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Robert Lee Frost (March26, 1874January29, 1963) was an American poet. His work was initially published in England before it was published in the United States. Known for his realistic depictions of rural life and his command of American
colloquial speech Colloquialism (), also called colloquial language, everyday language or general parlance, is the linguistic style used for casual (informal) communication. It is the most common functional style of speech, the idiom normally employed in conversa ...
, Frost frequently wrote about settings from rural life in New England in the early 20th century, using them to examine complex social and philosophical themes. Frequently honored during his lifetime, Frost is the only poet to receive four Pulitzer Prizes for Poetry. He became one of America's rare "public literary figures, almost an artistic institution".''Contemporary Literary Criticism''. Ed. Jean C. Stine, Bridget Broderick, and Daniel G. Marowski. Vol. 26. Detroit: Gale Research, 1983. p 110. He was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in 1960 for his poetic works. On July 22, 1961, Frost was named poet laureate of Vermont.


Biography


Early life

Robert Frost was born in San Francisco to journalist William Prescott Frost Jr. and Isabelle Moodie. His father was a descendant of Nicholas Frost of Tiverton, Devon, England, who had sailed to New Hampshire in 1634 on the ''Wolfrana'', and his mother was a Scottish immigrant. Frost was also a descendant of Samuel Appleton, one of the early English settlers of
Ipswich, Massachusetts Ipswich is a coastal town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 13,785 at the 2020 census. Home to Willowdale State Forest and Sandy Point State Reservation, Ipswich includes the southern part of Plum Island. A reside ...
, and Rev. George Phillips, one of the early English settlers of Watertown, Massachusetts. Frost's father was a teacher and later an editor of the ''
San Francisco Evening Bulletin The ''San Francisco Evening Bulletin'' was a newspaper in San Francisco, founded as the ''Daily Evening Bulletin'' in 1855 by James King of William. King used the newspaper to crusade against political corruption, and built it into having the highe ...
'' (which later merged with the ''
San Francisco Examiner The ''San Francisco Examiner'' is a newspaper distributed in and around San Francisco, California, and published since 1863. Once self-dubbed the "Monarch of the Dailies" by then-owner William Randolph Hearst, and flagship of the Hearst Corporat ...
''), and an unsuccessful candidate for city tax collector. After his death on May 5, 1885, the family moved across the country to Lawrence, Massachusetts, under the patronage of Robert's grandfather William Frost Sr., who was an overseer at a New England mill. Frost graduated from Lawrence High School in 1892. Frost's mother joined the
Swedenborgian The New Church (or Swedenborgianism) is any of several historically related Christian denominations that developed as a new religious group, influenced by the writings of scientist and mystic Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772). Swedenborgian or ...
church and had him baptized in it, but he left it as an adult. Although known for his later association with rural life, Frost grew up in the city, and he published his first poem in his high school's magazine. He attended Dartmouth College for two months, long enough to be accepted into the Theta Delta Chi fraternity. Frost returned home to teach and to work at various jobs, including helping his mother teach her class of unruly boys, delivering newspapers, and working in a factory maintaining carbon arc lamps. He said that he did not enjoy these jobs, feeling that his true calling was to write poetry.


Adult years

In 1894, he sold his first poem, "My Butterfly. An Elegy" (published in the November 8, 1894, edition of ''The Independent'' of New York) for $15 ($ today). Proud of his accomplishment, he proposed marriage to Elinor Miriam White, but she demurred, wanting to finish college (at St. Lawrence University) before they married. Frost then went on an excursion to the Great Dismal Swamp in Virginia and asked Elinor again upon his return. Having graduated, she agreed, and they were married at Lawrence, Massachusetts, on December 19, 1895. Frost attended Harvard University from 1897 to 1899, but he left voluntarily due to illness. Shortly before his death, Frost's grandfather purchased a farm for Robert and Elinor in
Derry, New Hampshire Derry is a town in Rockingham County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 34,317 at the 2020 census. Although it is a town and not a city, Derry is the most populous community in Rockingham County and the fourth most populous in the ...
; Frost worked the farm for nine years while writing early in the mornings and producing many of the poems that would later become famous. Ultimately his farming proved unsuccessful and he returned to the field of education as an English teacher at New Hampshire's Pinkerton Academy from 1906 to 1911, then at the New Hampshire Normal School (now Plymouth State University) in
Plymouth Plymouth () is a port city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to the west and south-west. Plymouth ...
, New Hampshire. In 1912, Frost sailed with his family to Great Britain, settling first in
Beaconsfield Beaconsfield ( ) is a market town and civil parish within the unitary authority of Buckinghamshire, England, west-northwest of central London and south-southeast of Aylesbury. Three other towns are within : Gerrards Cross, Amersham and High W ...
, a small town in
Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-ea ...
outside London. His first book of poetry, ''
A Boy's Will ''A Boy's Will'' is a poetry collection by Robert Frost, and is the poet's first commercially published book of poems. The book was first published in 1913 by David Nutt in London, with a dedication to Frost's wife, Elinor. Its first American ed ...
'', was published the next year. In England he made some important acquaintances, including Edward Thomas (a member of the group known as the Dymock poets and Frost's inspiration for " The Road Not Taken"), T. E. Hulme, and
Ezra Pound Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an expatriate American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Fascism, fascist collaborator in Italy during World War II. His works ...
. Although Pound would become the first American to write a favorable review of Frost's work, Frost later resented Pound's attempts to manipulate his American prosody. Frost met or befriended many contemporary poets in England, especially after his first two poetry volumes were published in London in 1913 (''A Boy's Will'') and 1914 (''
North of Boston ''North of Boston'' is a collection of seventeen poems by Robert Frost, first published in 1914 by David Nutt in Great Britain. Most of the poems resemble short dramas or dialogues. It is also called a book of people because most of the poems d ...
''). In 1915, during World War I, Frost returned to America, where Holt's American edition of ''A Boy's Will'' had recently been published, and bought a farm in Franconia, New Hampshire, where he launched a career of writing, teaching, and lecturing. This family homestead served as the Frosts' summer home until 1938. It is maintained today as The Frost Place, a museum and poetry conference site. He was made an honorary member of Phi Beta Kappa at Harvard in 1916. During the years 1917–20, 1923–25, and, on a more informal basis, 1926–1938, Frost taught English at
Amherst College Amherst College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts. Founded in 1821 as an attempt to relocate Williams College by its then-president Zephaniah Swift Moore, Amherst is the third oldest institution of higher educatio ...
in Massachusetts, notably encouraging his students to account for the myriad sounds and intonations of the spoken English language in their writing. He called his colloquial approach to language "the sound of sense". In 1924, he won the first of four
Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made h ...
s for the book '' New Hampshire: A Poem with Notes and Grace Notes''. He would win additional Pulitzers for '' Collected Poems'' in 1931, ''
A Further Range ''A Further Range'' is a collection of poems by Robert Frost published in 1936 by Henry Holt and Company (New York) and in 1937 by Jonathan Cape (London). Reception The collection was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1937 The following are the Pul ...
'' in 1937, and ''A Witness Tree'' in 1943. For forty-two years – from 1921 to 1962 – Frost spent almost every summer and fall teaching at the Bread Loaf School of English of
Middlebury College Middlebury College is a private liberal arts college in Middlebury, Vermont. Founded in 1800 by Congregationalists, Middlebury was the first operating college or university in Vermont. The college currently enrolls 2,858 undergraduates from all ...
, at its mountain campus at Ripton, Vermont. He is credited with being a major influence upon the development of the school and its writing programs. The college now owns and maintains his former Ripton farmstead, a National Historic Landmark, near the Bread Loaf campus. In 1921, Frost accepted a fellowship teaching post at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where he resided until 1927, when he returned to teach at Amherst. While teaching at the University of Michigan, he was awarded a lifetime appointment at the university as a Fellow in Letters. The Robert Frost Ann Arbor home was purchased by The Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan, and relocated to the museum's Greenfield Village site for public tours. Throughout the 1920s, Frost also lived in his colonial-era house in Shaftsbury, Vermont. In 2002, the house was opened to the public as the Robert Frost Stone House Museum and was given to Bennington College in 2017. In 1934, Frost began to spend winter months in Florida. In March 1935, he gave a talk at the University of Miami. In 1940, he bought a plot in South Miami, Florida, naming it ''Pencil Pines''; he spent his winters there for the rest of his life. In her memoir about Frost's time in Florida, Helen Muir writes, "Frost had called his five acres ''Pencil Pines'' because he said he had never made a penny from anything that did not involve the use of a pencil." His properties also included a
house A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air condi ...
on Brewster Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
's 1965 alumni directory notes that that Frost received an honorary degree there. Although he never graduated from college, Frost received over 40 honorary degrees, including from Princeton, Oxford and Cambridge universities, and became the only person to have received two honorary degrees from Dartmouth College. During his lifetime, the Robert Frost Middle School in
Fairfax Fairfax may refer to: Places United States * Fairfax, California * Fairfax Avenue, a major thoroughfare in Los Angeles, California * Fairfax District, Los Angeles, California, centered on Fairfax Avenue * Fairfax, Georgia * Fairfax, Indiana * Fa ...
, Virginia, the Robert L. Frost School in Lawrence, Massachusetts, and the main library of
Amherst College Amherst College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts. Founded in 1821 as an attempt to relocate Williams College by its then-president Zephaniah Swift Moore, Amherst is the third oldest institution of higher educatio ...
were named after him. In 1960, Frost was awarded a United States Congressional Gold Medal, "In recognition of his poetry, which has enriched the culture of the United States and the philosophy of the world"; it was formally bestowed on him by President Kennedy in March 1962. Also in 1962, he was awarded the Edward MacDowell Medal for outstanding contribution to the arts by the MacDowell Colony. Frost was 86 when he performed a reading at the inauguration of John F. Kennedy on January 20, 1961. He began by attempting to read his poem "Dedication", which he had composed for the occasion, but due to the brightness of the sunlight he was unable to see the text, so he recited "
The Gift Outright "The Gift Outright" is a poem written by Robert Frost. Frost originally recited it at the College of William & Mary in 1941, but its most famous recitation occurred at the inauguration of John F. Kennedy in 1961.Tuten, Nancy Lewis; Zubizarreta, J ...
" from memory instead. In the summer of 1962, Frost accompanied Interior Secretary
Stewart Udall Stewart Lee Udall (January 31, 1920 – March 20, 2010) was an American politician and later, a federal government official. After serving three terms as a congressman from Arizona, he served as Secretary of the Interior from 1961 to 1969, unde ...
on a visit to the Soviet Union in hopes of meeting Nikita Khrushchev to lobby for peaceful relations between the two Cold War powers. Frost died in Boston on January 29, 1963, of complications from prostate surgery. He was buried in the Old Bennington Cemetery in Bennington, Vermont. His epitaph, from the last line of his poem "The Lesson for Today" (1942), is: "I had a lover's quarrel with the world." One of the original collections of Frost materials, which he personally helped compile, is held in the Special Collections department of the Jones Library in
Amherst, Massachusetts Amherst () is a New England town, town in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Connecticut River valley. As of the 2020 census, the population was 39,263, making it the highest populated municipality in Hampshire County (althoug ...
. The collection consists of approximately twelve thousand items, including original manuscript poems and letters, correspondence, photographs, and audio and visual recordings. The Archives and Special Collections at Amherst College holds a small collection of his papers. The University of Michigan Library holds the Robert Frost Family Collection of manuscripts, photographs, printed items, and artwork. The most significant collection of Frost's working manuscripts is held by Dartmouth.


Personal life

Frost's personal life was plagued by grief and loss. In 1885, when he was 11, his father died of tuberculosis, leaving the family with just eight dollars. Frost's mother died of cancer in 1900. In 1920, he had to commit his younger sister Jeanie to a mental hospital, where she died nine years later. Mental illness apparently ran in Frost's family, as both he and his mother suffered from depression, and his daughter Irma was committed to a mental hospital in 1947. Frost's wife, Elinor, also experienced bouts of depression. Elinor and Robert Frost had six children: son Elliott (1896–1900, died of
cholera Cholera is an infection of the small intestine by some strains of the bacterium ''Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea that lasts a few days. Vomiting and ...
); daughter Lesley Frost Ballantine (1899–1983); son Carol (1902–1940); daughter Irma (1903–1967); daughter Marjorie (1905–1934, died as a result of
puerperal fever Postpartum infections, also known as childbed fever and puerperal fever, are any bacterial infections of the female reproductive tract following childbirth or miscarriage. Signs and symptoms usually include a fever greater than , chills, lower ab ...
after childbirth); and daughter Elinor Bettina (died just one day after her birth in 1907). Only Lesley and Irma outlived their father. Frost's wife, who had heart problems throughout her life, developed breast cancer in 1937 and died of
heart failure Heart failure (HF), also known as congestive heart failure (CHF), is a syndrome, a group of signs and symptoms caused by an impairment of the heart's blood pumping function. Symptoms typically include shortness of breath, excessive fatigue, a ...
in 1938.


Work


Style and critical reception

Critic Harold Bloom argued that Frost was one of "the major American poets". The poet and critic Randall Jarrell often praised Frost's poetry and wrote "Robert Frost, along with Stevens and Eliot, seems to me the greatest of the American poets of this century. Frost's virtues are extraordinary. No other living poet has written so well about the actions of ordinary men; his wonderful dramatic monologues or dramatic scenes come out of a knowledge of people that few poets have had, and they are written in a verse that uses, sometimes with absolute mastery, the rhythms of actual speech". He also praised "Frost's seriousness and honesty", stating that Frost was particularly skilled at representing a wide range of human experience in his poems. Jarrell's notable and influential essays on Frost include the essays "Robert Frost's 'Home Burial (1962), which consisted of an extended close reading of that particular poem, and "To The Laodiceans" (1952) in which Jarrell defended Frost against critics who had accused Frost of being too "traditional" and out of touch with Modern or Modernist poetry. In Frost's defense, Jarrell wrote "the regular ways of looking at Frost's poetry are grotesque simplifications, distortions, falsifications—coming to know his poetry well ought to be enough, in itself, to dispel any of them, and to make plain the necessity of finding some other way of talking about his work." And Jarrell's close readings of poems like "Neither Out Too Far Nor In Too Deep" led readers and critics to perceive more of the complexities in Frost's poetry. In an introduction to Jarrell's book of essays, Brad Leithauser notes that "the 'other' Frost that Jarrell discerned behind the genial, homespun New England rustic—the 'dark' Frost who was desperate, frightened, and brave—has become the Frost we've all learned to recognize, and the little-known poems Jarrell singled out as central to the Frost canon are now to be found in most anthologies". Jarrell lists a selection of the Frost poems he considers the most masterful, including "The Witch of Coös", "Home Burial", "A Servant to Servants", "Directive", "Neither Out Too Far Nor In Too Deep", "Provide, Provide", "
Acquainted with the Night "Acquainted with the Night" is a poem by Robert Frost. It first appeared in the Autumn, 1928 issue of ''The Virginia Quarterly Review'' and was republished that year in his collection '' West-Running Brook''. Poem Interpretation and form T ...
", "After Apple Picking", "Mending Wall", "The Most of It", "An Old Man's Winter Night", "To Earthward", " Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening", "Spring Pools", "The Lovely Shall Be Choosers", "Design", and "Desert Places". In 2003, the critic Charles McGrath noted that critical views on Frost's poetry have changed over the years (as has his public image). In an article called "The Vicissitudes of Literary Reputation," McGrath wrote, "Robert Frost ... at the time of his death in 1963 was generally considered to be a New England folkie ... In 1977, the third volume of Lawrance Thompson's biography suggested that Frost was a much nastier piece of work than anyone had imagined; a few years later, thanks to the reappraisal of critics like William H. Pritchard and Harold Bloom and of younger poets like
Joseph Brodsky Iosif Aleksandrovich Brodsky (; russian: link=no, Иосиф Александрович Бродский ; 24 May 1940 – 28 January 1996) was a Russian and American poet and essayist. Born in Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg), USSR in 1940, ...
, he bounced back again, this time as a bleak and unforgiving modernist." In ''The Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry'', editors Richard Ellmann and Robert O'Clair compared and contrasted Frost's unique style to the work of the poet Edwin Arlington Robinson since they both frequently used New England settings for their poems. However, they state that Frost's poetry was "less onsciouslyliterary" and that this was possibly due to the influence of English and Irish writers like
Thomas Hardy Thomas Hardy (2 June 1840 – 11 January 1928) was an English novelist and poet. A Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot, he was influenced both in his novels and in his poetry by Romanticism, including the poetry of William Word ...
and W. B. Yeats. They note that Frost's poems "show a successful striving for utter colloquialism" and always try to remain down to earth, while at the same time using traditional forms despite the trend of American poetry towards free verse which Frost famously said was "'like playing tennis without a net.'"Ellman, Richard and Robert O'Clair. ''The Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry'', Second Edition. New York: Norton, 1988. In providing an overview of Frost's style, the Poetry Foundation makes the same point, placing Frost's work "at the crossroads of nineteenth-century American poetry
ith regard to his use of traditional forms The Ith () is a ridge in Germany's Central Uplands which is up to 439 m high. It lies about 40 km southwest of Hanover and, at 22 kilometres, is the longest line of crags in North Germany. Geography Location The Ith is immediat ...
and modernism
ith his use of idiomatic language and ordinary, everyday subject matter The Ith () is a ridge in Germany's Central Uplands which is up to 439 m high. It lies about 40 km southwest of Hanover and, at 22 kilometres, is the longest line of crags in North Germany. Geography Location The Ith is immediat ...
" They also note that Frost believed that "the self-imposed restrictions of meter in form" was more helpful than harmful because he could focus on the content of his poems instead of concerning himself with creating "innovative" new verse forms. An earlier 1963 study by the poet
James Radcliffe Squires Radcliffe Squires (May 5, 1917 – February 14, 1993) was an American poet, writer, critic, and academic. He published several well-regarded books of poetry, as well as biographical and critical works which focused on highly acclaimed 20th-century ...
spoke to the distinction of Frost as a poet whose verse soars more for the difficulty and skill by which he attains his final visions, than for the philosophical purity of the visions themselves. "He has written at a time when the choice for the poet seemed to lie among the forms of despair: Science, solipsism, or the religion of the past century ... Frost has refused all of these and in the refusal has long seemed less dramatically committed than others ... But no, he must be seen as dramatically uncommitted to the single solution ... Insofar as Frost allows to both fact and intuition a bright kingdom, he speaks for many of us. Insofar as he speaks through an amalgam of senses and sure experience so that his poetry seems a nostalgic memory with overtones touching some conceivable future, he speaks better than most of us. That is to say, as a poet must." The classicist
Helen H. Bacon Helen Hazard Bacon (March 9, 1919 – November 9, 2007) was professor of classics at Barnard College. She was known in particular for her work on Greek tragedy, especially Aeschylus. Bacon was also well known for her work on classical themes in th ...
has proposed that Frost's deep knowledge of Greek and Roman classics influenced much of his work. Frost's education at Lawrence High School, Dartmouth, and Harvard "was based mainly on the classics". As examples, she links imagery and action in Frost's early poems "Birches" (1915) and "Wild Grapes" (1920) with Euripides' '' Bacchae''. She cites certain motifs, including that of the tree bent down to earth, as evidence of his "very attentive reading of ''Bacchae'', almost certainly in Greek". In a later poem, "One More Brevity" (1953), Bacon compares the poetic techniques used by Frost to those of Virgil in the '' Aeneid''. She notes that "this sampling of the ways Frost drew on the literature and concepts of the Greek and Roman world at every stage of his life indicates how imbued with it he was".


Themes

In ''Contemporary Literary Criticism'', the editors state that "Frost's best work explores fundamental questions of existence, depicting with chilling starkness the loneliness of the individual in an indifferent universe."''Contemporary Literary Criticism''. Ed. Jean C. Stine, Bridget Broderick, and Daniel G. Marowski. Vol. 26. Detroit: Gale Research, 1983, pp. 110–129. The critic T. K. Whipple focused on this bleakness in Frost's work, stating that "in much of his work, particularly in ''North of Boston'', his harshest book, he emphasizes the dark background of life in rural New England, with its degeneration often sinking into total madness." In sharp contrast, the founding publisher and editor of '' Poetry'',
Harriet Monroe Harriet Monroe (December 23, 1860 – September 26, 1936) was an American editor, scholar, literary critic, poet, and patron of the arts. She was the founding publisher and long-time editor of ''Poetry'' magazine, first published in 1912. As a ...
, emphasized the folksy New England persona and characters in Frost's work, writing that "perhaps no other poet in our history has put the best of the Yankee spirit into a book so completely." She notes his frequent use of rural settings and farm life, and she likes that in these poems, Frost is most interested in "showing the human reaction to nature's processes." She also notes that while Frost's narrative, character-based poems are often satirical, Frost always has a "sympathetic humor" towards his subjects.


Influenced by

*
Robert Graves Captain Robert von Ranke Graves (24 July 1895 – 7 December 1985) was a British poet, historical novelist and critic. His father was Alfred Perceval Graves, a celebrated Irish poet and figure in the Gaelic revival; they were both Celtic ...
*
Rupert Brooke Rupert Chawner Brooke (3 August 1887 – 23 April 1915)The date of Brooke's death and burial under the Julian calendar that applied in Greece at the time was 10 April. The Julian calendar was 13 days behind the Gregorian calendar. was an En ...
*
Thomas Hardy Thomas Hardy (2 June 1840 – 11 January 1928) was an English novelist and poet. A Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot, he was influenced both in his novels and in his poetry by Romanticism, including the poetry of William Word ...
* William Butler Yeats *
John Keats John Keats (31 October 1795 – 23 February 1821) was an English poet of the second generation of Romantic poets, with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley. His poems had been in publication for less than four years when he died of tuberculo ...
* Ralph Waldo Emerson


Influenced

* Robert Francis * Seamus Heaney * Richard Wilbur * Edward Thomas * James Wright


Awards and recognition

Frost was nominated for the
Nobel Prize in Literature ) , image = Nobel Prize.png , caption = , awarded_for = Outstanding contributions in literature , presenter = Swedish Academy , holder = Annie Ernaux (2022) , location = Stockholm, Sweden , year = 1901 , ...
31 times. In June 1922, the Vermont State League of Women's Clubs elected Frost as Poet Laureate of Vermont. When a '' New York Times'' editorial strongly criticised the decision of the Women's Clubs,
Sarah Cleghorn Sarah Norcliffe Cleghorn (February 4, 1876 – April 4, 1959) was an educator, author, social reformer and poet whose work was associated with the American Naturalist literary movement. Early years Born in Norfolk, Virginia, Cleghorn spent her ...
and other women wrote to the newspaper defending Frost. Frost was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1931 and the American Philosophical Society in 1937. On July 22, 1961, Frost was named Poet Laureate of Vermont by the state legislature through Joint Resolution R-59 of the Acts of 1961, which also created the position. Robert Frost won the 1963 Bollingen Prize.


Pulitzer Prizes

* 1924 for '' New Hampshire: A Poem With Notes and Grace Notes'' * 1931 for '' Collected Poems'' * 1937 for ''
A Further Range ''A Further Range'' is a collection of poems by Robert Frost published in 1936 by Henry Holt and Company (New York) and in 1937 by Jonathan Cape (London). Reception The collection was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1937 The following are the Pul ...
'' * 1943 for ''
A Witness Tree ''A Witness Tree'' is a collection of poems by Robert Frost, most of which are short lyric, first published in 1942 by Henry Holt and Company in New York. The collection was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1943. Background This collect ...
''


Legacy and cultural influence

* Robert Frost Hall is an academic building at Southern New Hampshire University in Manchester, New Hampshire. * In the early morning of November 23, 1963, Westinghouse Broadcasting's Sid Davis reported the arrival of President John F. Kennedy's casket at the White House. Since Frost was one of the President's favorite poets, Davis concluded his report with a passage from "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening", but was overcome with emotion as he signed off. * Jawaharlal Nehru (1889–1964), the first Prime Minister of India, had kept a book of Robert Frost's close to him towards his later years, even at his bedside table as he lay dying. * The poem "Nothing Gold Can Stay" is featured in both the 1967 novel '' The Outsiders'' by
S. E. Hinton Susan Eloise Hinton (born July 22, 1948) is an American writer best known for her young-adult novels (YA) set in Oklahoma, especially '' The Outsiders'' (1967), which she wrote during high school. Hinton is credited with introducing the YA genr ...
and the 1983 film adaptation, first recited aloud by the character Ponyboy to his friend Johnny. In a subsequent scene Johnny quotes a stanza from the poem back to Ponyboy by means of a letter which was read after he passes away. * His poem " Fire and Ice" influenced the title and other aspects of George R. R. Martin's fantasy series ''
A Song of Ice and Fire ''A Song of Ice and Fire'' is a series of epic fantasy novels by the American novelist and screenwriter George R. R. Martin. He began the first volume of the series, ''A Game of Thrones'', in 1991, and it was published in 1996. Martin, who init ...
''. * '' Nothing Gold Can Stay'' is the name of the debut
studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...
by American pop-punk band New Found Glory, released on October 19, 1999. * At the funeral of former Canadian prime minister
Pierre Trudeau Joseph Philippe Pierre Yves Elliott Trudeau ( , ; October 18, 1919 – September 28, 2000), also referred to by his initials PET, was a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the 15th prime minister of Canada The prime mini ...
, on October 3, 2000, his eldest son Justin rephrased the last stanza of the poem "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" in his eulogy: "The woods are lovely, dark and deep. He has kept his promises and earned his sleep." * A '' Garfield'' comic strip published on October 20, 2002, originally featured the titular character reciting "Nothing Gold Can Stay". However, this was replaced in book collections and online edition, likely due to the poem being still under copyright when the comic ran (the poem has since lapsed into public domain, in 2019). * The poem "Fire and Ice" is the epigraph of Stephenie Meyer's 2007 book, ''
Eclipse An eclipse is an astronomical event that occurs when an astronomical object or spacecraft is temporarily obscured, by passing into the shadow of another body or by having another body pass between it and the viewer. This alignment of three ce ...
'', of the ''Twilight'' Saga. It is also read by Kristen Stewart's character, Bella Swan, at the beginning of the 2010 ''Eclipse'' film. * "Nothing Gold Can Stay" is referenced in First Aid Kit's 2014 album '' Stay Gold'': "But just as the moon it shall stray / So dawn goes down today / No gold can stay / No gold can stay." * "Nothing Gold Can Stay" (February 4, 2015) is the title given to the tenth episode of the seventh season of '' The Mentalist'' in which a character is killed. * The character of Baron Quinn recites "Fire and Ice" in an episode of AMC's ''
Into the Badlands ''Into the Badlands'' may refer to: * ''Into the Badlands'' (film), a 1991 television film; * ''Into the Badlands'' (TV series), a 2015–2019 television series {{Disambiguation ...
''. * Verses of "Fire and Ice" are referenced and recited throughout the 2017 episodic video game '' Life Is Strange: Before the Storm''. * The line "Nothing gold can stay" is featured in the 2018 single " Venice Bitch" by American singer Lana Del Rey. Del Rey also previously used this line in her 2015 single " Music to Watch Boys To".


Selected works


Poetry collections

* 1913. ''
A Boy's Will ''A Boy's Will'' is a poetry collection by Robert Frost, and is the poet's first commercially published book of poems. The book was first published in 1913 by David Nutt in London, with a dedication to Frost's wife, Elinor. Its first American ed ...
''. London: David Nutt (New York: Holt, 1915) * 1914. ''
North of Boston ''North of Boston'' is a collection of seventeen poems by Robert Frost, first published in 1914 by David Nutt in Great Britain. Most of the poems resemble short dramas or dialogues. It is also called a book of people because most of the poems d ...
''. London: David Nutt (New York: Holt, 1914) ** "
After Apple-Picking "After Apple-Picking" is a poem by American poet Robert Frost. It was published in '' North of Boston'', Frost's second poetry collection. The poem does not conform strictly to a particular form, though it is loosely iambic pentameter. Summary Th ...
" ** "
The Death of the Hired Man "The Death of the Hired Man" is a poem by Robert Frost. Although it was first published in 1914 with other Frost poetry in the '' North of Boston'' collection, critic Harold Bloom Harold Bloom (July 11, 1930 – October 14, 2019) was an Ameri ...
" ** " Mending Wall" * 1916. ''
Mountain Interval ''Mountain Interval'' is a 1916 poetry collection written by American poet Robert Frost. Published by Henry Holt, it is Frost's third poetic volume. Background The book was republished in 1920, and after making several alterations in the sequenc ...
''. New York: Holt ** "
Birches A birch is a thin-leaved deciduous hardwood tree of the genus ''Betula'' (), in the family Betulaceae, which also includes alders, hazels, and hornbeams. It is closely related to the beech-oak family Fagaceae. The genus ''Betula'' contains 30 to ...
" ** " Out, Out" ** "
The Oven Bird "The Oven Bird" is a 1916 poem by Robert Frost, first published in '' Mountain Interval''. The poem is written in sonnet form and describes an ovenbird singing. Background It has been described as a quintessential Frost poem.Little, Michael R. (e ...
" ** " The Road Not Taken" * 1923. ''Selected Poems''. New York: Holt. ** "The Runaway" ** Also includes poems from first three volumes * 1923. '' New Hampshire''. New York: Holt (London: Grant Richards, 1924) ** " Fire and Ice" ** " Nothing Gold Can Stay" ** " Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" * 1924. ''Several Short Poems''. New York: Holt * 1928. ''Selected Poems''. New York: Holt. * 1928. ''
West-Running Brook ''West-Running Brook'' is a collection of poetry by Robert Frost, written in 1923 and published by Henry Holt and Co. in 1928, and containing woodcuts by J. J. Lankes. The title of the poem that the volume is named by is very significant. Wher ...
''. New York: Holt ** "
Acquainted with the Night "Acquainted with the Night" is a poem by Robert Frost. It first appeared in the Autumn, 1928 issue of ''The Virginia Quarterly Review'' and was republished that year in his collection '' West-Running Brook''. Poem Interpretation and form T ...
" * 1929. ''The Lovely Shall Be Choosers,'' ''The Poetry Quartos'', printed and illustrated by Paul Johnston. Random House. * 1930. ''
Collected Poems of Robert Frost ''Collected Poems of Robert Frost'' is a collection of poetry written by Robert Frost and published in 1930 by Henry Holt and Company in New York. Contents The collection consisted of Robert Frost's first five poetry books: *''A Boy's Will'' ( ...
''. New York: Holt (UK:
Longmans Green Longman, also known as Pearson Longman, is a publishing company founded in London, England, in 1724 and is owned by Pearson PLC. Since 1968, Longman has been used primarily as an imprint by Pearson's Schools business. The Longman brand is also ...
, 1930) * 1933. ''The Lone Striker''. US: Knopf * 1934. ''Selected Poems: Third Edition''. New York: Holt * 1935. ''Three Poems''. Hanover, NH: Baker Library, Dartmouth College. * 1935. ''The Gold Hesperidee''. Bibliophile Press. * 1936. ''From Snow to Snow''. New York: Holt. * 1936. ''
A Further Range ''A Further Range'' is a collection of poems by Robert Frost published in 1936 by Henry Holt and Company (New York) and in 1937 by Jonathan Cape (London). Reception The collection was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1937 The following are the Pul ...
''. New York: Holt (Cape, 1937) * 1939. ''Collected Poems of Robert Frost''. New York: Holt (UK: Longmans, Green, 1939) * 1942. ''
A Witness Tree ''A Witness Tree'' is a collection of poems by Robert Frost, most of which are short lyric, first published in 1942 by Henry Holt and Company in New York. The collection was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1943. Background This collect ...
''. New York: Holt (Cape, 1943) ** "
The Gift Outright "The Gift Outright" is a poem written by Robert Frost. Frost originally recited it at the College of William & Mary in 1941, but its most famous recitation occurred at the inauguration of John F. Kennedy in 1961.Tuten, Nancy Lewis; Zubizarreta, J ...
" ** " A Question" ** " The Silken Tent" * 1943. ''Come In, and Other Poems''. New York: Holt. * 1947. ''Steeple Bush''. New York: Holt * 1949. ''Complete Poems of Robert Frost''. New York: Holt (Cape, 1951) * 1951. ''Hard Not To Be King''. House of Books. * 1954. ''Aforesaid''. New York: Holt. * 1959. ''A Remembrance Collection of New Poems''. New York: Holt. * 1959. ''You Come Too''. New York: Holt (UK: Bodley Head, 1964) * 1962. ''
In the Clearing ''In the Clearing'' is a 1962 poetry collection by Robert Frost. It contains the poem "For John F. Kennedy His Inauguration", much of which Frost had composed to be read at President Kennedy's inauguration but could not. The book is also known ...
''. New York:
Holt Rinehart & Winston Henry Holt and Company is an American book-publishing company based in New York City. One of the oldest publishers in the United States, it was founded in 1866 by Henry Holt and Frederick Leypoldt. Currently, the company publishes in the fields ...
* 1969. ''The Poetry of Robert Frost''. New York: Holt Rinehart & Winston.


Plays

* 1929. ''A Way Out: A One Act Play'' (Harbor Press). * 1929. ''The Cow's in the Corn: A One Act Irish Play in Rhyme'' (Slide Mountain Press). * 1945. ''
A Masque of Reason A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''a'' (pronounced ), plural ''aes'' ...
'' (Holt). * 1947. ''A Masque of Mercy'' (Holt).


Letters

* 1963. ''The Letters of Robert Frost to Louis Untermeyer'' (Holt, Rinehart & Winston; Cape, 1964). * 1963. ''Robert Frost and John Bartlett: The Record of a Friendship'', by Margaret Bartlett Anderson (Holt, Rinehart & Winston). * 1964. ''Selected Letters of Robert Frost'' (Holt, Rinehart & Winston). * 1972. ''Family Letters of Robert and Elinor Frost'' (State University of New York Press). * 1981. ''Robert Frost and Sidney Cox: Forty Years of Friendship'' (University Press of New England). * 2014. ''The Letters of Robert Frost, Volume 1, 1886–1920'', edited by Donald Sheehy, Mark Richardson, and Robert Faggen.
Belknap Press Harvard University Press (HUP) is a publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University, and focused on academic publishing. It is a member of the Association of American University Presses. After the retirem ...
. . (811 pages; first volume, of five, of the scholarly edition of the poet's correspondence, including many previously unpublished letters.) * 2016. ''The Letters of Robert Frost, Volume 2, 1920–1928'', edited by Donald Sheehy, Mark Richardson,
Robert Bernard Hass Robert Bernard Hass (born 1962) is an American poet, literary critic, and professor. Life and work Robert Bernard Hass is the author of ''Going by Contraries: Robert Frost's Conflict With Science'' (University of Virginia Press, 2002), which w ...
, and Henry Atmore. Belknap Press. . (848 pages; second volume of the series.)


Other

* 1957. ''Robert Frost Reads His Poetry''. Caedmon Records, TC1060. ( spoken word) * 1966. ''Interviews with Robert Frost'' (Holt, Rinehart & Winston; Cape, 1967). * 1995. ''Collected Poems, Prose and Plays'', edited by Richard Poirier. Library of America. . (
omnibus Omnibus may refer to: Film and television * ''Omnibus'' (film) * Omnibus (broadcast), a compilation of Radio or TV episodes * ''Omnibus'' (UK TV series), an arts-based documentary programme * ''Omnibus'' (U.S. TV series), an educational progr ...
volume.) * 2007. ''The Notebooks of Robert Frost'', edited by Robert Faggen. Harvard University Press.


See also

*
List of poems by Robert Frost The following is a List of poems by Robert Frost. Robert Frost was an American poet, and the recipient of four Pulitzer Prizes for poetry. Collections ''A Boy's Will'' (1913) ''North of Boston'' (1914) ''Mountain Interval'' (1916) ''The ...
* ''
Frostiana ''Frostiana: Seven Country Songs'' is a piece for mixed chorus and piano composed in 1959 by Randall Thompson. It premiered on October 18, 1959, in Amherst, Massachusetts. Thompson later scored the piece for chamber orchestra and chorus; ...
'' * New Hampshire Historical Marker No. 126: Robert Frost 1874–1963


Citations


General sources

* * * "Vandalized Frost house drew a crowd". '' Burlington Free Press'', January 8, 2008. * Robert Frost (1995). ''Collected Poems, Prose, & Plays''. Edited by Richard Poirier and Mark Richardson. Library of America. (trade paperback).
Robert Frost Biographical Information


External links


Robert Frost: Profile, Poems, Essays
at Poets.org

at the Poetry Foundation
Profile
() at Modern American Poetry *
Robert Frost Collection
and
awrence H. Conrad Collection of Vachel Lindsay and Robert Frost Material in Archives and Special Collections
Amherst College, Amherst, MA

.
Robert Frost Farm in Derry, NH

The Frost Place
– a museum and poetry conference center in Franconia, N.H.

– audio, video and full transcripts of Open Yale Courses
Robert Frost Declares Himself a "Balfour Israelite" and Discusses His Trip to the Western Wall

Drawing of Robert Frost by Wilfred Byron Shaw
at University of Michigan Museum of Art


Libraries


Robert Frost Collection
in Special Collections, Jones Library, Amherst, MA
Robert Frost book collection
an
Robert Frost papers
at the
University of Maryland Libraries The University of Maryland Libraries is the largest university library in the Washington, D.C. - Baltimore area. The university's library system includes eight libraries: six are located on the College Park campus, while the Severn Library, an of ...

The Victor E. Reichert Robert Frost Collection
from the University at Buffalo Libraries Poetry Collection
Robert Frost Collection
at Dartmouth College Library


Electronic editions

* * * *

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Frost, Robert 1874 births 1963 deaths 19th-century American poets 20th-century American poets American Poets Laureate American male poets American people of English descent American people of Scottish descent Amherst College faculty Bollingen Prize recipients Burials in Vermont Congressional Gold Medal recipients Dartmouth College alumni Formalist poets Harvard University alumni Harvard University faculty Middlebury College faculty People from Bennington, Vermont People from Derry, New Hampshire People from Franconia, New Hampshire Writers from Lawrence, Massachusetts Phillips family (New England) Plymouth State University people Poets Laureate of Vermont Poets from California Poets from Massachusetts Poets from New Hampshire Poets from Vermont Pulitzer Prize for Poetry winners Sonneteers University of Michigan faculty Writers from San Francisco American inaugural poets 20th-century American male writers Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters Members of the American Philosophical Society