Explain any two of Robert Frost's guidelines for poetry, making reference to his poetry and that of another contemporary American poet
One of Robert Frost's guidelines for poetry was the use of Imagery. One example of his use of visual imagery is in the poem "After Apple-Picking". He talks of seeing apples appearing in his mind's eye as he dozes off to sleep...
And every fleck of russet showing clear.
A contemporary American poet who uses imagery in a nice way is Suji Kwock Kim. She won the Walt Whitman Award for her 2003 collection of poems entitled Notes from the Divided Country.
I like the imagery in one of her poems entitled "Slant"...
light of the suntanners in Central Park turning over like rotisserie chickens sizzling on a spit,
Another of Robert Frost's guidelines for poetry is the use of Meter. This is evident in much of his work, for example in the classic poem "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening". This poem was written in Iambic Tetrameter...
Whose woods these are I think I know,
A contemporary American poet who uses meter is Nathaniel Perry. His book Nine Acres was written in rhyme and meter with each poem consisting of four stanzas in tetrameter. This book won the American Poetry Review/APR Honickman First Book Prize for 2011.
Robert Frost embraced formal poetry and today, while free verse dominates contemporary poetry, there has been a resurgence to some effect of poetry that uses formal elements such as rhyme and meter. The beauty of poetry is that a writer has the freedom to experiment with many styles and forms as is appropriate for the subject matter they are writing about and the message and meaning they wish to get across to their readers.