Frost considered "Kitty Hawk" the most important of his later poems, and on speaking engagements around the country often cited this passage as a culminating statement of his natural philosophy. It is a buoyant endorsement of the via affirmativa, reminiscent in principle of Whitman's progressive ideal, though Frost's clipped verse line discourages comparison with the bard of the pioneers. (p. 42)

Though Frost, true to type, recommends that his public hasten in "getting thought expressed," he waited till the end of his career before writing the poem of Kitty Hawk. He tried once, in the 1930's, but after much whittling and revision, "The Wrights' Biplane" emerged as an undistinguished four line epigram. (p. 43)

Frost guides the reader of "Kitty Hawk" toward the awareness that he had reached by the time of composition. The authorial voice has the colloquial playfulness of Frost's lyrics, but it has also an insistent force...