Robert Frost's -A Boy's Will-

One of the things that struck me most about A Boy’s Will is the short comments Frost made about the content and context about each poem in the Contents listing. It shows that he did not simply place the poems in chronological order but specifically organized them in a manner as to communicate a specific progression of his personal thoughts and values. Most of the poems are fairly short, no more than three pages at most, and there is a loose rhyme scheme present throughout, but many have structured and sometimes complex semi-structured schemes. This volume of Frost’s work shows a clear fondness for an “xaxa, xbxb, etc” scheme, as well as five line stanzas organized either “aabba” or “abaab”. There is the occasional sonnet, like “Into My Own” (which is written in heroic couplets), but more often the poems are derivations of forms like odes or ballads, and almost always they are endstopped. Like Wordsworth, Frost employs common and everyday language into his poetry; this technique does not hinder the intricacy or eloquence of the works in any way. Many of the poems are nature-based on the surface, and the theme (if they are narrative) is often conveyed through some sort of journey outdoors. The lyric works have many metaphors to pastoral life and country homes. Frost’s overlying motif (communicated by his comments in the Contents) is that of the personal beliefs and happiness of an individual (an unnamed “he” that refers to Frost himself). Despite an overlying motif, the works have differing plots and individual focuses- it is actually Frost’s own commentary that ties them all together into a coherent philosophy and message.
Some of the poems I was already familiar with, such as “My November Guest”, “A Late Walk”, “Wind and Window Flower”, “Ghost House”, and “The Tuft of Flowers”. However, with many of them I discovered things I had not previously noticed. For example, I realized that “My November Guest” is written in tetrameter.
I am a huge fan of nature-inspired lyric poetry, which is mainly why I chose to read this collection. What I always find striking about Robert Frost is how he intertwines nature with love and sadness, and the dark and solitary tone that permeates his work without sounding bleak or desperate.
One poem that is a new favorite of mine that I had never seen before is “In Neglect”. The five short lines of “abaab” are so concise and vague that I cannot help but be captivated by them. To me, it has a similar effect as the collection as a whole: it is precise enough to capture the interest of a reader, and vague enough for them to necessarily spend time considering and interpreting the work- exactly as any individual examining themselves must consider and interpret their own beliefs and behavior.
One thing I would recommend for young writers to emulate from A Boy’s Will would be to make comments showing the reader their thought process in organizing the works of a publication. Such a method lets readers understand much better whatever the writer is trying to tell them. Also, Frost utilizes to great effect the sensation of tactile interaction with the elements- a sense that many writers neglect in favor of sight and smell.
Overall, I thought this collection was quite impressive for a first publication. Granted, I am biased toward nature poetry, and I prefer semi-structured poems with more regular meter to Frost’s later narrative works which he is mostly famous for: “Out, Out---!” and “The Death of a Hired Man”. I would recommend it to readers who prefer lyrical, song-like poetry; people who prefers narrative poems that border on prosody (such as much of Frost’s later work) might look elsewhere.