Untermeyer on Frost

COME IN AND OTHER POEMS--Robert Frost--Henry Holt & Co. ($2.50).

Editor Louis Untermeyer has made a sound selection of 83 poems from Robert Frost's seven published volumes. Frost has long tried to write poetry like the living speech of men & women. He has succeeded: of all distinctive U.S. poets, the New England laureate is perhaps the least mystifying. But Editor Untermeyer feels that Frost's readers will profit by added interpretations and comment. Sample:

"Although the poem does not attempt to teach anything, the city-bred reader will learn several things he may have missed knowing. . . . He will be led to find out that the chewink is a kind of finch and is so called because of its note, which is accented on the second syllable. And why (unless for the rhyme) does the poet refer to the chewink rather than to any other kind of bird? Because the poet is 'versed in country things' and knows that the chewink has a quick eye and an appetite for berries, especially blueberries."

Editor Untermeyer's comments contain a variety of information. The danger is that they may make it difficult to see the poems for the chewinks.

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