The introduction to Jeffrey Meyer's 'Robert Frost' states that he published his most successful book on his 88th birthday. This seems remarkable. Many poets do their best work when young. Does some people's versifying improve as they get older or is Frost an isolated example? Or were the public duped by his reputation into buying inferior stuff?

I found a book of poems I wrote when I was a teenager in the attic recently. (The book was in the attic - not me as I wrote them). I can confidently assert that I have shown no improvement through 40 years of ageing.

I LOVE Robert Frost; I consider him a guiding light. I was reading last week a 'Stirring Collection' compiled by Louis Untermeyer, and he also was making the point of the freshness of Frost's latest works, including the salvos for 'In the Clearing' which was published 15 years after Frost's prior release, and also after the President Kennedy inauguration. Certainly, Frost had a lot of national status in 1962. I'm not sure that all the poems in the final volume were written in the final 15 years, as 'new' can also mean 'previously unpublished'. I read most of the poems in my book, and their commentaries, with real delight, for they covered the spectrum of his writing career. I believe that Age is no factor in fresh, innovative writing if you were a bright, interesting poet from Day One.

I suspect that agility and crispness of mind will play a role in this. Many of us seem to give in to jadedness and many mental restrictions as we age thereby dulling the very tool we have brandished and prided ourselves in our juvenile explorations in poetry. The world was new, exciting, challenging and well worth the expedition.... that may be the hidden key to many great poems. Without that spark, whatever we produce later may appear dull in comparison. But that is just conjecture on my part.

Well I wrote one poem when I was 10, one when I was 14 and then about 211 when I was 57! Hope my best is yet to come!!

Another late starter at 46 here, I'm afraid (though I've found a dozen or so I'd forgotten about from my school and university days clearing out some junk from my mum's house a few months ago).

Mind you, I've made up for it since I caught the poetry bug - getting up towards 1200 in the three & a half years since - though, as with all things, I suspect quality is better than quantity!

Interesting to read Frederick's comments about poets who started young getting jaded with age - I'm not sure that I would have had the experience at a younger age to write sensitively enough about certain topics. Perhaps there is an advantage in starting later in life!

Aye, it is a very interesting dynamic - the art of writing and how at different points in our lives could be both similar and different.

What a two-edged sword this one is?
I consider my best work is coming now at the grand old age of 59. However, when you look at the work of one of the world's best poets Dob Dylan, even I, as a big fan would say otherwise for him.
My early work was rushed with the urgency of youth and perhaps being madly in love, whilst nowadays I consider a lot more before beginning.

Yes, my first poems were also rushed with the urgency of youth and perhaps being madly in love, but that was last year! Hey Graham - we're the same age - shall we have a party?

If I am honest, I think my writing is just beginning to really get going now at 39! I've been writing mostly regularly since I was about 10 or 11, it's a been a journey of a lot of poems, some good, some bad but a journey i am still enjoying and looking forward to what comes next! A

Age gives you more life experience, perspective and understanding, which helps when writing poetry in my opinion.

I'd say that time to finish off and perfect work better probably comes with age too.

I'm not sure if contentment is a great state of mind for producing art though. Perhaps the angst of youth/middle age helps in some way. It probably depends on each individual - you just can't pigeon hole poets or poetry.

I know one thing - I tried for years to be something I'm not, and it was only in my 40's that I came to the conclusion that I am not one of nature's natural mainstreamers. As soon as I realised that I was actually more interested in the avant garde than trying to write like Carol Anne Duffer and Simon ArmitageShanks, or even, God forbid, Andrew Motionless, I started getting better.

Steven raises a good point there thinking about what I said before my writing. I know when I was younger, I was more interested in aping some more famous humorous poets than trying to develop my own style... It came by accident I guess a few years back as good writing does, and it seems to have led me on a different trail altogether.. Whether I could have done this when I was younger is a point in question, but I was always a late developer - lol...

Perspective and experience are vital parts of poetry for me.

However if we write from our own at any point, they products can be beautiful.

I think there is an argument that divergent thinking is something that decreases within the individual over time, but I would hope poets buck the trend.

Maybe there is a difference.
I suspect that...in youth we write about what matters to ourselves; but with increasing age we write about what matters to the rest of us.

As I only wrote my first poem when I was 59, I can only hope that my best is yet to come (I have heard many people say that about my poems).
I will admit though that I have a constant fear that the best is somewhere in the past 5 years, but where?

Nay lad, you have only just begun.

I've been at it for years. It used to be more spontaneous in my youth and probably less worked on. Now I work at a snails pace. Put in a word one day, take it out the next... put it back the day after. To think that Keats did all his work before the age of 24 amazes me.