Robert Lee Frost was a man of many words. Unlike most of mankind, however, Frost put his words to use in the form of America’s most popular poetry. Poems such as “The Road Not Taken” and “Home Burial” are among Frost’s most famous. Multiple volumes and collections of his poetry have been published both during his lifetime and since the time of his death in 1963. This extraordinary American poet, who was born of foreign ancestry on United States soil, gave the gift of over 100 poems to the world of verse, and was awarded four Pulitzer prizes for his efforts. This story of his life is almost a poem in and of itself; he segued from living as an impoverished child to becoming valedictorian in high school. He later went onto marry his childhood sweetheart and write poetry while he served as a teacher. His later life was riddled with tragedies through the deaths of many of his family members, concluding with his own death on January 29, 1963. His poetry reflects many aspects of life, including childhood, adventure, achievement and death. Here we will learn more about the years of this extraordinary poet.
Robert Lee Frost, named for the South’s Civil War General, Robert E. Lee, was born in San Francisco in 1874. Like so many parents at this time, Frost’s parents were poor, partially due to his father’s drinking and gambling tendencies. Robert was only eleven years old when his father died, leaving the family virtually penniless. Shortly after his death, the family moved out east to Massachusetts, where the elder Frost’s parents helped fund Robert, his mother, and his sister. The boy’s poetic abilities began early on in his life, but it wasn’t until Robert married Elinor White, who was his high school sweetheart and co-valedictorian, that Robert’s interest in poetry blossomed. Some of his earliest efforts include “The Tuft of Flowers” and “The Trial by Existence” and were among the earliest to be published.
Money was always a bit of a problem for the Frost family. Of the six children Elinor bore, only four survived, but it was still a big financial responsibility for Robert. When his efforts at farming didn’t succeed, he went back to his first vocational interest: teaching. He taught at Pinkerton Academy for a few years until determining that England would be a better place for his poetic pursuits. Here he met Ezra Pound, a fellow English poet, who helped promote Frost’s poetry. However, his stint with his family here was short-lived, as World War I was looming on the horizon, and before the war struck they were on their way back to New Hampshire, where Frost joined the faculty of Dartmouth College. It was here that he gained quite an audience for his poetry through presentations at universities and colleges. Some of these institutions awarded him honorary degrees; Harvard was one of the most notable among these, as he had tried to complete his degree here originally but was unable to do so due to health and financial reasons.
During his time of popularity and awards, Frost suffered many tragedies. Not only did he lose two infants shortly after birth, but his wife died of a heart failure in 1938. His favorite daughter, Marjorie, passed away during childbirth in 1934, and his son Carol committed suicide six years later. One of his daughters was also placed in a mental institution, which nearly crushed him. Within these six years Frost’s poetry began to reflect a darker tone, which shouldn’t come as any surprise. His works had already been criticized by the likes of T.S. Eliot for being “unreadable”, but others, such as Rolfe Humphries, began defining Frost as “querulous and sarcastic”, and his poetry began to reflect this. Some of his readers missed the New England charm Robert poured into his poems which reflected the beautiful nature of the New Hampshire and Massachusetts regions.
For the most part, however, Robert Frost’s poetry was loved for its down home feel. According to William Pritchard, it’s possible that “for some Americans, the homely nature of Frost’s materials–cows, apples, and snow-covered woods-predisposes them to like his poetry” as opposed to the more abstract modernist poems so readily received by the more cosmopolitan. Frost’s love of William Wordsworth poetry played a role in the sort he wrote as well. But it was during John F. Kennedy’s presidential inauguration when Frost’s career truly reached its pinnacle. On January 20, 1961, Robert Frost recited “The Gift Outright,” which audiences deemed to be one of the most moving inaugurations of all time. On January 29, 1963, though a somewhat lonely man, Robert Frost passed away, achieving many of the world’s accolades and awards for his great works.
The poetry of Robert Frost never ceases to enchant, amuse, and entertain readers around the world. Though his status as a poet was not well renowned in England and abroad during his lifetime, despite help from fellow English poets, Frost’s works have since reached unexpected eminence in many countries. According to Frost’s friend, who later compiled a comprehensive volume of his poems, Robert is “one of the few poets whose work is widely read.” Few poets ever see their poems in print, let alone in an exhaustive collection of over one hundred of their elegies and sonnets. In short, though Robert Frost’s life was marked by uncertainty, financial instability, and frequent tragedy, he was willing to express himself in such a fashion that readers everywhere hold each and every poem in high esteem.
Works Cited
Burnshaw, S.
Robert Frost biography. Retrieved November 17, 2008, from http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/a_f/frost/life.htm.
Frost, R. (1969).
The poetry of Robert Frost. Lathem, E. (Ed.) New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston.
Pritchard, W. (1994).
Frost’s life and career. In
The Oxford Companion to Twentieth-Century Poetry in English. New York: Oxford University Press. Retrieved November 17, 2008, from http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/a_f/frost/life.htm.
Robert Frost. (2008). Retrieved November 17, 2008, from http://www.online-literature.com/frost/.
