Abstract

Hall explores the religious themes of Frost's poetry in configurations of language and metaphor and corrects views held of Frost as a refined agnostic, a spiritual drifter or a poet flawed by teleological uncertainty. Using a thematic organization, she juxtaposes Frost's earlier poems with later ones to reveal an impressive consistency in his thinking, an overriding consciousness of design which she interprets as an expression of his belief in a comprehensive cosmic structure. In addition to analyzing his poetry, she also draws upon Frost's private notebooks, personal letters, public lectures, anecdotes and offhand remarks during his readings. As Lesley Frost, the poet's daughter, says in the introduction, Hall carries Frost's sense of the Above and Beyond into many aspects of philosophy and religion, including Swedenborg, Emerson, Bergson and William James. ISBN 0-8214-0672-8 : $21.95.