Old School

by

Tobias Wolff

Robert Frost Character Analysis

Real-life poet Robert Frost (1874–1963) is the first of the visiting writers to come to the narrator’s school. Frost is known for his realistic depictions of rural life, colloquial language, and formal devices like rhyme and meter. Several of his poems, such as “After Apple-Picking” and “Mending Wall,” are referenced in Old School. In the novel, the fictionalized version of Frost is the headmaster’s former teacher. When he comes to the narrator’s school, he picks George Kellogg’s poem “First Frost” as the winner of a literary competition, mistakenly interpreting it as a parody of (rather than an homage to) his own writing. Frost counsels George to travel and gain practical experience as source material for his writing.

Robert Frost Quotes in Old School

The Old School quotes below are all either spoken by Robert Frost or refer to Robert Frost. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Honesty and Honor Theme Icon
).
Chapter 3: Frost Quotes

I was conscious of him throughout the meal and held myself as though he were conscious of me. Some of the other boys at my table also suffered fits of dignity. The atmosphere in the hall had become theatrical. This had everything to do with Frost himself. The element of performance in his bearing—even the business with the napkin, awkward as it seemed, had a calculated quality—charged the room and put us on edge, not at all unpleasantly, as if a glamorous woman had entered the hall.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), Robert Frost, The Headmaster
Page Number: 45
Explanation and Analysis:

But no. Instead the headmaster told a story of how, as a farm boy completely ignorant of poetry, he had idly picked up a teacher’s copy of North of Boston and read a poem entitled “After Apple-Picking.” He approached it, he said, in a surly humor. He’d done more than a bit of apple-picking himself and was sure this poem would make it fancy and romantic and get it all wrong. Yet what struck him first was how physically true the poem was, even down to that ache you get in the arch of your foot after standing on a ladder all day—and not only the ache but the lingering pressure of the rung. Then, once he’d assented to the details, he was drawn to the poem’s more mysterious musings. […] Make no mistake, he said: a true piece of writing is a dangerous thing. It can change your life.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), The Headmaster (speaker), Robert Frost
Page Number: 47
Explanation and Analysis:

I closed the encyclopedia and sat listening to the wind rattle the mullioned panes behind me. What was it about Kamchatka, that a young writer should forsake his schooling to go there? Spectacle, maybe. The drama of strange people living strangely. Danger. All this could be good matter for stories and poems. But Frost himself had lived in New England all his life at no cost to his art, and I wondered if he’d ever even been there. I guessed not. But it meant something to him, Kamchatka, something to do with the writer’s life, and what else could it mean but hardship? Solitude, darkness, and hardship.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), Robert Frost, George Kellogg
Page Number: 60
Explanation and Analysis:
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Robert Frost Quotes in Old School

The Old School quotes below are all either spoken by Robert Frost or refer to Robert Frost. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Honesty and Honor Theme Icon
).
Chapter 3: Frost Quotes

I was conscious of him throughout the meal and held myself as though he were conscious of me. Some of the other boys at my table also suffered fits of dignity. The atmosphere in the hall had become theatrical. This had everything to do with Frost himself. The element of performance in his bearing—even the business with the napkin, awkward as it seemed, had a calculated quality—charged the room and put us on edge, not at all unpleasantly, as if a glamorous woman had entered the hall.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), Robert Frost, The Headmaster
Page Number: 45
Explanation and Analysis:

But no. Instead the headmaster told a story of how, as a farm boy completely ignorant of poetry, he had idly picked up a teacher’s copy of North of Boston and read a poem entitled “After Apple-Picking.” He approached it, he said, in a surly humor. He’d done more than a bit of apple-picking himself and was sure this poem would make it fancy and romantic and get it all wrong. Yet what struck him first was how physically true the poem was, even down to that ache you get in the arch of your foot after standing on a ladder all day—and not only the ache but the lingering pressure of the rung. Then, once he’d assented to the details, he was drawn to the poem’s more mysterious musings. […] Make no mistake, he said: a true piece of writing is a dangerous thing. It can change your life.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), The Headmaster (speaker), Robert Frost
Page Number: 47
Explanation and Analysis:

I closed the encyclopedia and sat listening to the wind rattle the mullioned panes behind me. What was it about Kamchatka, that a young writer should forsake his schooling to go there? Spectacle, maybe. The drama of strange people living strangely. Danger. All this could be good matter for stories and poems. But Frost himself had lived in New England all his life at no cost to his art, and I wondered if he’d ever even been there. I guessed not. But it meant something to him, Kamchatka, something to do with the writer’s life, and what else could it mean but hardship? Solitude, darkness, and hardship.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), Robert Frost, George Kellogg
Page Number: 60
Explanation and Analysis: