Chronicle Review

In "Education by Poetry," one of his finest essays, Frost argued that an understanding of how poetry works is essential to the developing intellect. He went so far as to suggest that unless you are at home in the metaphor, you are not safe anywhere. Because you are not at ease with figurative values, "you don't know how far you may expect to ride it and when it may break down with you." Those are very large claims.

In the 19th century, poetry had a mass audience, says Jay Parini. But in the 20th century, poetry decided to get "difficult," to require footnotes... more»