The Death of the Hired Man
In “The Death of the Hired Man,” Frost turns domestic talk into moral drama — a quiet debate on mercy, home, and human worth.
Birches
Between fact and wish, “Birches” turns play into a poetics of escape and return — a prayer for balance rather than transcendence.
After Apple-Picking
Between labor and dream, “After Apple-Picking” drifts toward sleep, fusing sensuous detail with questions of desire and mortality.
The Oven Bird
In “The Oven Bird,” Frost crafts a modern ars poetica: how to “make of a diminished thing” when beauty has already fallen.
Design
Frost’s sonnet “Design” frames beauty and predation to ask whether darkness, not benevolence, orders nature’s smallest scenes.
Acquainted with the Night
A modern terza rima, “Acquainted with the Night” traces an urban circuit of solitude where time is “neither wrong nor right.”
The Sound of the Trees
In “The Sound of the Trees,” Frost turns ambient rustle into the cadence of decision, where thought itself becomes the poem’s action.
The Pasture
A gentle invitation to shared attention, “The Pasture” makes pastoral chores into hospitality and announces Frost’s companionable voice.
Reluctance
Frost’s “Reluctance” weighs the dignity of refusal against nature’s insistence on change, ending with a stark challenge to easy acceptance.
Once by the Pacific
A storm gathers with apocalyptic force in Frost’s sonnet “Once by the Pacific,” a cool, exact vision of power beyond human scale.
The Wood-Pile
Frost’s “The Wood-Pile” turns a found stack of cordwood in a winter swamp into a meditation on craft, abandonment, and time’s quiet entropy.
Nothing Gold Can Stay
Robert Frost’s “Nothing Gold Can Stay” captures the fleeting beauty of youth, nature, and innocence — a timeless meditation on impermanence.