purchased this book because I love Robert Frost's poetry. I got the hardcover so it would be worth keeping on a bookshelf. The print was blurred in several places, there was no index by first lines, and the cover was disappointing. I expected for $30.00 a nice quality binding. Not worth the money, especially when comparing to a copy of Thoreau's "Faith in a Seed" which was $21.00 and very nice, on good quality paper, with a dustcover.

Robert Frost's legacy is a vision of startling clarity and bottomless empathy. His poems are deceptively simple, and anyone who has not revisited them since Junior High School is in for a surprise of major proportions: What seemed so simple, "Stopping By the Woods on a Snowy Evening" perhaps, dazzles anew with complexity. Those quaint New England homilies are really metaphors for the most subtle observations. What seems to be a story about the life of nature is really a lesson about the nature of life. Frost has been criticized for being too accessible, as if communicating in one's writing were a sin. But while he is accessible, he is never transparent. These poems are a well one can return to again and again for a fresh drink, a fresh perspective, a long, sweet sip.

Mark Richardson has a profound command of the work of Robert Frost. This book was an absolute delight to read. I would recommend it not only to those readers interested in Robert Frost, but in the study of poetry in general.

Exceptionally good book, and a must-read for anyone interested in Frost, or occupied with the study of his work. Thoughtful and rewarding. Highly recommended.

I have been using this as a required text in my grad courses on Frost here in Japan now for the last five years and I plan to continue doing so for the next five or more. My only complaint is that it is not available in an affordable paperback for my students... instead they must pay this high price... still, there is nothing else that covers Frost's poetry as well as Mordecai's explication.

Tom Hill

Actually, I must be trusthful with all of you, that I have not read this book... However, I am farmiliar with the work of Robert Frost, and I would like to recognize it. I think he is a great poet.

Robert Frost has been one of my favorite poets since I watched him attempt to read a poem on a sunny, crisp morning at John F. Kennedy's Presidential Inauguration.

Although I have only owned this book for only a few months, it is already littered with Post-it notes marking the location of my favorite poems. I am told this is the only comprehensive volume of Frost's 11 published books. Edward Lathem, a Frost scholar and editor of this volume, includes bibliographical information on the poems' publication and specifies the textual changes Frost made over the years.

Although I have decades of exposure to Frost's work, I inevitably find a new nuance or thought as I thumb through this volume's pages. It is a fitting tribute to a four-time Pulitzer Prize winner and a man I consider the United States' greatest poet.

This book, reputedly, contains every published poem by Robert Frost, from each of his eleven books. As such, it is the ultimate collection of Frost's poetry now in print.

If you are a Frost enthusiast, or if you like poetry about life in rural New England, you need this book.

Also intresting are the endnotes, which track editorial changes Frost made in each of his poems through the years.

This is a great book to read while sitting in front of the fireplace on a cold winter night; or while sitting in the woods on a nippy autumn day taking in the colors of fall.

William Gordon did a fabulous job compiling this gem of a collection. This is a "must" for any writer for both inspiration and information. I reach for it often in my struggle to write my second book. I appreciate the varied resources from all kinds of backgrounds (and different ages), but most of all, they are writers who have gone down the same path as I.

Writers love words and Bill Gordon loves writers. Hehascompiledover 170 pages of categorized quotations from more than 600authors. This book is recommended to all writers, not just for yourown enjoyment but as a resource. When it is not on your nightstand, it will be within easy reach of your desk, next to your dictionary.

It was upon having a conversation at school five years ago, that a friend suggested Robert Frost to help (form the basis) of one of my assignments. When I asked how he knew of him, my friend replied; "oh.., he's often quoted on TV" and I believed him (to this day I've never heard him mentioned). So I've come to guess that my old friend uses Frost as I occasionally do. To relax.

For it was upon going through a rough time that I again borrowed the complete works of Frost and a few other poets to get me through. And so inspired I was that I began trying to write some of my own. But as Frost had initially drawn me in with his simple, eaasily understood verses, he just as quickly lost me out the other side. But why I write this review is because I admired Frost's ability to start writing so descriptively so late in life, about man, life, decisions, the enviroment and even a wall! (ha! ha!).

So if you have never read poetry before, or you just wan't some new material. Buy Frost's complete collection. Oh and buy it from Amazon.com!

While other poets must abide our endless questioning regarding contemporary poetry, Robert Frost stands head and shoulders above the rest--free and serene and magnificent, truly the George Washington of modern American verse. Frost was honored with the Pulitzer Prize on four occasions: in 1924 for "New Hampshire;" in 1931, for "Collected Poems;" in 1937 for "A Further Range;" and in 1943 for "A Witness Tree."

Critics love Frost. The American people love Frost. The world at large loves Frost. You will love Frost, too, if you read this book. Begin with one of his most famous--and his most beautiful, "Mending Wall,"

Something there is that doesn't love a wall,/ That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,/ And makes gaps even two can pass abreast...

Never to be forgotten, of course, is that talk with the taciturn neighbor, owner of the pines beyond Frost's apple orchard, who stubbornly says, in typical New England fashion, "Good fences make good neighbors," until one day, Frost suddenly sees him,

Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top/ In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed./ He moves in darkness as it seems to me,/ Not of woods only and the shade of trees./ He will not go behind his father's saying,/ And he lives having thought of it so well/ He says again, "Good fences make good neighbors."

"Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening," ends with words anyone of any age can relate to,

But I have promises to keep,/ And miles to go before I sleep./ And miles to go before I sleep.

"The Death of the Hired Man," with its poignancies as deep, no doubt, as the death of any salesman could ever be, inspired these beautiful lines,

Home is the place where, when you have to go there,/ They have to take you in./ I should have called it/ Something you somehow haven't to deserve.

The poems of Robert Frost possess a beauty so serene that we feel no need, no urge, to denigrate the work of other poets in order to expand Frost's praise. Despite the amazing diversity of talent that comes to mind when the names of MacLeish, Leonie Adams, Auden, Peter Viereck, Wallace Stephens, Robert Lowell, E.B. White, Karl Shapiro, Langston Hughes, William Carlos Williams, Arna Bontemps, Marianne Moore, e e cummings, Allen Tate and T.S. Eliot are mentioned, Frost does, indeed, tower above them all.

Frost has been eloquently compared to every rock and rill, every tree and shrub in his New England hills, and to almost every major figure in the New England past, including George Washingtion. He has won homage so completely and deservedly that it is as easy to think of him as a member of the Concord Group as it is to imagine Thoreau writing the opening paragraphs in the New Yorker's Talk of the Town.

Frost, though, could be cheerfully topical, as when writing "U.S. 1946 King's X,"

Having invented a new Holocaust/ And been the first with it to win a war,/ How they make haste to cry with fingers crossed/ King X's--no fair to use it anymore!

Frost saw much of the world after his birth in San Francisco in 1875, and he looks over the prospects of the entire universe in, "It Bids Pretty Fair,"

The play seems out for an almost infinite run./ Don't mind a little thing like the actors fighting./ The only thing I worry about is the sun./ We'll be all right if nothing goes wrong with the lighting.

Robert Frost is truly an American original and a world genius. There will never be another.

Okay, there's no possible excuse now people; for a relatively cheap price, you get the collected poems of quite possibly the best twentieth century American poet. As you peruse through the pages in this book, you will discover yourself looking at the world around you in a totally different way. Frost doesn't just write poetry; he paints word portraits and sculpts language into a fantastic variety of scenery. Pick a poem, any poem, from this collection, and you will not leave disappointed. It will continually brighten your day.