Begins with an object or event, goes through a metaphor, to an idea

Creates a "terrifying universe" characterized by loneliness, anguish, frustration, doubts, disappointment, and despair

Poetry requires readers who are alert and willing to penetrate the simplicity of language to see the elusive and ambiguous meanings below the surface

Much imagery in treatment of natural world, but use of nature tends to be symbolic

Settings, characters, and situations are vehicles for his perceptions of life.

"Stopping by Woods"—tension between life’s responsibilities and "lovely, dark, and deep" attraction that death offers

Fragility of life, consequences of rejecting or accepting conditions of one’s life, passion of inconsolable grief, difficulty of sustaining intimacy, fear of loneliness and isolation, inevitability of change, tensions between individual and society, place of tradition and custom in life are all potential Frost themes.

"assumes direction with the first line . . . runs a course of lucky events, and ends in a clarification of life . . . a momentary stay against confusion"—Frost on his poetry

He says that "free verse is like playing tennis with the net down."