New Hampshire Individuals of Note

Frost developed his own theory of poetry, which is reflected in his verse and teaching.  Frost’s goal was to use the everyday rhythm of speech in verse.  He rejected the stilted patterns and rhymes of the 19th century poets.  He also did not care for free verse in which there is no rhyme or meter.  Frost found beauty in nature and used it in his poetry, yet he understood its power and its potential for tragedy and disaster.  Many of his poems have humor, and center on individuals as they interact with nature.  In one famous example, the "Mending Wall," he used a situation of repairing a wall between two farms, a situation common to the farm life of New England, to convey an idea which he believed held true in the life of all people.  This was typical of his poetry throughout his life and reflects his belief that poetry should contain contrasts and lead to a clarifying of experience.  His poetry reflects a dark side, yet reveals a strong faith. He often employed a narrative style in his verse.

Robert Frost, although considered a New England poet was actually born in San Francisco.  His father, a Maine Yankee and Harvard graduate, named his son after Robert E. Lee, the great Confederate General in the Civil War.  When his father died in 1885, his mother moved the family to Lawrence, Massachusetts.  She became a teacher and Frost prepared to be a teacher.  In 1895 Frost married Elinor White, his fellow valedictorian at Lawrence High School.  They had six children.  A son, Elliott, and daughter, Elinor, died before 1907, and this tragedy was one of many which affected Frost, his poetry, and his view of life. 

He spent a short time at Dartmouth, and later at Harvard, but never graduated. As a young man, he was often ill and a doctor warned him against a sedentary life.  He thus took up chicken farming in Methuen, Massachusetts, but in 1900 moved to a farm in Derry, New Hampshire, where he raised apples and chickens.  He wrote poetry, often late at night after the children were asleep, and sold a few poems and some fictional sketches based on the life around him.  The ten years he spent in Derry confirmed him as a New Englander, and experiences from this period in his life provide the background for much of his finest poetry. 

To add to his income he took a job teaching English at Pinkerton Academy in 1906.  His students had to write over fifty themes a year, but he was respected and considered a wonderful teacher.  His income increased, the family left the farm and moved to Derry Village, and in 1911 they moved to Plymouth where Frost taught psychology at the Plymouth Normal School (now Plymouth State College).  In 1912 Frost determined to make a living writing poetry and moved his family to England.  The American poet and expatriate, Ezra Pound, encouraged Frost in his writing and helped him get his first volume of poetry published.  After several publications of poetry in England and the outbreak of World War I, the Frosts returned to the United States.  He spent the rest of his life writing poetry, lecturing, and serving as a poet in residence at several universities including Amherst, Harvard, and the University of Michigan.  In 1920 he joined in the founding of the Breadloaf School of English of Middlebury College, Vermont, where he taught each summer. 

Although shy by nature, Frost developed a comfortable style on the lecture stage and was always in demand.  At John F. Kennedy’s inauguration in 1961 Frost read his poem, "The Gift Outright," the first time a poet had participated in an inauguration. 

Frost always enjoyed living close to nature and had several farms in New Hampshire and Vermont.  Late in his life he spent winters on a two acre citrus farm in Coral Gables, Florida, and had a farm in Ripton, Vermont.  Robert Frost at the age of forty had received no recognition, but from then until the end of his life he received many rewards including honorary degrees from Oxford and Cambridge, special recognitions from the Senate of the United States on his 75th and 85th birthdays, and four Pulitzer Prizes.

WOK

Matazoni, Joe.  Robert Frost.  CD-ROM.  New York, NY: Henry Holt, and Co., 1997.

Parini, Jay.  Robert Frost: A Life. New York, NY: H. Holt & Co.1999.