It Sometimes Seems As If

About the Book

The radical empiricism of James and Bergson was an acknowledged influence on Frost’s poetry and served him as confirmation of what he thought of as the “philosophy” of his poems. In the first part of the book, the author discusses the ways in which this occurred. He also examines the resemblances and differences between Frost’s pragmatism and that of Emerson, whom Frost considered the best of American poets. The remainder of the book explicates many of Frost’s poems to demonstrate the various ways in which they express his “attitude to life,” which he said was his “philosophy.”

About the Author

Darrel Abel is the author of many articles and several books on American literature. A farmer’s son, born in 1911 in Lost Nation, Iowa, he was educated at the University of Iowa (B.A., M.A.) and the University of Michigan (Ph.D.). He also has an honorary Litt. D. degree from Purdue University, where he is a Purdue Emeritus Professor of English. He has been a Fulbright professor at Freiburg University and a visiting professor at the University of Saskatchewan. He and his wife of sixty-seven years live in North Carolina. They have six daughters and numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren.