Robert Frost was a famous American poet who won the Pulitzer Prize four times. He is known for his traditional formal verse and themes about nature and human existence. Despite personal tragedies, he lived a quiet life on his New Hampshire farm and taught at Middlebury College. His legacy continues to inspire Americans.
Robert Frost is one of the most famous and popular poets in American history. During his lifetime (1874-1963), Frost published numerous books of poetry and won the Pulitzer Prize four times, a record unsurpassed by any other poet.
Although Robert Frost was born in San Francisco, California, he is primarily known as a New England poet. He moved to a farm in Franconia, New Hampshire in 1915 and taught English at Amherst College in Massachusetts. During the summer months, he taught at Middlebury College in Vermont. Today, Middlebury College owns the Robert Frost Farmhouse, which is registered as a historic site and hosts an annual writers’ conference each summer.
Even people who don’t read much poetry are likely to be familiar with some of Robert Frost’s works. His poem, “Stopping the Woods on a Snowy Evening,” is often taught in schools and sometimes translated into song. Another poem, “Nothing Gold Can Stay,” is quoted in SE Hinton’s popular young adult book, The Outsiders.
Features common to Robert Frost’s poetry include traditional formal verse and themes dealing with the natural landscape and dark meditations on human existence. Much of Frost’s work includes reflections on New England, but he was not purely a regional poet; his words spoke of universal human experiences.
Though Robert Frost has achieved considerable commercial success, he has not been immune to tragedy in his personal life. Frost and his wife Elinor had six children together. In 1907, their son Elliott died of cholera. The following year, their daughter Elinor Bettina died in childbirth. In 1943, after Frost had achieved great success and had just received his fourth Pulitzer Prize, his daughter Marjorie died in childbirth in 1934; shortly thereafter, his wife Elinor died and his son Carol committed suicide in 1940.
For the rest of his life, Robert Frost lived a quiet life on his New Hampshire farm, spending summers in a cabin in Ripon, Vermont near the Middlebury campus where he taught. He published a volume of collected poems in 1939, which was followed by two plays, a volume of Complete Poems and the final collection of new poetry of 1962, In the Clearing. He also recited an inaugural poem, “The Gift Outright,” for John F. Kennedy at his inauguration in 1961.
Robert Frost died on January 29, 1963 in Boston, Massachusetts. He was buried in Old Bennington Cemetery in Burlington, Vermont. His gravestone reads: “I had a lover’s quarrel with the world.”
Several months after Robert Frost’s death, John F. Kennedy spoke about Frost’s legacy at Amherst College. Kennedy said Frost’s death “depletes us all; but he bequeathed to his nation a body of imperishable verse from which Americans will forever derive joy and understanding.”
Protect your devices with Threat Protection by NordVPN
