Tag: Robert Frost

About that author – Robert Frost 

Robert Frost, most famous among us for his poem The Road not Taken which a lot of us might remember reading in school is one considered as one of the most famous poets in the world.  

Early Life 

Robert Lee Frost was born in 1874, in San Francisco, California and later moved to Lawrence, Massachusetts in 1885 after his father’s death. Frost’s father was a journalist and he died in 1885 due to tuberculosis. Frost’s mother took him and his sibling to their grandparents in Massachusetts.

Frost graduated from high school in 1892 and was at the top of his class. He showed an interest in poetry from an early age which he continued to pursue even after his graduation. 

Robert got into Dartmouth College and in 1894, his first piece of work was published “My Butterfly: An Elegy” in a weekly newsletter named The Independent. Frost dropped out of college in less than a year because the routine was too monotonous for him and he had grown tired of it. In 1895, he married his high school sweetheart Elinor Miriam White who shared the interest of poetry with frost. 

Adult Life 

In 1897, Frost went to Harvard University but was forced to leave 2 years later in 1898 due to illness. Between 1900 and 1909 Frost worked on a farm  near Derry, New Hampshire, which his grandmother had left for him before he died. He also worked as an english teacher in Pinkerton Academy while working on the farm and raising poultry there. During this time Frost wrote a lot of poems which were published later on and later became famous for as well. 

In 1912, Frost and his family set sail for England and settled there. The very next year he published his first book of poetry titled “A Boy’s Will” which included poems such as Storm Fear,“”The Tuft of Flowers”. The next year he published another book of poetry  North of Boston which included  “Mending Wall,” “The Death of the Hired Man,” “Home Burial” and a lot more famous poems of his. 

Publications and Success 

During  World War I the family had to move back to America where an edition of  A Boy’s Will which went on to become the best seller. 

Frost was awarded 4 Pulitzer Prizes throughout his career for  New Hampshire in 1924,  Collected Poems in 1931, A Further Range in 1937 and A Witness Tree in 1943. Frost served as a resident poet in multiple colleges and universities between 1939 and 1963. 

After having an extremely successful career and making a profound impact in the world of poetry he died in 1963 at the age of 88 due to some complications from a surgery. He is survived by his eternal multitude of work. 

Frost’s work revolved around despair that follows existence. His poems are described as poems that are a reflection of common people. He used poetic vocabulary and beautiful metaphors to describe some of the most common yet stark things of human life. He could write about one of the most abject experiences in one of the most beautiful of ways. 

The Road Not Taken

When every choice involves the loss of opportunity, which path will you choose? When your choices come with incomplete information, how can you be certain? How long will you stand still before making your choice? How confident are you when you realize you can’t save the first road for another day when the road you chose tends to lead onward to another? Whichever road you choose will make all the difference. In order to be different and do something great, you have to think different and implement things with a different approach. You have to take a different lane; the road not taken.

Remember the poem “The Road Not Taken” penned by Robert Frost?

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth…

The poem describes someone standing at a fork, or turning point, in a road in the woods, trying to decide which path he is going to take. He looks down one road as far as he can see, and after thinking for another minute, decides to take one because it looks like nobody’s been that way yet, and he is curious about where it leads. He thinks maybe he might come back another day and try out the other path but he has a feeling that the road he has chosen will lead him to new places and discoveries, and he probably won’t be back. He thinks wistfully about that road, which he did not take, and where he might have wound up if he’d gone that way instead. Part of him regrets his decision, but he also realizes that the things he’s seen and the places he’s gone because of the direction he chose has made him who he is.

This poem tells a lot about life in general. Life is all about making choices, whether it’s about choosing to change your daily diet or choosing the right partner. Every choice has its significance in some way or the other.

It makes me remember that past is always dynamic because it shapes my present and therefore, I should be careful about my present as it will take care of my future. Most importantly, this poem makes me think wisely about my choices. It reminds me that I should not make such a choice which I would regret one day and say ‘if I would have taken the other road, it would have been better’. Rather I should be proud of my decision and say ‘Yes! Since I chose the right path, it has led to all this difference’. The difference is what makes it different. Just as Frost ended the poem: “I took the road less travelled, and that’s all that matters”. There are no bad roads, there are only different battles that births different results.

In my opinion, the poet encourages the readers to create opportunities that may be overlooked by us because we all are in search of solutions for our problems rather than trying to sort out the things in the less conventional way.