North of Boston was Frost’s second book, a collection of seventeen poems published in 1914. It contains his famous classic poems such as “Mending Wall”, “Death of the Hired Man”, and “After Apple-Picking”. Most of the poems are dialogues or short dramas that evoke the style of speech and concerns of rural New England Yankees and clearly position New England as the locus and inspiration of Frost’s work.  Frost’s concept of poetry centered on what he called the "sentence-sound," the tonal sound of a sentence separate from the sound or meaning of its words. The sound of the simple,direct and often spoken language here conveys the feel of the subject and the speaker beyond the strict meaning of the words. Frost conjures the sense of time and loss associated with the seasons and the sense of isolation and contemplation inherent in the rural environment.  North of Boston was received well by critics and the reading public, and together with A Boy’s Will established Frost’s reputation. By the 1920’s he had become the most celebrated poet in America and remained so for the rest of his life.

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