Robert Frost1874-1963

• Was one of the major American poets of the 20th century

• Educated at Dartmouth College and Harvard University

• After graduation from high school, Frost sporadically attended college and earned his living by working variously as a bobbin boy in a wool mill, a shoemaker, a country schoolteacher, the editor of a rural newspaper, and a farmer. He also wrote poetry, but he had little success in having his poems published.

• Married Elinor White in 1895 and the two had six children– two died young

• Frost supported his family by farming and teaching

• In 1912 Frost sold his farm, gave up a teaching post at the New Hampshire State Normal School, and went to live in England. There he met such established poets as Edward Thomas (1878-1917), Rupert Brooke, and Lascelles Abercrombie (1881-1938), who became his friends and did much to aid his literary career.

• With their help, Frost published his first two volumes of poetry, a group of lyrics entitled A Boy's Will (1913) and a series of dramatic monologues called North of Boston (1914). These works won him immediate recognition, and in 1915 Frost returned to the U.S. to find that his fame had preceded him. Thereafter he continued to write poetry with increasing success, while living on farms in Vermont and New Hampshire and teaching literature at Amherst College, the University of Michigan, Harvard University, and Dartmouth College.

• Frost was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for poetry four times (1924, 1931, 1937, 1943); in 1961, at the inauguration of John F. Kennedy, he became the first poet to read a poem at a presidential inauguration.

• The underlying philosophy of Frost's poetry is rooted in traditional New England individualism, and his work shows his strong sympathy for the values of early American society.

Themes

• Frost studied the Romantics and some of their themes are evident in many of his poems:– Loneliness– Isolation– Nature

• Frost also used modern themes coupled with traditional poetic forms

Style

• Strong sense of place

• Descriptive of the landscape and people of his home

• Captures native speech patterns in quiet reflective voice

• Blank verse

• Relationships

• Symbolism

Required Journal #1

• In the Robert Frost poem “Mending Wall,” one of the two characters states, “Good fences make good neighbors.” Think about the universal import of this metaphor and write a response in your journal. Be sure to use specific examples, even including your own experiences with friends in school, to support your position.

Required Journal #2

• Create two Venn Diagrams of the male female characteristics in Frost’s three dramatic poems discussed in class. Focus on character similarities and differences.

Required Journal #3

• A poem of at least ten lines of blank verse—written by YOU! Using the style and themes of Frost!

Poem ExampleHorse for Sale

By Crystal LamarHeaded home down the old, lost county roadThe dust billows behind the car as ITurn and pause to check the sign, “Horse for Sale”Blonde heads bob sleepily in the back seatIs our new home so far away from town?A dark quiet, I start at the glowing lightsThree pair of eyes glow from the woods’ gray edgeI am motionless, silent, dust settlesCrickets, the breaths of two sleeping childrenLonely broken, a lost city stationAlone, not scared, empowered, peaceful woods.

Poems Covered in Class

• “Birches”

• “Mending Wall”

• “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”

• “The Death of the Hired Man”

• “Home Burial”

• “The Fear”