Robert Frost(1874 - 1963)

Robert Frost 1874-1963

Robert Frost was born in San Francisco, California but spent most of his life in New England, a rural area in the north east of the United States. The area is characterized by hills, woods, farms and small towns. Frost himself worked for many years as a farmer, in addition to teaching English and writing poems. His poems reflect the sights and sounds of where he lived, the fields, farms and woods and scenes of everyday life. All those elements make Frost’s poems accessible, leading readers to understand the deeper truths behind seemingly simple ideas.

“All poetry is a reproduction of the tones of actual speech.”

Chronology

O 1874— Robert Lee Frost was born to Isabelle Moodie Frost and William Prescott Frost, Jr., on March 26 in San Francisco, California.

O 1885— Frost's father, William Prescott Frost, Jr., died.

O 1892— Frost graduated from Lawrence High School as co-valedictorian with Elinor White. He entered Dartmouth College but withdraws before the semester ends.

O 1893— He returned to Massachusetts where he taught eighth-grade in Methuen.

O 1894— The Independent, a magazine in New York City, published “My Butterfly: An Elegy” in November.

O 1895— Frost took a job as a newspaper reporter for a short period. His mother hired him to teach at the school she operated. He married Elinor Miriam White.

O 1897— Frost enterd Harvard College as a special student, remaining for two years.

O 1901— William Prescott Frost died leaving his grandson Robert the Derry farm and a generous annuity.

O 1912— The Frost family moved to Buckinghamshire, England. Robert continued to write poetry and farm.

O 1913— David Nutt and Company published Frost's first book of poems, A Boy's Will.

O 1914— Frost's second book, North of Boston, was published by David Nutt.

O 1915— Frost relocated his family to Franconia, New Hampshire. American editions of his first two poetry books were published by Henry Holt and Company.

O 1916— Invited to Phi Beta Kappa Day at Harvard.

O 1924— Frost received Pulitzer Prize for New Hampshire.

O 1931— The Pulitzer Prize was awarded to Collected Poems and also received the Russell Loines Poetry Prize.

O 1936— Frost became Charles Eliot Norton Professor of Poetry at Harvard.

O 1937— The Pulitzer Prize was awarded to A Further Range.

O 1938— Elinor Frost died in Florida.

O 1940— Frost's son Carol committed suicide.

O 1943— Frost was awarded his fourth Pulitzer for A Witness Tree.

O 1950— United States Senate adopted resolution honoring Frost on the occasion of his seventy-fifth (actually 76th) birthday.

O 1957— He traveled to England and was awarded an honorary Litt. D. by Oxford and Cambridge Universities and National University of Ireland.

O 1959— Frost was honored by a Senate resolution on his eighty-fifth birthday.

O 1961— John F. Kennedy invited Frost to read at the inauguration. He recited “The Gift Outright” by heart.

O1963— Robert Lee Frost died on January 29 in Boston. He was buried with Elinor and other family members in the Old Bennington Cemetery in Bennington, Vermont.

AwayNow I out walkingThe world desert,

And my shoe and my stockingDo me no hurt.I leave behind

Good friends in town.Let them get well-wined

And go lie down.Don't think I leaveFor the outer darkLike Adam and EvePut out of the Park.

Forget the myth.There is no one I Am put out withOr put out by.

Unless I'm wrong I but obey

The urge of a song:I'm – bound - away!

And I may returnIf dissatisfied

With what I learnFrom having died.

“I had a lover’s quarrel with the world.”

Frost’s epitaph

Frost’s Quotes

About PoetryOPoetry is when an emotion has found

its thought and the thought has found words.

OPoetry is what gets lost in translation.OPoetry is a way of taking life by the

throat.OA poem begins in delight and ends in

wisdom.

About LifeOThe reason why worry kills more people

than work is that more people worry than work.

OMost of the change we think we see in life is due to truths being in and out of favor.

O In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on.

O I never dared to be radical when young for fear it would make me conservative when old.

OWhat we live by we die by.OThe best way out is always

through.OHome is the place where, when you have to go there,

They have to take you in.OBefore I built a wall I’d ask to

know What I was walling in or walling

out.

About FrostO I'm not a teacher, but an awakener.O I am a writer of books in retrospect. I

talk in order to understand; I teach in order to learn.

O I never dared to be radical when young for fear it would make me conservative when old.

O I'm not confused. I'm just well mixed.

Whimsical QuotesOForgive, O Lord, my little jokes on Thee,

and I'll forgive Thy great big joke on me.OA diplomat is a man who always

remembers a woman's birthday but never remembers her age.

OA mother takes twenty years to make a man of her boy, and another woman makes a fool of him in twenty minutes.

“I took the one the less traveled by,And that has made all the difference.”

The “Road”