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Anthony J. Migash

AP Literature

Doctor Ayala

29 April 2018

A Brief Biography of Robert Frost

Robert Frost was born on March 26, 1874, in San Francisco to his father, William

Prescott Frost Jr., and his mother, Isabelle Moodie. His father died when frost was 11 years old

and he spent the rest of his childhood moving about the country with his mother (Poet). He

started writing poetry during his high school years, enrolled at Dartmouth College, and later at

Harvard University in Boston, though he never graduated from either. Frost drifted through a

string of different jobs after leaving college, working as a teacher, cobbler, and editor of the

Lawrence Sentinel. His first published poem, “My Butterfly," appeared in the New York

newspaper The Independent (Poet). The Poetry Foundation notes that “Frost developed, as many

critics note, an original, modern idiom and a sense of directness and economy that reflect the

imagism of Ezra Pound and Amy Lowell.” Both Thomas and Pound were friends of Frost, and

helped him get onto his feet as a poet (Robert Frost, ​Biography.com​).

Frost was a prolific writer on the subject of nature and rural settings, Encyclopedia

Britannica gives an apt description of Frost’s writing style:

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Frost demonstrated an enviable versatility of theme, but he most commonly investigated

human contacts with the natural world in small encounters that serve as metaphors for

larger aspects of the human condition. He often portrayed the human ability to turn even

the slightest incident or natural detail to emotional profit. (Gerber)

He proceeded to write many more poems and compilations, and when he returned from England

after a couple years there with his family he was welcomed heartily into the U.S. thanks to his

work preceding him (Poetryfoundation.org). Frost was no victim of the ‘underappreciated in life’

curse. Frost would go on to write hundreds of poems in his life. He also received many awards

throughout his life: four pulitzer prizes, the Poet Laurel of Vermont, and 31 nominations for the

Nobel Prize in Literature. Furthermore, In 1960, Congress awarded Frost the Congressional Gold

Medal. A year later, at the age of 86, Frost was honored when asked to write and recite a poem

for President John F. Kennedy's inauguration. Frost Died on January 29th, 1963, at the age of 88

at his home in boston.

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Works Cited

Gerber, Philip L. “Robert Frost.” ​Encyclopædia Britannica​, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 19

Mar. 2018, www.britannica.com/biography/Robert-Frost.

“Poet: Robert Frost.” ​Poets.org​, Academy of American Poets, 18 Apr. 2014,

www.poets.org/poetsorg/poet/robert-frost.

“Robert Frost.” ​Poetry Foundation​, Poetry Foundation,

www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/robert-frost.

“Robert Frost.” ​Biography.com​, A&E Networks Television, 28 Apr. 2017,

www.biography.com/people/robert-frost-20796091.