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Who Is
Robert Lee Frost (1874-1963)
Robert Lee Frost born in San Francisco, March 26, 1874 and died in Boston
in January 29, 1963 was an American poet and a four time winner of the
Pulitzer Prize. An essentially pastoral often associated with the
rural New England's 20th century pastoral poets. Frost published his
first books in Great Britain in the 1910's. Soon he became in his own
country the most read and constantly anthologize poet, whose work was made
familiar in classrooms and lecture platforms. He once said: "Literature
begins with geography." Frost was awarded the Pulitzer Prize four times.
Nature and rural surroundings became for Frost a source for insights into
deeper design of life.
In 1892 Frost graduated from a high school and attended Darthmouth
College for a few months. Over the next ten years he held a number of jobs.
Frost worked among others in a textile mill and taught Latin at his mother's
school in Methuen, Massachusetts. In 1894 the New York Independent
published Frost's poem 'My Butterfly' and he had five poems privately
printed. Frost worked as a teacher and continued to write and publish his
poems in magazines. In 1895 he married a former schoolmate, Elinor White;
they had six children.
In 1912 Frost and his family moved to England. There he published
his first collection of poems, A BOY'S WILL, at the age of 39. It was
followed by NORTH BOSTON (1914), which gained international reputation. The
collection contains some of Frost's best-known poems: 'Mending Wall,' 'The
Death of the Hired Man,' 'Home Burial,' 'A Servant to Servants,' 'After
Apple-Picking,' and 'The Wood-Pile.' The poems, written with blank verse or
looser free verse of dialogue, were drawn from his own life, recurrent
losses, everyday tasks, and his loneliness.
While in England Frost was deeply influenced by such English poets as
Rupert Brooke. After returning to the US in 1915 with his family, Frost
bought a farm near Franconia, New Hampshire. Frost taught later at
Amherst College (1916-38) and Michigan universities. In 1916 he was made a
member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters. On the same year
appeared his third collection of verse, MOUNTAIN INTERVAL, which contained
such poems as 'The Road Not Taken,' 'The Oven Bird,' 'Birches,' and 'The
Hill Wife.' Frost's poems show deep appreciation of natural world and
sensibility about the human aspirations. His images - woods, stars, houses,
brooks, - are usually taken from everyday life. With his down-to-earth
approach to his subjects, readers found it is easy to follow the poet into
deeper truths, without being burdened with pedantry. Often Frost used the
rhythms and vocabulary of ordinary speech or even the looser free verse of
dialogue.
At the time of his death on January 29, 1963, Frost was considered a kind
of unofficial poet laureate of the US. "I would have written of me on my
stone: I had a lover's quarrel with the world," Frost once said. In his
poems Frost depicted the fields and farms of his surroundings, observing the
details of rural life, which hide universal meaning. His independent,
elusive, half humorous view of the world produced such remarks as "I never
take my side in a quarrel", or "I'm never serious except when I'm fooling."
Although Frost's works were generally praised, the lack of seriousness
concerning social and political problems of the 1930s annoyed some more
socially orientated critics.
In 1963, HISD gave honor to this great man by dedicating our fine school
in his name. Robert Frost is a great example of how one can if
motivated achieve success in any given area of life. Here at
Frost we live by his example as we continue to provide each child with the
best technology and materials that will give each child an opportunity to
rise to the occasion of total success.
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