Biography of Robert Frost

“Rightly or wrongly, Robert Frost has achieved a reputation as a poet

of nature…” (Gerber 155). Yes, Frost does use imagery of nature in his

poems, but to say he is a “nature poet” is distorting his poetry by

overlooking the poem’s darker complexions (Gerber 155). An aspect of

his poems that is frequently overlooked is the main character’s

internal conflict. In “The Road Not Taken” and “Stopping By Woods On A

Snowy Evening” characters are faced with an inner conflict

metaphorically described by nature. In these two poems Frost uses

nature to hide the reality of how self-conscious the main character

actually is.

Robert Frost was born in San Francisco, California on March 26, 1874.

When his father died in 1885 he moved to Massachusetts with his mom

and sister (Sweeny and Lindroth 5). He spent his whole life in the

Massachusetts area. “Frost attended high school in that state, and

then Dartmouth College, but remained less than one semester”

(Michalowski). At the age of thirty-eight Frost decided to move him

and his family to England. While in England his first book, A Boy’s

Will, was published in 1913. A few years later he returned to America

where his second book, North of Boston, was published (Michalowski).

Although he spent three years of his life in England, “…little of his

verse reflects any specific English imagery” (Sweeny and Lindroth 11).

Massachusetts and other New England areas were the setting for the

majority of Frost’s poetry. The nature in the New England area played

a big role in his life and influenced his poetry a lot (Sweeny and

Lindroth 7).

“Nine generations of New Englanders had produced Robert Frost, and he

in turn produced in his poetry a distillation of all that is New

Engla...

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...chusetts. 1982

Michalowski, Jay. “Biography of Robert Frost”.

The Robert Frost Web Page. 3 May 2015

http://www.robertfrost.org/indexgood.html

Richardson, Mark “Robert Frost” Modern American Poetry. 5 April 2015.

http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/a_f/frost/frost.htm

Sweeny, John David and Lindroth, James.

The Poetry of Robert Frost. New York: Monarch Press, 1965

Van Doren, Mark. “Robert Frost’s America: June 1951”

The Atlantic Online. 5 April 2015. The Atlantic Monthly

http://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/poetry/frost/vand.html

Wakefield, Richard. “Thomas Eakins and Robert Frost:

“To be a natural man in a man-made world.” Proquest Online. 5 April 2015.

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