How Did Robert Frost's Life Affect His Poems
Robert Frost suffered a series of tragedies in his life, especially at the time he wrote A Witness Tree, a book which includes a numerous amount of poems that became his top-ranked work. The events in Frost’s everyday life and emotions have influenced the majority of his poems. His best-known work was inspired by his experiences and the world around him. Frost’s poems can be interpreted in different forms, but many of his poems like “Acquainted with the Night” and “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” have similar themes when analyzed. Frost’s life has influenced the way he viewed the world and wrote his poems. According to Modern American Poetry Frost, he was originally from San Francisco but ended up moving to eastern Massachusetts after
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his father’s death. While studying at Lawrence High School Frost wrote his first poems. In 1894, he sold his first poem My Butterfly: An Elegy to, The Independent a New York magazine. After a while of studying at Harvard his health was uncertain so on October of 1900 he settled with his family on a farm in New Hampshire. Which over the next nine years wrote several poems that would later be published in volumes (Pritchard). His life as a poet began at a young age, “His mother, who had filled his early years with Shakespeare, Bible stories, and myths...before long he was memorizing poetry and reading books on his own” (Burnshaw). The stories Frost heard as a child inspired him to use his experiences to develop deeper meanings into his poems. In doing so, he incorporated his emotions from his life that became constant themes in his work. Various people admired Robert’s poems and the impact they had on others, such as President John F. Kennedy who referenced Frost in an October 1963 speech, "… In honoring Robert Frost, we, therefore, can pay our honor to the deepest source of our national strength” (Poetry Foundation). Frost was admired for writing about rural life from his perspective. However, it is just not about that he wrote of rural life, but that he understood the essence of which it was portrayed in his poems. His work was praised and viewed differently for everyone but it inspired people to look at things in a different perspective. Numerous people have different interpretations of many of the aspects in “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” one of Frost’s most acclaimed poems.
According to a Newsela article, “The narrator of the poem talks about how he stops by the forest one day on his way back to his village. The poem goes on to describe the beauty of the forest, covered in a sheet of snow” (Khurana). In the article, freelance writer Khurana Simran talks about how this poem is not just about a person going home on a winter day. She believes the main theme of the poem is life is short and there are a lot of distractions in the world so it is best to try and avoid them. One of the interpretations Khurana had was that the narrator was actually a horse. Or that the horse saw the world from the same perspective as the narrator. Another is that Santa is the one passing through the woods. Which leads Khurana to believe that the horse represents a reindeer and that lines 14 and 15 contribute to the fact that the speaker could be Santa Clause. At the end of the poem, Frost writes “promises to keep” and “miles before I sleep” which might indicate Santa’s promises to the kids and that he will travel a great distance to deliver presents. On the other side, many critics believe that this poem is about Frost’s mental state. According to the Newsela article, “He faced many personal tragedies during his lifetime and struggled in poverty for more than 20 years. His younger sister Jeanie and his daughter were both hospitalized for mental illness, and both Frost and his mother suffered from depression” (Khurana). So this leads people to believe that his experiences had affected him negatively and was expressing that through his work. Not to mention that using the symbols like snow and the way he describes the forest adds premonition. However, by ending with the line “But I have promises to keep” lead other critics to believe he was being optimistic and willing to fulfill his duties to his
family.
Frank Lentricchia, a literary critic, novelist, and professor takes the poem “Acquainted with the Night” with a certain perspective based on the narrator’s isolation. In the poem, the narrator is walking through the streets at night. They walk beyond the city limits and pass by a watchman looking down because he didn’t want to explain himself. Then they hear a cry but realize it was not meant for them. After they glance up at the sky and “proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right”. Lentricchia describes the poem in a sense of homelessness. In a critique by Modern American Poetry, when the speaker glances up some people believe it is a clock tower, while others believe it is the moon. The poem described the unimportance of time and it doesn’t have to impact the journey of life, it just continues without stopping. He describes the narrator as having a severe burden of loneliness with no one that wants to help them. Additionally, the repetition of the line “I have been one acquainted with the night” which begins to show a theme of darkness and man versus the world.
his father’s death. While studying at Lawrence High School Frost wrote his first poems. In 1894, he sold his first poem My Butterfly: An Elegy to, The Independent a New York magazine. After a while of studying at Harvard his health was uncertain so on October of 1900 he settled with his family on a farm in New Hampshire. Which over the next nine years wrote several poems that would later be published in volumes (Pritchard). His life as a poet began at a young age, “His mother, who had filled his early years with Shakespeare, Bible stories, and myths...before long he was memorizing poetry and reading books on his own” (Burnshaw). The stories Frost heard as a child inspired him to use his experiences to develop deeper meanings into his poems. In doing so, he incorporated his emotions from his life that became constant themes in his work. Various people admired Robert’s poems and the impact they had on others, such as President John F. Kennedy who referenced Frost in an October 1963 speech, "… In honoring Robert Frost, we, therefore, can pay our honor to the deepest source of our national strength” (Poetry Foundation). Frost was admired for writing about rural life from his perspective. However, it is just not about that he wrote of rural life, but that he understood the essence of which it was portrayed in his poems. His work was praised and viewed differently for everyone but it inspired people to look at things in a different perspective. Numerous people have different interpretations of many of the aspects in “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” one of Frost’s most acclaimed poems.
According to a Newsela article, “The narrator of the poem talks about how he stops by the forest one day on his way back to his village. The poem goes on to describe the beauty of the forest, covered in a sheet of snow” (Khurana). In the article, freelance writer Khurana Simran talks about how this poem is not just about a person going home on a winter day. She believes the main theme of the poem is life is short and there are a lot of distractions in the world so it is best to try and avoid them. One of the interpretations Khurana had was that the narrator was actually a horse. Or that the horse saw the world from the same perspective as the narrator. Another is that Santa is the one passing through the woods. Which leads Khurana to believe that the horse represents a reindeer and that lines 14 and 15 contribute to the fact that the speaker could be Santa Clause. At the end of the poem, Frost writes “promises to keep” and “miles before I sleep” which might indicate Santa’s promises to the kids and that he will travel a great distance to deliver presents. On the other side, many critics believe that this poem is about Frost’s mental state. According to the Newsela article, “He faced many personal tragedies during his lifetime and struggled in poverty for more than 20 years. His younger sister Jeanie and his daughter were both hospitalized for mental illness, and both Frost and his mother suffered from depression” (Khurana). So this leads people to believe that his experiences had affected him negatively and was expressing that through his work. Not to mention that using the symbols like snow and the way he describes the forest adds premonition. However, by ending with the line “But I have promises to keep” lead other critics to believe he was being optimistic and willing to fulfill his duties to his
family.
Frank Lentricchia, a literary critic, novelist, and professor takes the poem “Acquainted with the Night” with a certain perspective based on the narrator’s isolation. In the poem, the narrator is walking through the streets at night. They walk beyond the city limits and pass by a watchman looking down because he didn’t want to explain himself. Then they hear a cry but realize it was not meant for them. After they glance up at the sky and “proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right”. Lentricchia describes the poem in a sense of homelessness. In a critique by Modern American Poetry, when the speaker glances up some people believe it is a clock tower, while others believe it is the moon. The poem described the unimportance of time and it doesn’t have to impact the journey of life, it just continues without stopping. He describes the narrator as having a severe burden of loneliness with no one that wants to help them. Additionally, the repetition of the line “I have been one acquainted with the night” which begins to show a theme of darkness and man versus the world.