Education by Poetry

Robert Frost was a great American poet who lived in New England but didn’t become recognized until he moved to England. He returned to the US and his fame spread. He was a farmer who got inspiration from the land and faced the challenges of life head on.

The general point made my Robert Frost in his work Education by Poetry is that we have not been educated enough in contemporary literature. More specifically, Frost suggests that we need to be graded on taste and judgment and that we have not been educated enough in “finding our own way” through contemporary literature. He writes, “They don’t know what they may safely like in the libraries and galleries. They don’t know how to judge an editorial when they see one. They don’t know how to judge a political campaign. They don’t know when they are being fooled by a metaphor, an analogy, a parable… Education by poetry is education by metaphor.” (pg. 48) In this passage Frost is suggesting that we need to be more educated in literature but also that we are taught by metaphor in poetry. In conclusion, it is Frost’s belief that we are uneducated and need to become that way so we know when to not believe a metaphor.

In my view, Frost is right because I feel that we don’t study poetry and writing enough. For example, I had no idea what Hamlet was about because I have never read it in school and I’m not willing to read it on my own time. Although Frost might object that Hamlet is in the curriculum, I maintain that not everyone has read it and we would benefit from it. Therefore I conclude that Frost is right because we do need to learn more about poetry and writing in general and we are uneducated in it.