|
The following biography
is from
Wikipedia.org
“The
Free Encyclopedia.”
Robert Lee Frost (March 26, 1874 – January
29, 1963) is, in the estimation of many, the greatest American poet of
the 20th century and one of the greatest poets writing in English in the
20th century. Frost received four Pulitzer Prizes.
Although associated with New England, Frost
was born in San Francisco and lived in California until he was 11. He
grew up as a city boy and published his first poem in Lawrence,
Massachusetts. He attended Dartmouth College where he was a member of
the Theta Delta Chi fraternity, and from 1897 to 1899, Harvard
University where he studied Philology but he did not complete the
degree. Eventually, after purchasing a farm in Derry, New Hampshire, he
became known for his wry voice that was both rural and personal.
Frost was married to Elinor Miriam White
and they had four children.
In March, 1894, The Independent published
Frost's poem "My Butterfly: An Elegy", his first published work which
brought him $15.
At this time, Robert made an important
decision. He decided to devote his time to poetry instead of teaching.
Robert chose Vancouver, his wife England. Tossing a coin, England won.
So in 1912 Robert sold his farm and moved
to England to become a full-time poet. His first book of poetry, A Boy's
Will, was published the next year. In England he made some crucial
contacts including T.E. Hulme, Edward Thomas (a Welsh writer whom Frost
persuaded to turn from prose to poetry), and Ezra Pound, who was the
first American to write a (favourable) review of Frost's work. Frost
returned to America in 1915, bought a farm in Franconia, New Hampshire
and launched a career of writing, teaching and lecturing. From 1916 to
1938, he was an English professor at Amherst College.
He recited his work, "The Gift Outright",
at the inauguration of President John F. Kennedy in 1961 and represented
the United States on several official missions.
He also became known for poems that include
an interplay of voices, such as "Death of the Hired Man". American
schoolchildren often memorize his poem "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy
Evening". Other highly acclaimed poems include "Mending Wall",
"Birches", "After Apple Picking", "The Pasture", "Fire and Ice", "The
Road Not Taken", and "Directive".
On his passing on January 29, 1963, Robert
Frost was buried in the Old Bennington Cemetery, in Bennington, Vermont.
Harvard's 1965 alumni directory indicates his having received an
honorary degree. During his later years he spent summers in Ripton,
Vermont and participated in the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference at
Middlebury College.
During his life, the Robert Frost Middle
School in Rockville, Maryland and the main library of Amherst College
were named after him.
Quotations
"Half the world is composed of people who
have something to say and can't and the other half who have nothing to
say and keep on saying it."
"Something there is that doesn’t love a
wall, that wants it down." - "Mending Wall"
"A liberal is a man too broadminded to take
his own side in a quarrel."
"A diplomat is a man who always remembers a
woman's birthday but never remembers her age."
"Home is where, when you go there, they
have to take you in." - "Death of the Hired Man"
****
The
above biography has been copied in part or in whole
from an article on
Wikipedia.org
"The Free Encyclopedia." It has been modified under
the NGU Free Document License Section 5 in the
following manner: (1) All links within the article
have been removed, including text links such as
"[#]"; (2) The "[Edit]" text and link have been
removed [if you would like to update the article,
you may do so from the original page]; (3) the table
of Contents links and text have been removed; and
(4) all of the sections of the original article have
not been copied. All of the above text is available
under the terms of the
GNU Free Document License.
URL of Original Article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Frost
Date Article Copied:
September 15, 2005
We
will try to replace this article with an original
biography in the near future, but we hope this will
be of help to our visitors in the mean time. |
