This collection was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1943. Most of the poems in this volume are short lyrics, published after several unfortunate tragedies had occurred in Frost's personal life, i.e. his daughter Marjorie's death in 1934, his wife's death in 1938, his son Carol's suicide in 1940. Despite these losses, Frost continued to work on his poetry and eventually fell in love with his secretary Kay Marrison, who became the primary inspiration of the love poems in this collection. This collection is the last of Frost's books that demonstrates the seamless lyric quality of his earlier poems. The most popular poem of this volume is "The Gift Outright", a patriotic poem that was recited at the presidential inauguration of John F. Kennedy in 1961.
