Robert Lee Frost was born in San Francisco on March 26, 1874 and died in Boston on January 29, 1963. Frost was considered to be one of America’s leading 20th century poets and a four-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize. He was an essentially pastoral poet who was often associated with rural New England. Frost wrote poems of a philosophical region. His poems were traditional but he often said as a dig at his archrival Carl Sandburg, that “he would soon play tennis without a net as write free verse.” Frost said this because he believed he was a pioneer of rhythm and meter and in the poetic use of vocabulary and inflections of everyday life and speech. Frost’s poetry is considered to be traditional, experimental, regional, and universal (Robert 1997). Frost was born of two teachers. At the age of ten, Frost suffered the loss of his father. After the death of his father, his mother moved to Lawrence, Massachusetts. He grew up in a teaching atmosphere, along with its problems. Early in Frost's school career, he was extremely careless and preferred fun and game to his studies. In high school, he decided to apply and involve himself in many areas. He graduated in three years from high school at the head of his class. After high school he attended Dartmouth and Harvard but ended up not finishing at either due to personal problems (Newdick). He was destined to be a teacher. Frost after not making it in college, went to teach at his mother's school in Salem, New Hampshire. In 1912 he went to England to be with his family, and in his publication of North of Boston, in 1914, he was finally hailed as the great artist that he truly was. After he returned to America in 1915, he went to Harvard and read a poem for some exercises, and was instantly honored by institutions of higher learning by their conferring degrees on him (Biography). Throughout Frost's 60 years of existence, he spent 30 of those years teaching a half a dozen subjects. He has taught in schools ranging from plain white country schoolhouses in his native land of New England to the proud American Universities. He has gained half a lifetime of considered experience and philosophical observations (Libraries). In the critical analysis that I read, the critics were hard on Frost’s work “Road not taken.” The first critic, William George, starts off by attacking other critics, saying they misin... ... middle of paper ... ... with right or wrong situations, and the speaker has to choose which road, or decision, to take. I like to think that I can somewhat relate to the speaker. I have had to make many choices throughout my life and I will never know whether my choices were right or wrong until I made them. The speaker kind of concludes the poem by saying that he is relieved that he chose the right road to take. I look back and wonder if I had chosen a few different roads, how everything would have come out. I think that a lot of the roads I chose to take have been good, as far as I know. Work Cited “Biography” www.pro-net.co.uk/home/catalyst/RF/bio.html. 2000. Cervo, Nathan "Frost's The Road Not Taken" Proquest March 27. George, William "Frost's The Road Not Taken" Proquest March 27. "Libraries/media centers: Robert Frost Elementary school." American school and University; Overland Park; Aug 1999. Newdick, Robert S. "Robert Frost and the American college." The Journal of Higher Education; Columbus; Sep./Oct. 1999. “Robert Frost on the Web” http://www.amherstcommon.com/walking_tour/frost.html.1997. “Robert Frost (1874-1963)” http://www.lit.kobe-u.ac.jp/~hishika/frost.htm 2000.
Frost, Robert. “The Road Not Taken.” Literature and the Writing Process. Ed. Elizabeth McMahan et al. 8th ed. Upper Saddle River: Pearson, 2007. 695-696. Print.
Newdick, R. S. (1999). Robert Frost and the American college. The Journal of Higher Education, 70(5), 554-561. Retrieved January 5, 2014 from: http://search.proquest.com/docview/205316183?accountid=32521
Frost overcame tragedy early in life. After his father died he moved to Lawrence, Massachusetts where he attended Lawrence high school and graduated as a co-valedictorian, he later enrolled in Dartmouth college and dropped out after a semester to get work. After failing at both of his goals for the next two years (marrying his love Elinor Mary Wright, and publishing a poem), Frost decided it was time for a change of scenery and went to place in Virginia called Dismal Swamp. Dismal Swamp was a place where most poets used its drab scenery and harsh conditions to get inspiration for poems about heartsick lovers. Frost emerged from the swamp a changed man and the theme of nature and losing yourself in nature appeared routinely in his poems since then. Take
Robert Frost is one of the most prolific poets of his time. Although his works were first published in England, then later in America, he is considered a great American author. One of his greatest poems is “A Road Not Taken”. This poem has sparked numerous of debates over itself. “On one occasion [Frost] told an audience: ‘You have to be careful of that one; it's a tricky poem—very tricky’”
The first job Frost held was helping his mother run a small private school in Lawrence Massachusetts. While he was there, his wife gave birth to his first child (Robert Lee Frost). During his time period, working to make a living was difficult but mandatory. Like many of his poems reflect, Frost worked to the point of exhaustion, which was common in New England. This caused Frost illnesses, adding to his ongoing problems and depression. Eventually losing his children and becoming more ill, he used his poetry to vent and express himself, making loneliness and despair a common theme among his
After reading the poem The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost, I have realized that there is so much deeper meaning and figurative language to ponder about. After extensive research into the poem, I found out that “The Road Not Taken” was first published in 1916 in Mountain Interval. The setting was truly beautiful because it was set in a natural and rural environment.
In the poem, “The Road Not Taken”by Robert Frost, it portrays one person debating on which road to take, with one having the better reputation, and the other “less traveled by”, but both of them equally worn down. There is no known message Robert Frost specifically wanted to send, but generally, it is about the journey of life and the choices that we make throughout it. It’s the details where people’s opinions start to split apart. At first, many people interpreted this poem as to not follow the crowd and be unique, however it is, in fact, not the right meaning.
“A Road Not Taken” is one of Frost’s most popular works, some critics claim that it is one of the most misunderstood. Many people thing this poem is about the freedom of free thinking and not to follow the masses. Frost stated his intent was to comment about indecision and people finding the meaning in subconscious decisions. This poem has an interesting back story to it, when Frost was in English he sent an envelope to the well-known English critic Edward Thomas under the name “Two Roads.” According to Orr, David. "
Frost, Robert. “The Road Not Taken”. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. 7Th Ed. Nina
Frost went back to Massachusetts to teach and to work at a variety of jobs like delivering newspapers and factory labor. He hated these jobs with a passion, finally feeling his true calling as a poet (4). The poet favored Ralph Waldo Emerson, and read many of his works (6). In 1894 Robert Frost had his first poem published in The Independent, the title of his poem was “My Butterfly: an Elegy” (7). Frost proposed to Elinor, and she said no because she wanted him to finish college first, so the poet then attended Harvard Unive...
In Robert Frost’s poem, “The Road Not Taken” there are many complexities that ultimately lead to the poem’s unity. At first glance this poem seems to be a very typical coming of age poem where the speaker has come to a major fork in the road and he must decide which path to take. At first glance this would be a very good statement to make; however, as the reader digs deeper and searches for the complexity and the nuances of the poem the original assessment seems to be shallow and underdeveloped. In order to truly appreciate this poem as a work of art, the reader must search for the unity and complexity within it, otherwise this poetic work of art will go by unnoticed and cast off as a coming of age poem and nothing else.
“The Road Not Taken” reflects Frost’s opinion that society is stressful, as the speaker agonizes over a life decision represented by the division of a road. “The Road Not Taken” involves ‘life’s choices’, and can be directly related to Frost’s own life and experiences. It begins with;” Two roads diverged in a yellow wood.” The yellow woods are the first example of where Robert Frost has used nature as a means of expressing his feelings. These first two lines set the pessimistic theme of the poem as they tell the audience that Frost is now at the autumn (near end) of his life, and that he has a very hard choice to make. When Frost stopped at the fork in the road he looked down both of the paths to help him make his choice, but he found the ends of the paths to be intangible. The nature metaphor – shrubbery – obscured his view from seeing the consequences of this decision. He becomes frustrated that he cannot find the meaning of life in nature – which he feels should hold the answers. The poem is a monologue of Frost’s life and as the p...
Robert Frost was born on March 26, 1874 in San Francisco. His father was William Frost, a Harvard graduate who was on his way westward when he stopped to teach at Bucknell Academy in Pennsylvania for extra money. His mother, Isabelle Moodie began teaching math at Bucknell while William was there, and they got married and moved to San Francisco. They were constantly changing houses, and William went from job to job as a journalist. About a year after moving to San Francisco, they had Robert. They named him Robert Lee Frost, after William's childhood hero, Robert E. Lee. Frost's father died from tuberculosis at age thirty-four, in 1885. Isabelle took Robert and his sister back east to Massachusetts. Soon they moved to Salem, New Hampshire, where there was a teaching opening. Robert began to go to school and sit in on his mother’s classes. He soon learned to love language, and eventually went to Lawrence High School, where he wrote the words to the school hymn, and graduated as co-valedictorian. Frost read rabidly of Dickens, Tennyson, Longfellow, and many others. Frost was then sent to Dartmouth college by his controlling grandfather, who saw it as the proper place for him to train to become a businessman. Frost read even more in college, and learned that he loved poetry. His poetry had little success getting published, and he had to work various jobs to make a living, such as a shoemaker, a country schoolteacher, and a farmer. In 1912 Frost gave up his teaching job, sold his farm, and moved to England. He received aid from poets suck as Edward Thomas and Rupert Brooke, and published his first two volumes of poetry, A Boy's Will in 1913, and North of Boston in 1914. These works were well received not only in England, but also in America. Frost returned to America in 1915 and continued writing his poetry. He produced many volumes of poetry, among which are Mountain Interval (1916), West-Running Brook (1928), A Further Range (1936), A Masque of Reason (1945), and In the Clearing (1962). Frost received the Pulitzer Prize for poetry four times (1924, 1931, 1937, 1943) and became the first poet to read a poem at the presidential inauguration of John F. Kennedy. His poetry was based mainly on life and scenery in rural New England, and reflected many values of American society.
In the poem “The Road Not Taken”, author Robert Frost uses the simple image of a road to represent a person’s journey through life. A well-established poet, Frost does a proficient job of transforming a seemingly common road to one of great importance, which along the way helps one identify who they really are. This poem is one of self-discovery. Frost incorporates strong elements of poetry such as theme, symbolism, rhyme scheme, diction, imagery, and tone to help create one of his most well known pieces about the human experience.
Frost resided in pastoral New England for most of his adult life, and his laconic expression and focus on individualism embody the heart of this region. "An essentially pastoral poet often associated with rural New England, Frost wrote poems whose philosophical dimensions transcend any region " (Biography 1). Many of Frost's poems utilizes nature and are written in understandable language to express his admiration for the hard-working individual. "Mr. Frost has dared to write and for the most part with success in the natural speech of New England; in natural spoken speech, which is very different from the "natural" speech of the newspapers, and of many professors" (Bloom 21). Frost had an extensive education. He was taught by his mother, "Frost received much of his early education at home, and his mother often read aloud from the works of Shakespeare, Poe, Emerson, and Wadsworth, as well as others" (Bloom 12).