jcct’s whole intellectual life is set aside asrnirrelevant by Meyers, who seems to sharernthe common belief that since Frost was arnpoet, not a philosopher, no considerationrnshould be given to his abilities as arnthinker.rnYet Frost’s intellectual genius, farrngreater than that of most poets, shouldrnbe obvious. Certainly he was not arnphilosopher in the sense that Plato, Aristotle,rnor Kant were philosophers, abstractrnsystematic thinkers. Yet many personsrnwho knew Frost well have testified to hisrnbrilliance as a profound thinker and conversationalist.rnWilfred W. Gibson notedrnhow Frost dominated his fellow poets inrnEngland with his “rich and ripe philosophv.”rnIn Robert Frost: A Pictorial Chroniclern(1974), Kay Morrison noted howrnFrost’s “remarkable mind could cutrnthrough trivialities and come up with arndeep understanding of matters not ordinarilyrnconsidered within the scope of poetrv.”rnHis brilliance in this respect wasrnbased upon a tremendous erudition, sornthat “he astounded scientists by his readyrnunderstanding of underlying principlesrneven in areas as recondite as mathematicsrnand nuclear fission.” She summarizedrnthe poet’s intellectual nature as arn”formidable mind—constantly active,rnskeptical, believing, joking, probing,rnmocking, sometimes giving offense,rnsometimes warmly genial, the delightrnand wonder of visits from everywhere.rn. . . To encounter Robert Frost was to encounterrnone of the notable minds of arngeneration, a mind with restless curiosityrnseeking for the truth unfettered by secondhandrnopinions and moving to its targetrnswiftly as an arrow. Many witnessesrncould testify to the range of his intellectualrnforce.” Unfortunately, no reader ofrnthis biography would glean from it therngreat intellectual force and range ofrnFrost’s mind.rnFrost himself once told an audiencernthat “there is danger of forgetting thatrnpoetry must include the mind, as well asrnthe emotions.” Since his dualism involvedrnconflicts “between endless thingsrnin pairs ordained to everlasting opposition,”rnsuch as the conflict between justicernand mercy. Frost’s dualism is mostrnevident in his dramatic poems A Masquernof Reason and A Masque of Mercy, and inrnhis narrative poems “New Hampshire,”rn”Build Soil,” and “The Lesson for Today.”rnConsistent with Meyers’ failure everrnto rise above an impressionistic surfacernjournalism to a philosophical understandingrnof Frost as a thinker and poet.rnhe either denigrates or ignores all ofrnthese poems. The religious, social, andrnpolitical ideas in these poems are filledrnwith irony, wit, banter, whimsy, paradoxes,rnpuns, and ambiguities, and their seriousrnthemes are presented in a true I loratianrnvein. These poems satirize thernsecular and rational beliefs regardingrnmodern society and culture held byrnmany of Frost’s liberal critics whose stricturesrnagainst Frost Meyers quotes, acceptingrntheir fatuous judgments at facernvalue before dismissing Frost’s dramaticrnand narrative poems as artistic failures.rnMeyers can respond only to Frost’s lyricalrnpoems, which lend themselves morernreadily to the personal interpretationsrnconsistent with the psycho-biographicalrnapproach to Frost’s life and poetry.rnIf, as Meyers says, “the heart ofrnThompson’s biography was based upon arnlie,” so too is his own claim that in beingrnthe first to document Frost’s love affairrnwith Kay Morrison he thereby acquiresrnthe vehicle by which to reinterpret thernwhole of the poet’s life and art. Frostrnhimself confided his affair to Untermeyer,rnIlervev Allen, and other friends, andrnafter 1940 it was common knowledgernamong the Writers’ Conference staff andrnlongtime residents at Bread Loaf, one ofrnwhom, Duleie Scott, first revealed it tornThompson. Meyers’ hyperbolic referencernto sex in describing Frost’s life andrnpoetry results in many incredible conclusions,rnwhile his “original” findings arernstated in the crude and sensational languagernof soap-opera journalism. Amongrnthe worst are his undocumented speculationsrnthat Frost’s mother was the illegitimaternchild of a prostitute; that as a boyrnFrost seduced his future wife; and that hernwas expelled from Dartmouth, ratherrnthan quit of his own accord. (Meyers acceptsrnat face value the hearsay testimonyrnin 1986 of the son of a boyhood friend ofrnFrost’s that the poet was expelled inrn1892.) Meyers’ portrait of Frost’s daughterrnLesley is filled with an animus whollyrnunwarranted by any facts. Despite hisrnunreliable and even unscrupulous methods,rnMeyers claims that “this biographyrnoffers a radically new view of Frost’s characterrnand an original interpretation of hisrnpoems.” He then cites 13 poems that herninterprets mainly in the light of Frost’srnaffair with Kay Morrison.rnWhat to Frost was the unspeakablernheresy of art as self-expression runsrnthrough the whole of Meyers’ interpretationrnof Frost’s poems. Frost’s injunction,rn”Don’t tell the poem in other and worsernE^nglish” applies perfectly to Meyers,rnwho almost never rises above a prosernparaphrase of Frost’s poems. Meyersrnnotes that Frost disliked “pedantic academicrncritics, who lacked insight into arnpoet’s imagination,” but he lacks the witrnand humility to see that this criticism appliesrneven more completely to his ownrnpsycho-sexual analysis of poetry. In hisrnconstant desire to expose “the secretrnplaces” in Frost’s psyche, Meyers findsrnone-to-one cause-and-effect connectionsrnbetween specific events in Frost’srnlife and the plot, themes, and metaphorsrnin his poems. His method in literary criticismrnis similar to the literal-mindcdncssrnof a religious fundamentalist who arbitrarilyrnabstracts a passage from the Biblernand connects it with a particular event inrnmodern times in order to draw out a sensationalrnconclusion, Jeffrey Meyers doesrnnot understand that the universality inrnpoetic theme or metaphor poem makesrnseveral meanings possible within theirrnsemantic context, but precludes anyrnarbitrary and particular application tornexternal matters. He injects crude andrntasteless sexual interpretations uponrnmany of Frost’s poems, particuladv uponrn”The Most of It” and “The Silken Tent.”rnFrost wrote to Sidney Cox (Septemberrn19,1929), “We shall be judged finally byrnthe delicacy of our feeling of where tornstop short.” If he is right, Meyers’ biographyrnwill be dismissed as a vulgar aberration,rna presumptuous and tastelessrnwork which leaves the need for a definitivernand balanced biography of Frostrngreater even than it was before. crnADVERTISING POLICYrnChronicles magazinernaccepts advertising fromrnreputable book publishersrnand distributors and fromrncompanies sellingrneducational and culturalrnproducts compatible withrnthe magazine’s purposernand standards. Althoughrnwe try to verify claimsrnmade by advertisers,rnpublication of an ad doesrnnot in any way constituternan endorsement.rnChronicles ADVERTISING DEPT.rn934 N. MAIN ST., ROCKFORD, IL 61103rn815-964-5813rnNOVEMBER 1996/35rnrnrn