Many critics see Frost as bridging the gap between two centuries and styles: Victorian/Edwardian and Modernism. Frost blends self-reflection in nature—and other stylistic elements popular with previous poets, such as the Romantics and Transcendentalists—with innovative forms and bleaker philosophical messages common to the Modernist era. Frost’s poems, which were meditative but not esoteric, used common language and dialogue along with realistic characters from the New England region. Frost admired the fixed rhyme and meter of traditional poetry. 

He also revered, however, those Victorian/Edwardian writers, like Thomas Hardy and William Butler Yeats, who used landscape to discuss the harsh reality of country life or the plight of mid-to-lower class workers. Frost’s decision to focus on the region of New England helped him gain the reputation as a uniquely American poet, familiar with the country’s idioms and dialect. He was particularly lauded for his ability to capture the voice of the people. Unlike his contemporaries, T. S. Eliot and Ezra Pound, he did not rely on personal symbolism. Instead, Frost’s reliance on realistic portrayals made him a unique poet, particularly during the years of 1913 and 1924, when he won his first Pulitzer Prize.