As the most popular American poet, Robert Frost is one of the most researched and studied poets. His contribution to the literary world earned him a gold medal from Congress (1960), as it enriched the culture of the United States and added new ideas to the world’s philosophy. He also won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry four times (1924, 1931, 1937, and 1943). Frost’s career climaxed in January 1961 after reading his poem The Gift Outright at President John F. Kennedy’s inauguration.

His Life

Frost was born in 1874 in San Francisco, California. After the death of his father in 1885, his family moved to Massachusetts. Frost went to school in Lawrence, Massachusetts and later on attended Dartmouth College and Harvard where he earned his formal college degree. During the 1920s Frost worked as a farmer, an editor, and a school teacher. It was during these times that he absorbed the ideas for his poems’ themes.

Frost’s Literary Trend

Most of Frost’s poetry was inspired by the landscape, folk ways, speech and mannerism of regions where he lived, especially New England. His poems are noted for their use of plain language, conventional forms, and graceful style. Frost was known as a straightforward writer. His effects depend on a certain slyness for which the reader must be prepared. His longer and more elaborate poems focus on more complex subjects.

Frost’s poems may have been restricted to New England’s scenes, but its moods are rich and varied. In his poem, Mending Wall, Frost took the role of a puckish, homespun philosopher. In poems such as Design and Bereft, Frost responded to the terrors and tragedies of life.

Varied patterns can also be found in Frost’s character studies. The Witch Coos recounts the superstitions in New England’s rural life. In Home Burial it discussed the tragedy around a child’s death. In The Hill Wife, Frost showed the loneliness of rural existence.

Frost’s poems show how he placed people side by side. His writings often appear to be a kind of romantic poetry set in New England and the United States during the 1800s. However, there is a cultural difference to his work compared to traditional writing. Romantic poets during the 1800s believed that people can live in harmony with nature. Frost’s ideas contrast with this belief, stating that the purpose of people and nature is never the same.

Frost emphasize that humanity’s chance at serenity does not come from understanding the environment. To seek nature’s secrets are “futile” and “foolish.” Frost also defined serenity as a product of working usefully and productively, regardless of circumstances.

Frost often used “significant toil” as themes in his poems. Toil referred to that which nourishes and sustains people. Poems using this theme were Birches, Apple-Picking, and Two Tramps in Mud Time.

Modernism Poetry

Robert Frost is an example of early modernism. Unlike traditional poetry, Frost contrasted their ideas with his observations in New England. Frost worked closely with fellow modernism poets namely Rupert Brooke, Robert Graves, Ezra Pound and Edward Thomas. These poets also helped promote and publish his work.