Studies and Reviews

Robert Lee Frost—poet.

Born at San Francisco, 1875. At the age of ten, he was taken to New England where eight generations of his forefathers had lived. In 1892, he spent a few months at Dartmouth College but disliking college routine, decided to earn his living, and became a millhand in Lawrence, Massachusetts. In 1897, two years after he had married, he entered Harvard and studied there for two years; but he finally gave up the idea of a degree and turned to various kinds of work, teaching, shoe-making, and newspaper work. From 1900-11, he was farming at Derry, New Hampshire, but with little success. At the same time, he was writing and offering for publication poems which were invariably refused. He likewise taught English at Derry, 1906-11, and psychology at Plymouth, 1911-2.

In 1912, he sold his farm and with his wife and four children went to England. He offered a collection of poems to an English publisher and went to live in the little country town of Beaconsfield. The poems were published and their merits were quickly recognized. In 1914, Mr. Frost rented a small place at Ledbury, Gloucestershire, near the English poets, Lascelles Abercrombie, and W. W. Gibson. With the publication of North of Boston his reputation as a poet was established.

In 1915, Mr. Frost returned to America and went to live near Franconia, New Hampshire. From 1916 to 1919 he taught English at Amherst College. But he found that college life was disturbing to his creative energy, and in 1920 he bought land in Vermont and again became a farmer. In 1921, the University of Michigan, in recognition of his talents, offered him a salary to live in Ann Arbor without teaching. This position he accepted, but it is reported that he intends to return to farming to secure the leisure necessary for his work.

Suggestions for Reading

1. Make a list of subjects that you have not found treated elsewhere in poetry. Test the truth of the treatment by your own experience and decide whether Mr. Frost has converted these commonplace experiences into a new field of poetry.

2. Read in succession the poems concerning New England life and decide whether they seem more authentic and more valuable than the others. If so, why?