The Road Not Taken
Chapters (13)
Cover
Praise for THE ROAD NOT TAKEN
Praise for David Orr’s The Road Not Taken
“The most satisfying part of Orr’s fresh appraisal of The Road Not Taken is the reappraisal it can inspire in longtime Frost readers whose readings have frozen solid. The crossroads between the poet and the man is where Frost leaves his poems for us to discover, turning what seems like a fork in the road into a site of limitless potential, ‘in which all decisions are equally likely.’”
—The Boston Globe
“[David Orr’s] achievement in this shrewd and patient book lies in connecting Frost’s deceptively folksy manner with the very things that make him matter.”
—The Wall Street Journal
“David Orr has written the best popular explanation to date of the most popular poem in American history.”
—The New York Times Book Review
“[Orr] gives the poem a very close reading, line by line, almost word by word, and finds traps and contradictions everywhere. . . . This is the way all great poetry must be read—with close attention to each word and how they work with, and sometimes against, each other. . . . Frost’s beloved and misunderstood poem will never seem the same.”
—The Dallas Morning News
“Orr blends theory, biography, psychology, science, and a healthy dose of pop culture into a frothy mix so fun, readers may forget they’re learning something.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Orr presents a fresh, perceptive reading of the verse; places it in the context of Frost’s life, other works, and public persona; and considers the meaning of choice in American culture. An illuminating voyage into the heart of Frost’s poem and the American spirit.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“This entertaining book will appeal to poetry and American literature lovers, as well as to readers interested in the interweaving of art and culture.”
—Library Journal
“Orr is fascinated by why so many have read this poem so positively for so long, and what this fact reveals about the American soul.”
—The Christian Science Monitor
About the Author
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
David Orr is the poetry columnist for The New York Times Book Review. He is the winner of the Nona Balakian Prize from the National Book Critics Circle and the Editors Prize for Book Reviewing from Poetry magazine. His first book, Beautiful & Pointless: A Guide to Modern Poetry, was named one of the twenty best books of 2011 by the Chicago Tribune. He holds a BA from Princeton and a JD from Yale Law School, and he teaches at Cornell University.
DavidOrr.com
Dedication
To Karen