Robert Frost’s parents, William Prescott Frost Jr. and Isabelle Moodie Frost, moved to San Francisco, California in 1873 to pursue a journalism job for William. Robert Frost was born the next year, on March 26, 1874 in San Francisco. Frost’s younger sister, Jeanie, was born in 1876. Robert was in and out of elementary school for years. Robert would enroll and …show more content…
attend for a while and then would drop out due to sickness or other issues. In 1885, Frost’s died unexpectedly of Tuberculosis. After the passing of William Frost, Frost’s mother moved the family to Lawrence, Massachusetts where Frost’s grandparents agreed to take care of the children while Isabelle went off to find work.
Robert Frost graduated high school in 1892. Frost was co-valedictorian with the love of Frost’s life, Elinor White. White and Frost shared a love for poetry. After high school, Elinor attended St. Lawrence University. Frost attended Dartmouth College, but left after less than a year. Although Frost left college, Frost continued to write poetry, and was first published professionally in 1894. Frost’s poem, The Butterfly: An Elegy, was published in a weekly journal known as “The Independent”.
Frost and White married in 1895. Frost supported the family by farming and teaching school, but neither was very successful. In 1896 Elinor gave birth to the first Frost child; a son named Eliot. After the birth of Eliot, Frost decided to return to school. Frost resumed classes at Harvard University in 1897, but dropped out again after 2 years. Frost never earned a formal college degree. Lesley, the Frost’s first-born daughter, was born in 1899. A year After Lesley’s arrival, Eliot died of Cholera.
From 1900 to 1909, the Frost family raised poultry on a farm near Derry, New Hampshire. To earn some extra money Frost even taught at Pinkerton Academy in Derry. While living in Derry Frost continued to write poems, although no publishers were interested. Also while in Derry, Frost became interested in Botany and started basing poems around nature. The Frost family welcomed four more children to the family between the years of 1902 and 1907, one son and three daughters. The son, Carol, was born in 1902. Daughters Irma, Marjorie, and Elinor were born in 1903, 1905, and 1907. The youngest, Elinor, died a couple weeks after being born.
In 1911, the owner of the farm in Derry passed away. Ownership of the farm was passed on to Frost. Frost made the decision to sell the farm and move the family to London, hoping to find a publisher to look at the poetry Frost had been working so hard on. While in England, Frost became good friends with fellow poet Ezra Pound. Pound helped Frost promote his work and find a publisher. After about a year and lots of hard work, Frost finally published a book of poems entitled A Boy’s Will. Poems like Storm Fear, Mowing, and The Tuft of Flowers are included within the book. In 1914, A Boy’s Will was followed by a second collection of poems called North of Boston. North of Boston contained some of Frost’s most popular works, such as Mending Wall, The Death of a Hired Man, Home Burial, and After Apple-Picking. Also in 1914, Amy Lowell went to London and found out about Frost. Lowell thought the poetry was unique and brought Frost’s work back to the United States. When Lowell returned to the United States, Lowell began looking for someone to publish Frost’s work Lowell even wrote a review raving about Frost and his poetry.
When World War I broke out, Frost decided to bring the family home to the United States. By the time Frost arrived in America, Frost was famous. Lowell had gotten the American Publishing House of Henry Holt to publish the American edition of A Boy’s Will. The company had even already published Frost’s second book, North of Boston. Both books made the Bestseller List within weeks. Frost was not used to the publicity, magazines were constantly asking publish Frost’s work. With the little extra money Frost attained, Frost decided to buy a small farm in Franconia, New Hampshire in 1915.
Frost’s third book, Mountain Interval, was released in 1916. The opening poem for the book was The Road not Taken. Later, The Road not Taken would become one of the most popular and well-known poems in history. Although, Frost was now more famous, poetry still did not provide enough money to support the family. Frost had to begin farming again, and even taught part-time at Amherst College. In 1923, Frost became even more popular following the release of a fourth book, New Hampshire.
Tragedy struck once again when Frost’s daughter Marjorie died after giving birth in the late 1920s and Frost’s beloved wife, Elinor, died of heart failure in 1938. Although mourning the loss of a daughter and wife, Frost continued to gain fame. Frost received the Pulitzer prize for four of his books: New Hampshire (1923); Collected Poems (1930); A Further Range (1936); and A Witness Tree (1942). In 1940, Frost went through another tough time when Frost’s son, Carol, committed suicide. Seven years later, Frost’s daughter Irma was admitted to the hospital and diagnosed with mental illness. Frost had to push through and focus on the positives in life, Frost couldn’t let these tragedies destroy his …show more content…
life.
Now famous, Frost worked as a poet in residence at 3 different colleges: Harvard University (1939- 1943); Dartmouth College (1943-1949); and Amherst College (1949-1963). Frost was also the poetry consultant to the Library of Congress in 1958 and 1959. In 1960, Frost was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, and in 1963 the Bollingen Prize. After working at the Library of Congress, Frost lived and taught for many years in Massachusetts and Vermont. In 1961, Frost was even given the honor of reciting one of Frost’s poems at the inauguration of President John F. Kennedy. Frost died two years later, January 29, 1963, of complications from prostate surgery.
The themes of Frost’s poems usually fell into three categories: everyday life, isolation, and nature. Frost was interested in everyday life because the topic was the part of life that was the most real. In most of Frost’s poems, the majority of his characters are isolated somehow, the reason why is still unclear. A lot of Frost’s poems are centered around nature, a great deal of the poems were inspired by specific locations in New England.
Although Frost’s career got off to a rocky start, Frost had many lots of supporters by the end of Frost’s life.
One review of The Poetry of Robert Frost by poet Daniel Hoffman stated, “The Puritan ethic turned astonishingly lyrical and enabled to say out loud the sources of its own delight in the world.” Daniel Hoffman also stated, “He became a national celebrity our nearly official poet laureate, and a great performer in the tradition of that earlier master of the literary vernacular Mark Twain.” regarding Frost’s career. Even President John F. Kennedy raved about Frost, saying “He has bequeathed his nation a body of imperishable verse from which Americans will forever gain joy and
understanding.”
Besides having lots of fans, there was also an award named after Frost. The Frost Medal was a medal given by the Poetry Society of America. The award was given in honor of Frost’s achievements as a poet. The first award was given in 1930 and was originally called the Gold Medal for Distinguished Poets. The named was later changed to honor Frost.
Throughout Frost’s life, there were many hard times. Frost had to work for everything and could not let the rough times pull Frost down. Although there were many tragedies, Frost still accomplished a lot. Without Frost’s continually hardwork and dedication, the world of literature would me much different. Frost truly changed the world.