Robert Frost Research Paper

“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I- I took the road less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.” ("Robert Frost - Poems, Biography, Quotes") Many people know this line, either because they had to read the poem The Road Not Taken in school, or because they have heard others use it in reference to choices in life . Sadly though, quite a few people don’t know who wrote this marvelous work of art. The name of the prodigious poet who wrote this line is Robert Frost. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize a record of four times and was called, by President John F. Kennedy, and American hero. His works are acknowledged around the world, but most Americans take no interest in him, even though he was born and raised in the United States.

Frost’s life filled with misfortune, but his life did not begin as such. Frost’s journey began in the bustling city of San Francisco, California on March 26, 1874. ("Robert Frost biography") Frost lived there with his mother, father, and sister. Frost was an inquisitive young boy whose life was filled with a curiosity for nature. ("Frost's early poems") He was very happy until, at age eleven, his first tragedy struck. Frost’s father, William Frost, a journalist and a large influence in Robert’s life, died from tuberculosis. ("Robert Frost - Poems, Biography, Quotes") Young Frost and his family left soon after to move in with his paternal grandfather in Lawrence, Massachusetts.(“Poet Robert Frost”) Frost’s grandfather encouraged him throughout his schooling in Lawrence to get better at whatever he wanted to do and be passionate about it. Of course for Frost, this was poetry. After his graduation in 1892, Frost attended the prestigious Dartmouth University and later attended Harvard University, both of which he dropped out of in order to help his family. (“Poet Robert Frost”) In the interim between his colleges, Frost married Elinor White. Elinor gave birth

Frost’s purpose of writing this poem may have been to give more of an insight to the frailty of life and to uncover the blindness that many have. In this poem, Frost uses a winter to symbolize life and the stars to symbolize each person. ("PoPoPoems") He begins the poem with a tone of wondrousness, expressing our beauty and how, like the stars, we shine so brightly, but he continues on with a more morose and sad tone to say that human beings are often blind to the wisdom and knowledge they possess. The theme throughout is that the speaker realizes that people are fragile and often miss the meaning of their lives because they are caught up in all their faults like the poem says in lines 11 and 12, “Minerva’s snow-white marble eyes without the gift of sight”. ("PoPoPoems") Stars is a lyric poem that has a abcb rhyme scheme in each stanza. Frost uses much alliteration, for example, in line 1 and line 4, “countlessly they congregate” and “when wintry winds do blow.” There are many sense devices in Stars such as simile (line 3), personification (line 1), hyperbole (line 3), paradox (line 11 and 12), and symbolism (stars, winter, and Minerva’s snow-white marble eyes). I personally think that Stars is a wonderful symbolism for how we live our lives; we often have huge dreams and ambitions that shine brightly inside of us, but we often get swept away by the troubles of life and lose