Poet as sage and teacher …

… The Letters of Robert Frost: Volume Two review - The TLS. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

The best discovery of the workshop format he devised was his idea of getting beyond mere grading and marking. This mechanical part he believed should be left to a corps of grammar policemen, always on hand and decently paid to make local comments and corrections. But conversation of a special kind was what the rarer talents deserved. “The experienced older painter allows inexperienced younger painters to set up their easels alongside of his for what they can get out of his example, stimulation, and shop-talk” – so too with the experienced writer.