Robert Frost: Life and Poetry

One of America’s most popular poets, Robert Frost, achieved major recognition and reached the widest possible audience. His direct and easy to read poets made him the most recognized poet in the country. Robert Frost had the ability to make his poems accessible to anyone reading them. His use of everyday vernacular and traditional form of poetry made it easy for them to read, but understanding them is a different story. Robert Frost’s poems are very connotative in nature, making them very profound to read. The reason for this his nomadic behavior, Frost lived in various places through out his life. The majority of the poetry encountered is about travel and the experiences he had.

Robert Frost was born in San Francisco on March 26th, 1874 first child of Isabelle Moodie and William Prescott Frost Jr. and was named after the confederate general Robert E. Lee. In 1885, after his father’s death, and at the age of 11 his family (with $8’s in their possession) left California and settled in Lawrence, Massachusetts. There he attended and graduated high school. He was accepted and attended Dartmouth College, but stayed for less than a semester. He taught, worked on a mill, and worked as a reporter right after that. In 1894, at just 20 years old, he sold “My Butterfly: An Elegy” to The Independent, a New York literary journal. A year later he married Elinor White after three years of courtship. Frost then attended Harvard College, from 1897 to 1899, as a special student but he never graduated and left without a degree. For the next ten years he wrote poems and worked at Derry’s Pinkerton Academy.

After being settled for many years, he sold the farm in 1912. He used the money from the house and moved to England where he could concentrate solely on his writing. On that note he wrote “A Boy’s Will” and it was accepted by a publisher. It was released in 1913 to favorable reviews that resulted in the American release of the book. Frost now had a transatlantic reputation.

In February of 1915, Frost and his family moved back to New York City. Frost book the “North of Boston” was released two days after his arrival in New York. With sales of “A Boy’s Will” and “North of Boston” Frost was able to buy a farm in Franconia, NH. There he wrote “Mountain Interval” published in 1916. In New Hampshire Frost also embarked on a long career of writing, teaching, and lecturing. In 1924 he received a Pulitzer Prize in poetry for New Hampshire. In 1925 Frost’s daughter Marjorie is hospitalized with pneumonia, a peri-cardiac infection, chronic appendicitis and nervous exhaustion. Over the next few years Marjorie became more ill and was put in and out of hospitals. Amidst all this Frost is still receiving critical acclaim and various accolades for his work “Collected Poem”. In 1934 Marjorie dies of perpetual fever and soon after Frost and his wife move to Key West. Over the next years he received an unprecedented number and range of literary, academic, and public honors. Robert Frost died in January 29th, 1963 leaving behind a great line of literary works that have become well-known and beloved pieces of American literature.

Robert Frost most famous poem to date is probably “The Road Not Taken”. One time Frost stood at the fork in a road, undecided which path to take. He decided to take the path that was less traveled on, he imagined this choice to be very important and to someday to tell himself the he took the road less frequented. This poem relies heavily on imagery considering the readers most imagine two roads and then a person at the fork, pondering their next move. He describes one of the roads as “grassy and wanted wear”. The tone of the poem is set mainly at the end:

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

The tone of this poem is one of wonderment and content. The traveler in the poem is content with his choice, a choice of risk and uncertainty. But nonetheless