Biography
Robert Lee Frost (March 26, 1874 – January 29, 1963) was an American poet. Frost received four Pulitzer Prizes among other honors.
Although he is most commonly associated with New England, Frost was born in San Francisco to Isabelle Moodie, of Scottish birth, and William Prescott Frost, Jr., a descendant of a Devonshire Frost who had sailed to New Hampshire in 1634. His father was a former teacher turned newspaper man, a hard drinker, a gambler, and a harsh disciplinarian, who fought to succeed in politics for as long as his health allowed.
Frost lived in California until he was 11. After the death of his father, he moved with his mother and sister to eastern Massachusetts near his paternal grandparents. His mother joined the Swedenborgian church and had him baptized in it, but he left it as an adult. He grew up a city boy and published his first poem in Lawrence, Massachusetts. He attended Dartmouth College for just less then a semester, while there he joined the fraternity, Theta Delta Chi. He went back home to teach and work at various jobs including factory work and newspaper delivery. In 1894 he sold his first poem, My Butterfly, to The Independent for $15. Proud of this accomplishment he asked Elinor Miriam White to marry him. They had graduated co-valedictorians from their high-school and had kept up their relationship. She refused, feeling that she wanted to finish school before they marry. Frost felt that there was another man and went on a pointless journey to the Dismal Swamp in Virginia. He came back later that year and asked Elinor again, she accepted and they were married in December 1895.
They taught school together until 1897. Frost then entered Harvard University for two years. He did well, but felt he had to return home due to his health and because his wife was expecting a second child. His grandfather purchased him a farm in New Hampshire. He stayed there for nine years and wrote many of the poems that would make up his first works. The attempt at poultry farming did not prove successful enough and he was forced to take up another job at Pinkerton Academy, a secondary school.
In 1912 Frost sailed with his family to Glasgow , later settling in Beaconsfield, outside London.
His first book of poetry, A Boy’s Will, was published the next year. In England he made some crucial contacts including Edward Thomas (a member of the group known as the Dymock poets), T. E. Hulme, and Ezra Pound, who was the first American to write a (favourable) review of Frost’s work. Frost wrote some of the best pieces of his work while living in England
Frost returned to America in 1915, bought a farm in Franconia, New Hampshire and launched a career of writing, teaching and lecturing. From 1916 to 1938, he was an English professor at Amherst College. He encouraged his writing students to bring the sound of the human voice to their craft.
He recited his work, The Gift Outright, at the inauguration of President John F. Kennedy in 1961 and represented the United States on several official missions. He also became known for poems that include an interplay of voices, such as Death of the Hired Man. Other highly acclaimed poems include Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, Mending Wall, Nothing Gold Can Stay, Birches, After Apple Picking, The Pasture, Fire and Ice, The Road Not Taken, and Directive. Frost won the Pulitzer Prize four times, a great achievement for a poet.
On his death on January 29, 1963, Robert Frost was buried in the Old Bennington Cemetery, in Bennington, Vermont. Harvard’s 1965 alumni directory indicates his having received an honorary degree. Frost also received an honorary degree from Bates College. During his later years he spent summers in Ripton, Vermont and participated in the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference at Middlebury College. During his life, the Robert Frost Middle School in Fairfax, Virginia and the main library of Amherst College were named after him. In 1971, the Robert Frost Middle School in Rockville, Maryland was named after him.
|
