The weekly times-record. (Valley City, N.D.) 1912-1922, 1921-02-03
won the unqualified appreciation Of a
voluntary English criticism.

poems he took over with him. The
favorable recognition it received en-
outraged him to work harder on his
second volume, "Nerth of Boston,
which was published in 1914.
1t has been cause of regret and
chagrin to the American critics that
Frost was recognized in England first.
though his works are all American
and of American subjects. The Amer
lean critics are just as sympathetic in
claiming him for an American as if
he had never gone to England and had
his works published there.
What the Critics Say
The literary critic of the New York
Globe remarks that nothing more in
teresting in literature has happened
in a, long time than the poetry OF
Robert Frost. It is ours and it is
good. It is not after the French.
nor initiative of the English. It is
racy, of our own soil, it breathes our
democratic spirit, it pictures our own
homely scenes and plain people, it
speaks our own language. It is truly
American, or at least New England
from blue berries and stone wall and
pasture, to the wood pile of the hired
man" Frost brings many things into
poetry that d onot have, to the casual
observer, poetic atmosphere, such
as kitchen sinks, stove pipes, tele:.
graph poles. Eros tbs as simple in
his diction and imagination as Words
I worth, and even more sympathetic
with his subjects, whether they be
people or nature. He gets more mu-
sic and force out of homely Saxon
monosyllables than any other writer
not excepting Lincoln, and he &C.
quired the mastery in the same way
that Lincoln did,: Never letting pass
any but the best attainable.' Many
a time he has gone to the postoftice
and brought home letter because he
thought there was sentence he could
make better.
Gin all his poems we find something
of the warmth and depth, and rich:
ness, the sudden humor, the drol]
whimsey, the characteristic inuendc
and flexible intimacy Of conversation
But Mr.. Frost's poems are always
more than mere. speech. They are
always poetry. They never become
mere oratory." e.
When was just as far as could walk
From here today,
There was an hour
All still
When leaning my head against
flower
l heard you talk.
Don't say didn't, for heard you
say
You spoke from that flower on the
window sill
Do you remember what it was you
said?
First tel tell me what you thought you
Having found the flower and driven a
bee away
leaned my head,
And holding by the stalk,
I listened and I thought l caught the
What was it? Did you call me by
name?
Some one said "come"-I heard it as
bowed.
1 may have thought as much, but not
aloud. "
Well, so / came.
When war conditions in Europe be-
came too exacting, Frost returned to
America in 1915. He moved onto a
farm near Derry, N. H.
In 1917 he assumed professorship
of literature at Amherst College.
"School and Society,"" Jan. 26, 1918,
remarks:- -
"The literary journals have an
nounced Robert .Frost's assumption
of a professorship at Amherst Col
lege as an event significant to letters.
AS yet no educational journals have
announced it as being significant to
education"
Mr.. Frost's third volume Mountain
interval was published in 1916 and
the critics agree that it is superior
to the others. He IS in the prime Of
his creative powers and he will prob
ably surpass his best efforts yet ac-
complished. He is one of the few
poets of today whose work will long
outlive him.
I WESLEY HALL