Robert Frost Research Paper

Robert Frost

Robert Frost is considered one of the greatest American poets of all time. Frost’s poetry shows a unique perspective of life, and looks through with an eye for details and relatable connections, including the sufferings he endured in his life, four of his children, his father, and his wife, all in a short amount of time. His poetry uses realism by incorporating real-life situations, along with the language he uses to describe them. His poetry is influential during his time, as well as today, with his use of tone, style, and dialect. He compares to other poets with the use of his realistic approaches. What makes Robert Frost so unique; however, are some quotes he uses in his poetry, which are often used and quoted today in movies

and television shows. Robert Frost is truly an inspiration to many writers, and these qualities are just a few of some of his greatest attributes.
Robert Frost has experienced many hardships in his life, including the death of his father and four children. William H. Pritchard and Stanley Burnshaw, authors of Frost’s Life and Career from Oxford University, research that his father died from tuberculosis when Frost was eleven years old. In addition, his son Elliot dies from cholera at the age of eight. In 1934, his youngest daughter Marjorie dies from a fever contracted when giving birth to her first child. Four years later, his wife Elinor dies of heart failure as a result of breast cancer. Then, just when he thinks he might be getting his life back together, his son Carol commits suicide in 1940. Another daughter, Irma, along with Frost’s sister, Jeannie, both suffered from mental disorders and eventually hospitalized (Pritchard, Frost’s Life…). Jeannie eventually commits suicide while in the institution, suffering from bouts of depression. Two of his daughters, Irma and Lesley, are the only children that outlive the family. These tragedies inspire him to write some of his best poetry in a collection of poems in A Witness Tree. Robert Frost recalls these poems as, “a poem that can have wilderness and at the same time a subject that shall be fulfilled.” He wants his poems to not only have his love of nature, but real-life situations both incorporated into his writings. His poetry is what ultimately keeps him together during this time.
Frost’s poems exemplify realism, especially with the use of language and situations. For example, in the poem “Mowing”, while it is about nature and actual mowing, it represents art, love, and how to live. It shows the realistic, simplistic beauty of life. In the book The Norton Anthology of American Literature, lines 13-14 show, “The fact is the sweetest dream that labor knows. My long scythe whispered and left the hay to make” (Baym, 1913). This line represents the realism of his poetry by bringing forth his love of nature and realism from the mowing. While he does not show if the poem is a dream, he does, however, come to the conclusion of work in life is rewarding enough. According to George W. Nitchie, author of Human Values in the Poetry of Robert Frost, he states how Frost is reluctant indicate any sort of finality what the final goal is in his poetry. Frost’s poem “On a Tree Fallen Across Road”, he ensures us that in spite of obstacles, “We will not be put off the final goal; we have it hidden in us to attain not though we have to seize earth by the pole; and, tired of aimless circling in one place, steer straight off after something into space” (149). Frost uses this so that readers have different interpretations of his poems instead of coming to a conclusion, where everyone sees exactly what he is writing about. He does not want the readers to think that there is a right or wrong way in life, just as he does not want them to think that there are right and wrong interpretations in his poetry. These real life situations and the use of language throughout his poetry indicate his constant use of realism, which makes Frost’s poems so enjoyable to read.
Another real-life situation that he incorporates is his religious beliefs.

According to Jay Parini, author of “Robert Frost: A Life”, he expresses his views as a “freethinker” at a young age in college, but his mother disapproves. She raised him as a Christian with high, moral beliefs, yet his viewpoints lean towards more of an atheist approach. In his most famous poem, A Road Not Taken, he ends it by going in a different direction than everyone else. Parini backs this statement up by

saying,
Frost ends his poem “with a sigh” that he “took the road less traveled by.” He was a rugged traditionalist, a man highly conscious of the forms, and one who found his freedom within the limits of those forms. Part of his great originality lay with this discovering of freedom within form, a way of extending a given tradition in a direction that seemed to redefine it.
Frost takes this poem and incorporates his events into the poem, making it relatable. In this day, there are many viewpoints on religion, and this poem is a great example of how not everyone has to believe a certain way, or has to follow a certain path in life. This influences him to have a unique, unseen style of poetry.
The way that Frost’s poems are perceived is what makes him such an influential poet. The strong use of his dialect, along with style and tone, are what makes his poems inspiring. During his time, he was influenced by his mother, who influenced his childhood by exposing him to many Christian tales. He understands his life and the conditions he lives in from an early age. For example, in his poem titled “My Butterfly,” he influences late nineteenth century poets with the use of his word choice. The words dappled, dazzling, and dalliance shows his influence of the Romantics of the time. This poem also uses constant repetition of alliteration, rhymes, and vowel sounds (Mishra 12). He is influential today in the way that he overly uses adjectives, personification, and many other literary elements which are relatable. He uses everyday words that one would use in a normal conversation. These small elements in his poetry are what makes him give readers a way to contemplate, critique, and evaluate their lives, and his writing, in multiple ways.
Nina Baym and Robert S. Levine, editors of The Norton Anthology for American Literature, show another comparison in Frost’s literature. His diction is depicted as “to make the poems look natural, unplanned” (1911). He does not want his poems to look as if they have been written and kept for many years, waiting for the right time to publish them. Frost’s poems, and the use of his style, tone, and dialect are what makes him one of the greatest American poets of all time.
Like many poets, Robert Frost can be compared based on his poems.

Frost writes about real-life situations, and like English poet Edward Thomas and American poet Ezra Pound, their poems either dealt with war or breaking tradition of modernism. With comparing Frost and Thomas, they both met in London in 1913. Living with each other in America, writing, teaching and farming, they become close, which is vital to each other’s success. While Frost is ready to have this dream as a reality, Thomas is not ready just yet. Here, Frost writes his most well-known, ‘A Road Not Taken,’ which sends Thomas off to war. The reasoning of this leads to Thomas wanting to take his own path and be in control of his life. He is not ready to settle down in one place just yet, he has his whole life ahead of him. Research from William Pritchard backs up this statement, reporting how Frost claims that “when they walked together [Thomas] always castigated himself for not having taken another path than the one they took” (Road Not Taken). Pritchard’s research proves that Frost’s poem “A Road Not Taken” was written about Edward Thomas, yet Thomas did not know that it was written about him. Pritchard goes on to state that while Frost’s poem is enjoyable and relatable, the “sincerity” in it is why the poem is depicted as

mischievous.
While Frost and Thomas’s friendship is represented through poetry as war, Ezra Pound and Frost are introduced to a new era, called modernism. Modernism is breaking classical and traditional forms, and both poets were un-modernistic. In The Norton Anthology for American Literature, their forms of poetry are widely represented throughout. This goes back to the way they write, their tone and diction. For example, in Frost’s poem “The Pasture”, it tells a story rather than the typical rhyme, or breaking of a poem (1912). This is a form of modernism because it breaks the tradition of poetry that everyone is so used to reading at the time. Pound also represents this in his poem “The Cantos” (1975-76). This poem references Greek god Odysseus, which, at the time, is also unusual. Many readers are used to the Romanticism genre. Robert Frost’s poems deal with war or breaking tradition of modernism, which is why he can be compared to both Edward Thomas and Ezra Pound. Each of these poets contribute to important aspects of poetry.
Many of Frost’s poems are often quoted today. For example, his poem “Nothing Can Stay Gold” is quoted in the movie “The Outsiders”. One of the main characters, Ponyboy, recites this to his friend, Johnny, when they are hiding out in the Windrixville Church. The poem means that nothing can stay perfect, or stay the same, forever; the world is constantly changing, and all good things must come to an end. Another example would be from a blog by David Haglund. In the Netflix original series, “Orange is the New Black”, an inmate by the name of Taystee Jefferson makes a reference to main character Piper Chapman’s lecture. Frost’s poem “A Road Not Taken” is quoted by Piper, and she observes the poem by telling Taystee,
Everyone thinks the poem means to break away from the crowd and do your own thing, but if you read it, Frost is very clear that the two roads are exactly the same. He just chooses one at random. And then it’s only later at a dinner party when he’s talking about it that he tells everyone he chose the road less traveled by, but he’s lying. So the point of the poem is that everyone wants to look back and think that their choices matter. But in reality, s--t just happens the way that it happens, and it doesn’t matter.
Frost’s most well-known poem is about making your own decision rather than having a decision made for you. While the two roads may lead to the same outcome, an individual does not have to follow the crowd, and can get to that outcome at a different time. Frost wants readers to make their own decisions in life, and look back at those decisions without any regrets. Robert Frost is quoted in many movies from the 20th and 21st centuries, and these are just some of his greatest contributions to today’s society.
Robert Frost is considered one of the most extensive American poets of all time. His poetry holds an eye for detail that is uncommon in many poets in the past and present. His poems hold relatable connections to society, such as loss of loved ones. The breaking away of the modernistic approach is what makes him stand out when compared to poets Edward Thomas and Ezra Pound, and his use of tone, style, and dialect. What makes him so extraordinary, however, is the use of his poems being quoted in movies and television shows, many of which are from today. Robert Frost is truly an inspiration for American literature.