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Robert Lee Frost
Robert Frost was born in San Francisco, California on March 26, 1874. Robert
Lee Frost was named after the Confederate General Robert E. Lee. After his fathers’
death in 1885, when Frost was 11, he and his family moved to Massachusetts from
California. Frost attended Lawrence High School where he graduated sharing
valedictorian with Elinor White. After graduation he went to Dartmouth College in fall of
1892, but stayed less than one semester. From 1897-1899 he attended Harvard College as
a special student but left without a degree.(what is a special student?) (The Biography
Channel)
Returning to Massachusetts he taught school and worked in a mill and as a
newspaper reporter.(revise this sentence using less ands…he taught school, worked in a
mill, and also as a newspaper reporter.) In 1894 he sold “My Butterfly: An Elegy” to The
Independent, a New York literary journal. From the end of the 18th century to the early
years of the 19th century he wrote, but rarely published several poems, operated a farm in
Derry, New Hampshire, and added to his income by teaching at Derry’s Pinkerton
Academy. In 1912, at the age of 38, he sold the farm and used the money to move his
family to England, where he could devote himself to writing. His efforts to establish
himself were almost immediately successful. A Boys Will was accepted by a London
publisher and brought out in 1913, followed a year after by North of Boston. ("Robert
Frost" 713-728) Favorable reviews on both sides of the Atlantic resulted in American
publication of the books by Henry Holt and Company, Frosts primary American
publisher, and in the establishing of Frosts transatlantic reputation. Frost had called on
several prominent literary figures soon after his arrival in England. One of these was Eza
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Pound who wrote the first American review of Frosts verse for Harriet Munroe’s Poetry
magazine. Frost was more favorably impressed and more lastingly influenced by the socalled poets Lascalles Abercrombie, Rupert Brooke, and T.E. Hulme. While living near
the Georgians in Gloucestershire, Frost became especially close to a brooding Welshman
named Edward Thomas whom he urged to turn from prose to poetry. Thomas did so
dedicating his first and only volume verse to Frost before his death in WWI.(write out
World War One) The Frosts sailed to the United States in February 1915 and landed in
NYC(write out New York City) two days after the US publication of North of Boston.
Sales of that book and of A Boys Will enabled Frost to buy a farm in Franconia, New
Hampshire where he placed a library of periodicals and a third book, Mountain Interval
in 1916.
An essentially pastoral poet often associated with rural New England, Frost wrote
poems whose philosophical dimensions transcend any region. Although his verse forms
are traditional he was a pioneer in the interplay of rhythm and meter and in the poetic use
of the vocabulary and inflections of everyday speech. His poetry is traditional and
experimental, regional and universal. ("Robert Frost" 713-728) Frosts importance as a
poet stemmed from the power and how easily you could remember. The poetic and
political conservatism of Frost caused him to lose favor with some literary critics but his
reputation as a major poet is secure.
Frost won the first of four Pulitzer Prizes in 1924 for his fourth book, New
Hampshire, and followed it with West-Running Brook in 1928. Frost won his second
Pulitzer Prize in 1930 for Collected Poems. His third Pulitzer Prize was for A Further
Range in May 1937. He received his fourth and last Pulitzer Prize for The Silken Tent in
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1943. Frost made a triumphant return to England in 1957 to receive honorary degrees
from Oxford and Cambridge. He also expanded his efforts to have Pound released from
St. Elizabeth’s Hospital and under the Kennedy administration made a less than
satisfactory visit to Russia. His last reading was given to a large audience in Boston in
December of 1962. The following day he went to the hospital for a prostate operation and
suffered a severe heart attack while convalescing, then a series of embolisms, one that
killed him in January of 1963. (Robert Frost)