Poets and Poems

Robert Lee Frost

This much loved quintessential American poet came to recognition in England before being accepted and honoured in his own country.

Robert Lee Frost was born on 26 March 1874, the eldest child of William Prescott Frost and his wife Isabelle Moodie. He was educated at home in San Francisco*, at Lawrence High School MA from 1885 to 1892, and briefly at Dartmouth College NH.

In 1897, after a period when among other things he did some teaching, he attended Harvard University for two years; but he left there due to illness without finishing his degree.

In 1895 he had married Elinor Miriam White, with whom he had shared valedictory honours at high school. The eldest of their six children, Elliot, was born the following year, but died of cholera in boyhood. Their youngest child, Erma, was born in 1903.

In 1900 his grandfather bought a farm for Robert and Elinor in Derry, NH. It was there that he wrote some of his best poems; but he had difficulty finding an American publisher. Due to this, and with the farm not prospering, in 1912 the couple decided to domicile in England.

The move proved propitious, because within a few months his first volume of poems, 'A Boy's Will', was accepted for publication; followed a year later by his second, 'North of Boston'. He became acquainted with a number of English poets and formed a friendship with Ezra Pound, who helped him promote his poetry.

His years of obscurity were coming to an end. He returned to America in 1915 where he wrote, taught and lectured. He was to become one the most widely loved and influential of American poets. During his long life, he was the recipient of over forty honorary degrees and four prestigious Pulitzer Prizes. In 1960 he was awarded a United States Congressional Gold Medal** for his poetry.

On 3rd December 1962, he was admitted to hospital in Boston for an operation to remove a urinary obstruction. There were cardio-pulmonary complications, and in the early hours of 29th January 1963 this giant of American literature was pronounced dead.

He is buried, together with Elinor (d. 1938), in the Old Bennington Cemetery, Vermont. On his gravestone is the enigmatic inscription: 'I had a lover's quarrel with the world.'

* After his father died in 1885, the impoverished family moved across country to live with his paternal grandfather in Lawrence, Massachusetts. He published his first poem in the High School magazine; and in 1894 sold a poem, 'My Butterfly', to a New York periodical.
** In 1961, at the age of eighty-six, he was invited by John F. Kennedy to read a poem, 'The Gift Outright', at the presidential inauguration.

Love and a Question

A Stranger came to the door at eve,
   And he spoke the bridegroom fair.
He bore a green-white stick in his hand,
   And, for all burden, care.
He asked with the eyes more than the lips
   For a shelter for the night,
And he turned and looked at the road afar
   Without a window light.

The bridegroom came forth into the porch
   With, 'Let us look at the sky,
And question what of the night to be,
   Stranger, you and I.'
The woodbine leaves littered the yard,
   The woodbine berries were blue,
Autumn, yes, winter was in the wind;
   'Stranger, I wish I knew.'

Within, the bride in the dusk alone
   Bent over the open fire,
Her face rose-red with the glowing coal
   And the thought of the heart's desire.
The bridegroom looked at the weary road,
   Yet saw but her within,
And wished her heart in a case of gold
   And pinned with a silver pin.

The bridegroom thought it little to give
   A dole of bread, a purse,
A heartfelt prayer for the poor of God,
   Or for the rich a curse;
But whether or not a man was asked
   To mar the love of two
By harboring woe in the bridal house,
   The bridegroom wished he knew.