Amazon.com Audiobook Review
Listening to these time-honored poems, it's difficult to imagine the young Frost struggling to find a publisher for his work. In fact, he was nearly 40 (and living in England, of all places) when A Boy's Will, his first collection, appeared. Over the next 50 years he would become the quintessential American poet, securing a well-cushioned catbird seat in the literary canon.
Performers Susan Anspach, Roscoe Lee Browne, and Elliott Gould, among others, heighten the conversational cadences of a writer who seldom strayed from his beloved iambs. Included are "Mending Wall," "The Road Not Taken," "The Death of the Hired Man," "The Fear," and much more, all complete and unabridged. (Running time: 1 hour, 1 cassette) --Martha Silano
From Library Journal
One would think that Poe's work would translate perfectly into dramatic interpretations, and certainly the first volume reviewed here works extremely well, but by the second tape, where poems are admittedly written from dreams, you realize how easily a poor reader can overdramatize poems best read quietly, if read at all. None of this is helped by the intent of New Millennium to gather as many readers as possible (Michael York, David Warner, among others) and inadvertently break up the unity of a poet's voice. Whitman fares no better, with the editors electing to present snippets here and there, out of context, and supplying no context, with performances by Joan Allen, Burt Reynolds, and others. Only Frost's poems seem well presented (there are 11 different readers, including Elliott Gould, Melissa Manchester, and Alfre Woodard), but he's also the poet whose work is best relayed in short poems from different periods in his career. The programs are recommended for comprehensive audio collections only, although readers such as Joel Grey, Gregory Hines, and Efrem Zimbalist Jr. might make these attractive to theater buffs. Individual poems are not listed on the packaging of the Poe and Frost tapes, where readers are listed en masse, giving no indication as who reads what. Rochelle Ratner, formerly with "Soho Weekly News," New York Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Book Description
This is the only comprehensive volume of Robert Frost's published verse; in it are the contents of all eleven of his individual books of poetry-from A Boy's Will (1913) to In the Clearing (1962). The editor, Edward Connery Lathem, has scrupulously annotated the more than 350 poems in this book.
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