Robert Frost

Biography

Robert Frost, born in San Francisco on March 26th, 1874, moved to New England at the age of 11. During his high school years in Lawrence, Massachusetts, he became interested in reading and writing poetry. In 1892, he was enrolled at Dartmouth College, and later at Harvard, even though he never earned a formal degree.

After he left school, Robert Frost worked as a teacher, shoe maker, known as a cobbler, and the editor of the Lawrence Sentinel. "My Butterfly", his first professional poem, was published on November 8, 1894 in the New York newspaper The Independent.

A major inspiration of Robert's poetry was his wife, Elinor Miriam White, whom he married in 1895. They moved to England in 1912, when their farm in New Hampshire failed. There, Robert met and was influenced by British poets such as Edward Thomas, Rupert Brooke, and Robert Graves.

Robert Frost's life was full of grief and loss. When Robert was 11, his father died, leaving the family with just eight dollars. Robert's mother died five years later, in the year 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. Robert, his mother, and Elinor all suffered from bouts of depression.

Elinor and Robert Frost had six children; Elliot, Lesley, Carol, Irma, Marjorie, and Elinor Bettina, who died just three days after her birth. Robert's wife, Elinor, died of heart failure in 1938. Only Lesley and Irma outlived their father.

Robert Frost published 143 poems and 4 plays during his lifetime. Some of Robert Frost's most famous works are Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, The Road Not Taken, Fire and Ice, Nothing Gold can Stay, Birches After Apple-Picking, The Death of a Hired Man, Home Burial and Mending Wall. The results of a poll taken by America's Poet Laureate, Robert Pinsky, says that The Road Not Taken was voted America's favorite poem.

On January 20, 1961, Robert Frost spoke and performed a reading of his poetry at the inauguration of President John F. Kennedy.He died in Boston on January 29, 1963 at the age of 88. His epitaph quotes a line from one of his poems: "I had a lover's quarrel with the world". For the 100th anniversary of his birth, Robert Frost was pictured on a 10cent commemorative postage stamp issued on March 23, 1974.








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Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
By Robert Frost

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of the easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

My Version

Those who thought it hard to land.
Dreams I held are in my hand
As I grow, who cannot see
Their thoughts now, a grain of sand.

Dark and cold, it could not be,
With the warmth I can now see.
Here I know, that I must fake,
What those thoughts, have done to me.

In their shoes, I see them quake.
Some might find their big mistake.
Crawling through my mind at night,
How much more can they break.

Look at this, it’s quite a sight.
Here and now the world is bright,
Finally, peace comes tonight.
Finally, peace comes tonight.