The Voice of the Poet: Robert Frost

The Voice of the Poet

by Robert Frost, J.D. McClatchy (Editor)

A remarkable series of audiobooks, featuring distinguished twentieth-century American poets reading from their own work. A first in audiobook publishing--a series that uses the written word to enhance the listening experience--poetry to be read as well as heard. Each audiobook includes rare archival recordings and a book with the text of the poetry, a bibliograohy, and commentary by J. D. McClatchy, the poet and critic, who is the editor of The Yale Review.

"To hear a poem spoken in the voice of the person who wrote it is not only to witness the rising of words off the page and into the air, but to experience an aural reenactment of exactly what the poet must have heard, if only internally, during the act of composition. THE VOICE OF THE POET recordings deliver these pleasures as they broadcast the pitch and timbre of many of the major voices in twentieth-century poetry."--Billy Collins, U.S,. Poet Lauerate.

Genres: Poetry, Audiobook

64 pages, Audio CD

First published June 5, 1956

About the author

Flinty, moody, plainspoken and deep, Robert Frost was one of America's most popular 20th-century poets. Frost was farming in Derry, New Hampshire when, at the age of 38, he sold the farm, uprooted his family and moved to England, where he devoted himself to his poetry. His first two books of verse, A Boy's Will (1913) and North of Boston (1914), were immediate successes. In 1915 he returned to the United States and continued to write while living in New Hampshire and then Vermont. His pastoral images of apple trees and stone fences -- along with his solitary, man-of-few-words poetic voice -- helped define the modern image of rural New England. Frost's poems include "Mending Wall" ("Good fences make good neighbors"), "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" ("Whose woods these are I think I know"), and perhaps his most famous work, "The Road Not Taken" ("Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-- / I took the one less traveled by"). Frost was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for poetry four times: in 1924, 1931, 1937 and 1943. He also served as "Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress" from 1958-59; that position was renamed as Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry (or simply Poet Laureate) in 1986.

Frost recited his poem "The Gift Outright" at the 1961 inauguration of John F. Kennedy... Frost attended both Dartmouth College and Harvard, but did not graduate from either school... Frost preferred traditional rhyme and meter in poetry; his famous dismissal of free verse was, "I'd just as soon play tennis with the net down."

Reviews

[Jonathan Tennis · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Voice of the Poet series is a neat way to hear a poet read their own work. For a number of the influential poets of the last century, this is the only way to hear the emphasis as they intended it. This is the third of the series that I listened to / read. E.E. Cummings and Sylvia Plath were the others. There is an accompanying book so you can follow along if you choose.

I love Frost's poetry and to be able to hear it in his voice is incredible. I've read a fair amount of his poetry before and this collection included some of my favorites (The Road Not Taken, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, Birches, The Witch of Coös, Fire and Ice, The Onset, Dust of Snow, The Secret Sits & Forgive, O Lord).

Almost as good as that were the quotes from Frost on poetry sprinkled throughout the booklet.

"There are only three things, after all, that a poem must reach: the eye, the ear, and what we may call the heart or the mind."
"I had a lover's quarrel with the world."
"Like a piece of ice on a hot stove the poem must ride on its own melting. A poem may be worked over once it is in being, but may not be worried into being. Its most precious quality will remain its having run itself and carried away the poet with it. Read it a hundred times: it will forever keeps its freshness as a metal keeps its fragrance. It can never lose its sense of a meaning that once unfolded by surprise as it went."
"The proof of a poem is not that we have never forgotten it, but that we knew at sight that we could never forget it."
"A poem begins with a lump in the throat; a home-sickness or a love-sickness. It is a reaching-out toward expression; an effort to find fulfillment. A complete poem is one where an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found the words...My definition of poetry (if I were forced to give one) would be this: words that have become deeds."

[Tessa · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took me a few poems to get used to Frost's reading style (very quick) but in the end I loved it. How could you not love Robert Frost's poems as read by Robert Frost? The poems included (36 of them) were a nice variety (though I missed 'November Guest' and 'Going for Water'--two of my favorites). Definitely one that I will listen to over and over again.

[Michael P. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Robert Frost is not the best reader of Robert Frost. He sometimes makes his poetry sound like prose and sometimes overindulges the rhythm, making good poems sound bad. He is mostly just fine, or at least good enough. The recording includes his delightful meditation on Job, but also the doggerel poem about Columbus.

[Philip · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you already know and love Robert Frost, you will enjoy this short audiobook/paperback combination of a few of his poems, read by himself.
If you're fairly new to Frost, you may have to warm up to his recordings of his poems, and I'd recommend reading some of them yourself before listening as he can move rather quickly.

I found I related much more to certain poems than others.
Some of my favorites: The Death of the Hired Man, The Road Not Taken, Birches, Stopping By The Woods on a Snowy Evening, The Witch of Coos, Dust of Snow, Nothing Gold Can Stay, Two Tramps in Mud Time, Provide Provide, Departmental, The Secret Sits, One Step Backward Taken, and The Objection to Being Stepped On.

[Nick Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oddly, I don't think Frost's poetry was well served by his vocal performance. My assumption was that The Voice of the Poet would be a heightened form of Frost's poetry due to an author knowing best the cadence and flow of how each poem should be presented; however, Frost reads quickly and without much emphasis, while poor audio quality (the original recordings are from as early as the 1930s and no later than the 1960s) and a rather quaky voice don't help matters.

[Michael Morris · Rating 2 out of 5]

This poem means to me that life has many choses and you have to chose watch way you want to go and the poet is sorry he could not travle both pathes of life. Also that the path of live has twise and turns to go though but you can make it.

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved listening to this poetry, especially because it was read by the author itself. Such a rich, thick voice that portrays a deep intense writing. It was nice to listen to something other than the normal everyday "noise". I recommend listening to poetry, it's therapeutic to the soul.

[Rudy Gutierrez · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been reading Robert Frost since I was 14, now at 54 I find his words even more inspiring and revealing than ever before. His articulation of human nature has not equal and I look forward to the next time I read or quote the master.

[Dan Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hearing Robert Frost read his own poems is amazing and enjoyable. More than merely reading, you pick up the avuncular curmudgeonly spirit behind so much of his poetry.

[Suzann Brucato · Rating 5 out of 5]

To hear a poem read by the poet provides a deeper understanding of the poem's voice. This audiobook provides an opportunity to experience each poem as it lives beyond the page.

[Julian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good writing. Terrible voice.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant.