In the Clearing is a 1962 poetry collection by Robert Frost. It contains the poem "For John F. Kennedy His Inauguration", much of which Frost had composed to be read at President Kennedy's inauguration but could not. The book is also known for "Kitty Hawk", the book's longest poem, which muses on the Wright Brothers' accomplishment in manned flight.
Preparation
Invited to recite "The Gift Outright" at the inauguration of President John F. Kennedy, Frost composed a new, prefatory poem[1] that became "For John F. Kennedy His Inauguration". At the actual event Frost wasn't able to read the latter poem, but still recited the former from memory.[2][3]
After the Kennedy inauguration, Frost had "high hopes" of finishing the collection of poems he had been promising Holt for the past several years. As of 1954, the title was "The Great Misgiving". It had been Frost's misgivings about the quality of his later poetry that had prevented him from putting it into print much earlier.[4]
Publication
Published by Holt, Rinehart and Winston in New York[5] on his 88th birthday, March 26, 1962,[6] ten months before his death, it was the last volume of his poetry published in his lifetime.[7]
^Expansion of the poem Frost meant to deliver at the JFK inaugural, instead of "The Gift Outright".
^ abBoldface, all-capitals headings denote sections of several poems to be considered together and whose titles are similarly indented in book's table of contents as they are here.
^ abcPoem is not properly titled. Its title is taken from the poem's first line.
Thompson, Lawrance; Winnick, R. H. (1976). Robert Frost: The Later Years, 1938–1963 [Vol. 3]. New York [etc.]: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. ISBN0-03-017806-1.
Further reading
Meyers, Jeffrey (1996). Robert Frost: A Biography. New York: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN0-395-72809-6.
