How Did Robert Frost's Life Affect His Poems

Robert Frost suffered a series of tragedies in his life, especially at the time he wrote A Witness Tree, a book which includes a numerous amount of poems that became his top-ranked work. The events in Frost’s everyday life and emotions have influenced the majority of his poems. His best-known work was inspired by his experiences and the world around him. Frost’s poems can be interpreted in different forms, but many of his poems like “Acquainted with the Night” and “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” have similar themes when analyzed. Frost’s life has influenced the way he viewed the world and wrote his poems. According to Modern American Poetry Frost, he was originally from San Francisco but ended up moving to eastern Massachusetts after
According to a Newsela article, “The narrator of the poem talks about how he stops by the forest one day on his way back to his village. The poem goes on to describe the beauty of the forest, covered in a sheet of snow” (Khurana). In the article, freelance writer Khurana Simran talks about how this poem is not just about a person going home on a winter day. She believes the main theme of the poem is life is short and there are a lot of distractions in the world so it is best to try and avoid them. One of the interpretations Khurana had was that the narrator was actually a horse. Or that the horse saw the world from the same perspective as the narrator. Another is that Santa is the one passing through the woods. Which leads Khurana to believe that the horse represents a reindeer and that lines 14 and 15 contribute to the fact that the speaker could be Santa Clause. At the end of the poem, Frost writes “promises to keep” and “miles before I sleep” which might indicate Santa’s promises to the kids and that he will travel a great distance to deliver presents. On the other side, many critics believe that this poem is about Frost’s mental state. According to the Newsela article, “He faced many personal tragedies during his lifetime and struggled in poverty for more than 20 years. His younger sister Jeanie and his daughter were both hospitalized for mental illness, and both Frost and his mother suffered from depression” (Khurana). So this leads people to believe that his experiences had affected him negatively and was expressing that through his work. Not to mention that using the symbols like snow and the way he describes the forest adds premonition. However, by ending with the line “But I have promises to keep” lead other critics to believe he was being optimistic and willing to fulfill his duties to his