SOURCE: “The Play of ‘Downward Comparisons’: Animal Anthropomorphism in the Poems of Robert Frost,” in Frost: Centennial Essays II, edited by Jac Tharpe, University Press of Mississippi, 1976, pp. 236-45.

In the following essay, Edwards examines the comic elements of Robert Frost's anthropomorphism.

Robert Frost regarded the writing of poetry itself as a form of play. He says in “The Craft of Poetry,” “I'd as soon write free verse as play tennis with the net down.” He warned his readers: “It takes all sorts of in- and outdoor schooling / To get adapted to my kind of fooling” (p. 470). His kind of fooling was, first of all, poetry itself. His nonchalant attitude toward poetry and his recognition of writing as a playful enterprise may in part account for his being a popular as well as provocative literary figure. He did not strike a pose as a wizard; he presented himself...