New-York tribune., 1920-06-27

the three volumes of the recent group in
"Harper's Magazine" it would be as wei
to describe the impression Mr.. Frost's
work, as a whole, made upon my mind
l may add that my first impression re-
mained, strengthened If anything by
of Mountain Interval" l scented the
sharp air of New England and knew
that I stood on familiar ground. l was
aware not only of its soil but Of its
soul-of its sincerity, it's laborious con
scientiousness, its chilly creeds, It's re-
gretful and reverent skepticism, its un-
impassioned puritanism, its dour kind
illness and (above alb it's cold, peculiar
humor Here was a picture of New
England such as no other hand-no
not even Lowell's-had drawn. Here
were the shades of Emerson, the
transcendentalist, and of Sumner, the
hghbrow; here, too, the remembered
tones Of the voices I had heard among
the mountains of Vermont.
AnS new England Splf1G
In Mr.. Frost's work this New Eng
land spirit has been more clearly en-
phasized than ever before. His poems
are of the highest Importance as social
kistory-if as nothing else; for men in
coming generations will turn to them,
after time has wrought it's slow
changes, to find in them the forgotten
aspects Of their ancestors. In these
poems they will live and move and have
their being, ghosts Of dead day, when
new. incalculable day has dawned
That part, however, though an aid to
Frosts immortality, cannot be of so
great an interest to us as his immediate
appeal. We cannot afford to leave the
final judgment upon him in the hands
of posterity, even if we feel, as l do,
confident of his lasting fame. He is a
challenge to his contemporaries, one
that in honor we must answer. We
may reject him if we will; we cannot
ignore him.
We are on the verge of q great liber-
alton of language. There are cyclic
periods of literature which begin in
revolt and gradually freeze into con-
vention at their close. Fresh begin
nings are a recurrent necessity LIE
classic is superseded by the romantic
and the romantic bv the realist. The
period about to begin l will call the
Natural, until somebody suggests a
better name. In this movement Frost
will play and is playing a very notable
part.
will add a qualification which is
warning. In claiming independence
the young writer must not-at his peril
throw away the wisdom of his fore
runners. He may-indeed, he should
continually strive to find new modes of
expression, but these must follow the
line of continuity. The exponent of
free verse does not merely err by going
too far in a certain direction; he errs
by going in the wrong direction without
map or compass to guide him. Hence
his jejune crudities.
Is Not Anarchistic
Robert Frost is careful not to make
this mistake. He is progressive, but
no anarchist. He uses strict form, set
schemes for his lyrics, sonnets (actu-
ally of no more than fourteen lines) and
blank verse of the ordinary number of
syllables! His innovation, daring
one, IS that of substituting spoken for
written rhythms in his poetry. In
other words, he refuses to be tied by
technique. Other poets are using SINH
| lar methods. w. B. Yeats, tired of ex-
plotting the meters of his youth, is
feeling for a new medium whose basis
shall be speech-not very successfully
in my opinion. Lascelles Abercrombie
1 (whose influence on Robert Frost is dis
tlnctly traceable) is using spoken
rhythms with astonishing delicacy and
power. Robert Frost, though he lacks
the glamour of the Irish and the pro-
fundity of the English poet, is doing
what they are doing with moro ease
end assurance. His explanation of the
case is given in THE Road Not Taken
the proem to Mountain Interval":
The rocds diverged in yello,o GOOD,
And sorry could not travel both
And be one traveller, long stood
And looked doton ono as far as / could
To 10here 1t bent in tho undergro1oth j.:
Then took tho other. as just as fair,
And haring perhaps tho better claim,
Because 1t toas grassy and soanted year ;
Though as for that tho passing thers
Had toorn then really about tho sanue
And both that morning equally lay
In kaves no stop had trodden black.
oh, kept tho fret for another dayi
Yet k,1osoing ho,o ,0ay leads on to soav,
doubted II sver should como back.
I shall DO telling this .oith q sioA
Somewhere ages ard ages hence:
Two roads dtperged in GOOD, and l.
I took tho ono less travelled By.
And that has n,dde all tho difference.
will not cite passages to demon
strate MIR. Frosts management OF his
speech rhythms. They are to be dis
cerned in this lyric. They will be dis
ccrned moro clearly perhaps in some
OF tho passages I shall quote later.
To pick ont defpi+a avn IN n lac would bs