Robert Frost: A Poet to Remember

Robert Frost was one of America's leading 20th-century poets and a four-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize. He has been an inspiration to many young writers and aspiring poets. Although he lived through a troubled and tragic life, Frost was able to express his unique view of nature and the world around him in the delicate art of poetry. His direct and easy-to-read poems made him one of the most recognized poets in the country. Robert Frost had the ability to make his poems accessible to anyone reading them. His use of everyday vocabulary and traditional form of poetry made it easy for readers, although translating them is not as easy. Robert Frost's poems are very connotative in nature, making them very profound to read.

Frost started writing poetry at the end of the 19th century, in the late Victorian period; when he was about fifteen years of age. He wanted to reform poetic language away from the artificial, tremendously aged, diction used by his predecessors. Frost believed even ordinary conversation could be made poetic. However, when it came to form and structure, Frost relied on tradition. He wrote rhymed verse and blank verse, but never used free verse. He once said, "I would sooner write free verse as play tennis with the net down." It was quite obvious Frost disliked free verse poetry.

Frost used many metaphoric meanings in his poetry. To the literal mind, ‘Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening' might actually be about the character of the poem stopping near some woods while it was snowing. Almost expectedly, Frost's poem goes much deeper than that.

"The woods are lovely, dark and deep. But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep. " This excerpt is from the last verse in Frost's poem, ‘Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening'. One with a literal mind might possibly suspect that Frost is saying he would love to stay and look into the beautiful, dark woods, but he has much too many things to do before he can rest. A person who thinks more metaphorically might think, perhaps he is speaking of death. How he would love to stop and just wait it out, but he has promises, and things he must fulfill before he can let go. Frost used metaphors constantly, in most of his poetry. The above is only one example, there are many in just the one poem, ‘Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening'. His later poems were simpler, but still held to their metaphoric brothers. Frost wrote many of his best poems on several levels of meaning. He often described a natural setting with beautiful seasonal imagery connections to human beings through them. There would be a literal meaning and a deeper, more profound, meaning. Many of his poems were parables: simple stories which are meant to remind the reader of something else- perhaps more spiritual or psychological. Frost often cautioned the reader, "Don't press the poem too hard." He said, "The real meaning is the most obvious meaning." He was not a poet of obscuration. He believed a good poem did not require footnotes. Wordplay was very important to Frost, along with form and structure, but for the reader to need to stop and try to define a word, there was a chance the reader could miss the meaning of the poem. Robert Frost would not allow his poetry to be misunderstood or misread because of the use of a word. Simplicity was the greatest form of complexity in Frost‘s view. He was full of contradictions and it is difficult to pin down his meaning. Just when the poem seems as if you've figured it out, another question arises. Frost was not one to give his readers much lee-way in translating his works. This was his greatest charm.

Frost lived a very troubled and often tragic life, some do not understand how he could write such amazing poetry, when he stepped through time with death clutching his ankle. Although, he has had his inspirations in his life. Besides nature, Frost may have had some early on inspirations to become a poet. In 1875, his father became city editor of the San Francisco Daily Evening Post. That is what is believed to given Frost a boost in writing. His schooling is often considered one of his writing contributors, but schooling didn't help much either. In 1876, Frost's mother decides to travel eastward, she is very upset at his father's drinking and gambling problems. In the fall of that year, Robert's father is diagnosed as consumptive. Frost attends kindergarten in 1879, but comes home with chronic stomach pains, and never returns to kindergarten. In 1880 Frost gives first grade a try, but soon drops out again. 1881 is another try-and-fail year for Robert, as he attempts second grade, but again drops out. His mother decides to home tutor him from here. In 1885, Robert Frost's father dies, and Robert enters the third grade after much testing. His younger sister enters fourth in this year as well. In late 1886, Frost's family moves to Salem Depot, New Hampshire. Frost and his younger sister enter the fifth grade together here. He passes the entrance exam for Lawrence High in June of 1888 and enrolls in the classical program. He graduates in 1889 at the head of his class. Although many say Frost's schooling was part of his writing, his schooling was not exactly perfect. Robert Frost was a creative and imaginative poet who made the simplest of things, such as a snowy evening (‘Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening'), or a door without a lock (‘A Lockless Door'), a metaphoric puzzle with twists and turns of the brain that only the sickest and most beautiful minds can create. Frost had created a legacy of poetry than none can compare to.