America’s Poet Laureate “Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words”—Robert Frost A Brief Biography (1874-1963) • No 20th century American poet has had his or her work as widely read and honoured during his or her lifetime as has Robert Frost’s • His reputation transcends regional boundaries (New England, USA) • He was the nation’s unofficial poet laureate for many years before he officially earned the name poet laureate of Vermont only two years before he died • He won many prizes and was widely recognized during his lifetime; he won Pultizer Prizes, the Bollingen Prize, a Congressional Medal, and dozens of honorary degrees • The most moving appearance of his is his recitation of “The Gift Outright” for millions of Americans at the inauguration of John F. Kennedy in 1961. • His career as a writer did not attract any significant attention until he was nearly forty years old The Gift Outright The land was ours before we were the land’s. She was our land more than a hundred years Before we were her people. She was ours In Massachusetts, in Virginia, But we were England’s, still colonials, Possessing what we still were unpossessed by, Possessed by what we now no more possessed. Something we were withholding made us weak Until we found out that it was ourselves We were withholding from our land of living, And forthwith found salvation in surrender. Such as we were we gave ourselves outright (The deed of gift was many deeds of war) To the land vaguely realizing westward, But still unstoried, artless, unenhanced, Such as she was, such as she would become. His Life • Frost was born in San Francisco although his parents were descended from generations of New Englanders • He had one sister Jeanie Frost who died in 1920 • His father died in 1885 • After the death of his father, he moved to Massachusetts to live with relatives with his mother • Three years after graduating from high school and while studying at Dartmouth College, Frost married his wife who used to be his classmate. His wife, Elinor White, died in 1938; they had six children • He studied at Dartmouth College for a few months and then taught Continued • His teaching prepared him to enrol at Harvard in 1897 from which he later withdrew after less than two years without a degree • For the next decade of his life, he read and wrote poems when he was not chicken farming or teaching; • He lived in a farm with his family from 1900 to 1911 where he wrote most of his poems and from which he probably got inspired • In 1912, he sold his farm and moved his family to England where he hoped to find the audience that his poetry did not have in America Robert Frost’s Farm and House in Derry, New Hampshire 1900-1911 http://www.frostfarmpoetry.org/ From England to America • After three years in England, he went back to his country as a poet in 1915 • Two volumes of his poetry were published in England A Boy’s Will (1913) and North of Boston (1914) • During the next twenty years, he was given awards and honors for collections he published in his country such as A Witness Tree (1942), A Masque of Reason (1945) and A Masque of Mercy (1947) • He exposed himself more to the American audience by teaching at several colleges and universities including the University of Michigan and Harvard University • He also started poetry reading which generated wide audiences eager to claim him as their poet His Image as a Poet • The image he cultivated resembled closely what the public likes to think a poet should be • He was seen as a loveable, wise old man • From him, his audience learned that “There is a lot yet that isn’t understood” or “We love the things we love for what they are” or “Good fences make good neighbors” Frost’s Language • Frost was very much in love with language; he uses language intelligently to convey one thing, but to mean the other • It is worthy to note that Frost’s simple language does not fully reflect the depth of the man, the complexity of his themes, or the richness of his art • Frost is not one-dimensional as he is sometimes assumed to be • His poetry requires readers who are alert and willing to penetrate the simplicity of its language to see the elusive and ambiguous meanings that lie below the surface Intimately Acquainted with the Night • He suffered from professional jealousies, anger, and depression • Three of his children died: a son at the age of four, a daughter in her late twenties from tuberculosis and another son by suicide • His marriage was full of tension • Although his work is landscape with sunlight, snow, birches, birds, blueberries and squirrels, it is important to recognize that he was also intimately “acquainted with the night” • His daughter, Lesley, who managed to lead a full sane life would in her memoir New Hampshire’s Child one time idealize the farm life, at other times she declare that Frost “had always ruled and dominated . with fear, fear, fear." One winter's night when she was six Frost dragged her from her bed, led her into the kitchen to where her mother was sobbing at the table, pointed a pistol at himself and then at his wife, and screamed, "Take your choice! Before morning, one of us will be dead!" Frost’s Natural World; a Farmer Poet • Frost spent a lot of his time farming and caring for animals • His poems are sharply detailed using visual and auditory imagery • They give pleasure and are designated to provoke thought • His use of nature is often symbolic and evoke universal issues • Examples: The Road Not Taken (355) and Fire and Ice (370) Fire and Ice Some say the world will end in fire, Some say in ice. From what I’ve tasted of desire I hold with those who favour fire. But if it had to perish twice, I think I know enough of hate To say that for destruction ice Is also great And would suffice. (Meyer, 370) After Apple-Picking “For I have had too much of/ Of apple-picking: I am overtired/ Of the great harvest I myself desired.” A Time to Talk When a friend calls to me from the road And slows his horse to a meaning walk, I don't stand still and look around On all the hills I haven't hoed, And shout from where I am, What is it? No, not as there is a time to talk. I thrust my hoe in the mellow ground, Blade-end up and five feet tall, And plod: I go up to the stone wall For a friendly visit. .