Book of the Week #14

Robert Frost: The Poet as Philosopher by Peter J. Stanlis (Wilmington, Delaware: ISI Books, 2007)

Robert Frost is arguably the most celebrated American poet of the 20th century. In this volume Frost's friend of over 20 years, Peter J. Stanlis, argues that Frost is not just a poet, but a philosopher.


In the introduction, Timothy Steele provides a context for Stanlis's argument:

"We cannot know, this side of the grave, whether monism or dualism (or pluralism or some other position) is the best explanation of reality and being, but Stanlis's discussion of Frost supplies a fascinating account of a road less traveled by American artists and thinkers. If [Wallace] Stevens's monism offers a moving picture of some of the dilemmas into which Romantic philosophy and aesthetics have led us, Frost's dualism suggests fruitful avenues of escape." (p. ix)