Reflections on Robert Frost

Evan Mounce

Short Biography

• Robert Lee Frost, March 26th 1874 – January 29th 1963

• Born in San Francisco to Isabelle Moodie, and William Prescott Frost Junior

• Grew up in Massachusetts where he attended Dartmouth college and Harvard University, later moved to New Hampshire

• First published work My Butterfly: an Elegy brought him $15

Intellectual Challenges

• What I find challenging about Frost’s work is that there is always room for interpretation and that he places different ideas throughout his works

• The chance to find hidden meanings, and deeper ideas buried within his works.

• Multiple layers and levels of ideas – appeals to everyone on levels that they so choose

Aesthetic Appeals

• I find nature appealing and it is one element that Frost incorporates into a surprising amount of his works.

• Nature and rural surrounds become inspiration for Frost’s works

• He paints vivid nature scenes and brings about meaning with nature images

• He “ . . .hides universal meanings in the details of rural life.”

• He sometimes brings poetry to levels of ordinary speech so that his message is not lost.

“Literature begins with geography.” - Robert Frost

Struggles and Influences

• Poem topics were drawn from his own life, recurrent losses, everyday tasks and his loneliness

• In 1920 his wife died and he lost four of his children, two daughters suffered mental breakdowns and his son committed suicide.

• Frost suffered and poetry was an outlet for emotion

Glimpses of Frost

• “He moves in darkness as it seems to me, Not of woods only and the shade of trees. He will not go behind his father’s saying, And he likes having thought of it so well He says again, ‘Good fences make good neighbors.’”

(From ‘Mending Wall’, 1914)

Glimpses of Frost

• I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence; Two roads diverged in a wood, and I – I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference

(from ‘The Road Not Taken’)

My attempt at imitation

• I tried to convey to include ideas on different levels and elements of nature and rural life

• I used a simplistic structure like Frost does and tried to make the poem very simple so that everyone could take something away from it

• Portrayed the topic through nature and seasons• I tried to incorporate issues of acceptance and

conformity, along with spirit and what families can be.• I tried to make a simple poem that would speak to

everyone

The Christmas Tree

Tender treads in snow did appear,Slowly trudged through glistening whiteSmall hands held as we advanced through icy fields Searching deeperBeneath green canopies dusted in winter’s coatReaching for that Christmas tree with arms outstretched Waiting for the embrace of tinsel and pop corn.Searched endlessly for that tree we did ‘til frozen feet

could bear no more.Perfection was never needed for in their rosy cheeked

pursuit the presence child like joy was satisfied by things most humble

Our family Christmas tree.

Criticisms

• Sadness in his poems finds some kind of resolve

• He rises to “some provisional platform of wisdom.”

• He writes with deep and mysterious tenderness

• Frost seems to capture present feelings but also goes beyond that and expands his writing into different realms

References

• Frost, R. (1998) After apple picking (publication information not listed) retrieved on December 9th 2005 from the World Wide Web: http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~wldciv/world_civ_ reader/world_civ_reader_2/frost_apple.html

• Frost, R. (2005) Birches (publication information not listed) Retrieved December 9th 2005 from the World Wide Web: http://quotations.about.com/cs/poemlyrics/a/Birches.htm

• Frost, R (2004) Mending wall (publication information not listed. Retrieved December 9th 2005 from the World Wide Web:

http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/88/frost-mending.html• Frost, R. (2004) The wood-pile (place of publication not listed) Read – Print.

Retrieved Dec 9th 2005 from the World Wide Web: http://www.readprint.com/work-710/Robert-Frost

• Jasto, K. (2000) Robert (Lee) Frost (publication information not listed) retrieved December 9th 2005 from the World Wide Web: http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/rfrost.htm

• Maxwell, G. (2005) Beautiful as he did it. (publication information no listed) Retrieved December 9th 2005 from the World Wide Web: http://web16.epnet.com/citation.asp?tb=1&_ug=sid+54CA3A7C%DA0B2.com