Robert Lee Frost

Robert Frost was an American poet, and playwright who became one of the leading pioneers in poetry in the late 1800’s into the 1900’s. Frost grew up in rural New England in the early twentieth century and experienced many hardships in his life including losing his father at the young age of eleven and losing two children at very young ages. He used his experiences of growing up in a rural area in most of his poems. Another major them in his poems are decision-making poems usually based off of his own life. This is a huge them in his poems because Frost always wondered what would have happened if he decided doing something other than writing poetry in his life. He always wondered how his life would be different and it shows in his poems such as “The Road Not Taken.”

Although written in the twentieth century, much of Robert Frost’s poetry is still relevant today. Frost is considered to be one of the greatest poets of the twentieth century. His poetry was largely based on, although not limited to, man’s ever present battle with understanding his relationship with nature. Frost constantly illustrates the difficulties man face, and how they struggle to develop individual identities in the world that they live in. Frosts style and structure are said to take a more 19th century traditional stance however similarities are prominent with his work and the works of his twentieth century contemporaries. “A brook in the city” is a poem that demonstrates Frosts concerns of ever changing human life and man’s attitude towards nature and preservation, this essay will discuss if this poem, in connection with many others, exemplifies Frosts poetic style and views on poetry as a whole.

“Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words,” Robert Frost once said. As is made fairly obvious by this quote, Frost was an adroit thinker. It seems like he spent much of his life thinking about the little things. He often pondered the meaning and symbolism of things he found in nature. Many readers find Robert Frost’s poems to be straightforward, yet his work contains deeper layers of complexity beneath the surface. His poems are not what they seem to be at first glance. These deeper layers of complexity can be clearly seen in his poems “The Road Not Taken”, “Fire and Ice”, and “Birches”.

"Don't ever take a fence down, until you know why it was put up"- a quote from Robert Lee Frost, a well-known American and English poet. Following the death of his father he faced many challenges, including failing to finish college and many unsuccessful jobs. Shadowing his father and mother, he began a career in poetry. With his literary career failing, he and his family moved to England and then back to America a few years later. His success in America began in 1915 when his collection of poems became a sensation. Writing over one-hundred poems and winning countless awards, Frost became a sensation, even speaking in inaugural speeches. He died at the age of eighty-eight. Frost’s most recurring theme was elusiveness. He wrote about the struggles of nature and overall life, using very vivid imagery, making the reader dig deeper into his poems to find the true meaning of each. One of “Frost’s most famous poems, “The Road Not Taken,” has been criticized many times, even one woman calling it "the best example in all of American poetry of a wolf in sheep's clothing.” Overall, Robert Frost was one of the most well-known poets in American history, and his main theme, elusiveness, caused for many varied interpretations and critiques, most of them extraordinary.

Life and death are two things that we as humans must all face. The road from one to the other, from life to death, is a long and at times, both joyous and painful one. Robert Frost’s poems are a prime example of these times and trials. The poems I chose for this paper highlight them, and with Frost’s allegory, they present a sort of silver lining to the string of dark and dreary words he’s pieced together for these poems. The depressing tone to the poems “Acquainted with the Night”, “Nothing Gold Can Stay”, and “Stopping by the Woods on a Snowing Evening” could be attributed to the death of many of Frost’s family members, and how despite this he overcame it all, and at the end of his life, was a successful writer. These poems to not go into great explanation of the details of Frost’s life, however, I believe that they are representations of the things path that he’s walked, and how he viewed his actions and death in general.

Frost is far more than the simple agrarian writer some claim him to be. He is deceptively simple at first glance, writing poetry that is easy to understand on an immediate, superficial level. Closer examination of his texts, however, reveal his thoughts on deeply troubling psychological states of living in a modern world. As bombs exploded and bodies piled up in the World Wars, people were forced to consider not only death, but the aspects of human nature that could allow such atrocities to occur. By using natural themes and images to present modernist concerns, Frost creates poetry that both soothes his readers and asks them to consider the true nature of the world and themselves.

“In three words, I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on” (Frost). These are the words of Robert Frost who was born on March 26, 1874. He was raised by his mother alone since his father died from tuberculosis when Frost was just at the age of eleven. He wrote extravagant poetry as he went through many road blocks during his journey in England. His poetry is read by millions of people all across the world inspired by his in-depth meaning of life through nature. His role in the arts of literature remains well-known not only in American writing, but in different countries as well, as it is analyzed for the difference in structure. Robert Frost is a well-known poet who made a tremendous impression in American literature by overcoming his many hardships, writing various famous works of poetry, and inspiring many modern-day poets.

Robert Frost, known for being a Modernist American poet was said to have hidden the pain of his private life through his writing career. He shared many ideas and was barely given credit for any of it during his lifetime. However, the nation mourned when “the most beloved poet of the century” passed away. (Greiner 94-95). After his death, the nation was then able to study and understand Frost’s life and the reasoning behind his poetry. Frost was set on making a difference in poetry as he once expressed, “I expect to do something to the present state of literature in America” (Greiner 95). The poem, “Putting in the Seed” written by Frost himself, expresses one of his common themes in his poems, nature. Being recognized as an American poet till after death, Frost has impacted poetry in a way that may not exist if it was not for him. Throughout his life he overcame many hardships through writing, which he used as therapy. This astounding author left the impression of creativity at its finest.

Choices are never easy, facing hundreds upon thousands of them in our lifetime, man has to make decisions based upon these choices. Some decisions are clear while others are sometimes not clear and more difficult to make. The poem "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost is a prime example of these choices in life. This poem is a first person narrative that is seen by most people as being told by Frost. The poem opens up with the narrator encountering a point in the woods that has a trail diverge into two separate paths. In the poem Frost presents the idea of man facing the difficult predilection of a moment and a lifetime. I believe this idea in the poem is embodied in the fork in the road, the decision between the two paths, and the decision to select the road not taken.

“Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words.” Robert Frost is one of the worlds most renowned and beloved American poets whose work was enthused through the use of American colloquial speech, he wrote poems about rural life that captivated everyone’s mind. Frost was born in San Francisco on the 26th of March 1874, at the tender age of eleven after his father’s death the family moved to New England. Some of his most important poems include: “The Road Not Taken”, “Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening”, and “Fire and Ice” are examples of ways Frost utilized nature to depict that he was indeed a contemplative human being. Frost employs the theme nature to determine his