Volume 10 217

amored with many “old-style” poets, such as
Thomas Hardy, Rupert Brooke, Carl Sandburg, and
Edwin Arlington Robinson. Poetry in English was
thus at a turning point, with several of its practi-
tioners demanding that a poet must (in Ezra
Pound’s words) “Make it new,” while other poets
focused on a world that seemed to exist only in
their verse. It was in the midst of this artistic “Great
War” that Frost entered the literary scene. He was
forty years old when World War I began and had
just published A Boy’s Will(1913) and North of
Boston(1914) in England. (These were published
in the United States in 1915.) A reader who skims
the surface of Frost’s poetry may find him far from
experimental, since many of his poems recall a
seemingly idyllic life in rural New England—a pas-

toral paradise free from the terrors that had just

gripped the globe. Such an opinion, however, falls

flat when one considers that Frost’s poetry is often

a combinationof traditional verse forms and the

dark, ironic sentiments often found in Modernist

works. In other words, Frost was able to explore

modern fears with deceptively “traditional” set-

tings, perhaps best seen in his conclusion to “Stop-

ping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” (1923):

The woods are lovely, dark and deep, But I have

promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And

miles to go before I sleep.

As history would reveal, the modern world did,

indeed, have “miles to go” before it took the rest

it needed after the even greater war which was to

begin in 1939.

Out, Out—

Compare

&

Contrast

• 1916:World War I continues, with Germany
  declaring war on Portugal and Italy declaring
  war on Germany. The war will continue until
  1918.

1939:World War II begins when Germany in-

vades Poland and Britain and France declare war

on Germany. President Franklin Delano Roo-

sevelt initially declares that the Unites States

will remain neutral, but the U.S. enters the war

in 1941 after the Japanese attack on Pearl Har-

bor. The war will continue until 1945.

1990:Iraq invades Kuwait, prompting President

George Bush to begin Operation Desert Storm

and defeat the Iraqi Army in less than a year.

• 1915:Robert Frost publishesA Boy’s Willand
  North of Boston,his two groundbreaking books
  of verse.

1943:Frost publishes A Witness Treeand is

awarded the Pulitzer Prize.

1961:Frost reads “The Gift Outright” at the in-

auguration of President John F. Kennedy.

1963:Frost publishes In the Clearingand dies

later this year.

• 1916:Democrat Woodrow Wilson continues the
  first of his two terms as President; a Democrat
  will not be reelected to the White House again
  until 1933, when Franklin Delano Roosevelt be-
  gins his three terms.
  1963:Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson is elected
  President; his administration will be marked by
  the outbreak of the Vietnam War.

1993: Democrat William (“Bill”) Clinton

elected President: after he completes two terms

in office, his Vice President, Albert Gore, will

run for President against Republican George W.

Bush in one of the nation’s most intense and ex-

plosive political contests.

• 1929: “Black Friday” occurs on October 28
  when the U.S. stock market collapses and ush-
  ers in the Great Depression, the worst economic
  disaster in U.S. history.

1941:With the U.S. entrance into World War

II, industry expands at great speeds, and the

country is pulled out of the depression.

1991:With the end of the Cold War and the sub-

sequent phasing down of military spending, the

U.S. enters a sustained period of prosperity.