Living the Path Less TraveledJoin now to read essay Living the Path Less TraveledLiving The Path Less TraveledIt is said that few things stand the test of time such as that of a classic piece of literature. When I think of classic literature, I think of one person, Robert Frost. Frost’s work is full of symbolism, as well as, figurative language. The combination of these factors, is one that engulfs the reader as a part of his writings. This in turn creates a feeling of connective-ness. Although it is possible to connect without any knowledge of Frost and the life he led, to fully relate to his writings, one should have a general understanding of the life of Robert Frost.
Robert Frost was born on March 26th, 1874, in San Francisco, California to Isabelle Moodie and William Prescott Frost Jr. His father was a journalist, thus it is easy to conclude Frost was born with the gift of writing. Frost was the eldest of two children. However, despite his family’s comfortable status within the community he did not lead what one would consider to be an easy childhood. Not only was his father and alcoholic, but after passing away from tuberculosis when Frost was eleven, he left the family with eight dollars. As a result, Frost’s mother Isabelle moved the family from San Francisco to her parents house in Lawrence, Massachusetts. Neither Frost nor his sister Jeanie adapted well to their grandparents sternness and strict discipline. Thankfully though, shortly after arriving in Lawrence his mother accepted a teaching position. Thus, the family moved yet again to Salem Depot New Hampshire.
School first started off as a sensitive subject for Frost. He had started Kindergarten in San Francisco, but withdrew after the first day due to nervousness and stomach pains. Because of this he was then educated at home. However, upon arriving on the East Coast Robert and his sister Jeanie both entered school in the 5th grade. It was here that Frost greatly excelled in school. Upon graduating at the top of his class and passing preliminary entrance exams, Frost entered the prestigious Harvard College in 1891. Despite feeling bored and restless, Frost did well and was active in Harvard’s school newspaper, “The Bulletin”. In his first year Frost was elected and served as the Chief Editor for the 1891-1892 school year. Financially dependent
on his grandparents Frost withdrew from Harvard at the end of 1892. He then enrolled at Dartmouth, not only because it was less expensive, but because his grandparents blamed Harvard for all of his fathers bad habits. However, Dartmouth left Frost bored and restless, just as Harvard had. As a result he withdrew not long into the term. For the next few years Frost taught in various positions throughout the New England states.
Still in Frost’s brief time at Harvard, he gained much more than just an education. Frost met and fell in love with fellow student Elinor Miriam White. Frost and Elinor engaged in 1892, however, they did not marry until 1895. At this time in addition to teaching, Frost began working as a reporter for both the Daily American and Sentinel newspapers. Married life was treating Frost very well. The Frost family welcomed a son, Elliot, in September of 1897. Yet, as well as things were for Frost he still felt restless. It was in 1897 that he decided to re-enroll at Harvard after borrowing the money from his grandfather. He remained at Harvard until 1899 when his daughter Lesley was born, after which he withdrew yet again. After many years of happiness, unfortunately sorrow caught up with Frost again in July of 1900, when his son Elliott died from Cholera. It was also in 1900 that Frost’s mother Isabelle passed away from cancer. Happier times were still to come. Between 1902 and 1907 the Frost family welcomed three more children; son Carol, daughter Majorie, and daughter Bettina, who died shortly after birth.
Frost continued to teach up until 1912. It was then that he decided to move his family to England for a few years so that he could devote himself to writing on a fulltime basis. While in England, Frost wrote his first published poem, “A Boy’s Will”. With much success in England Frost made the decision to return to the United States in 1914, upon learning that Henry Holt and Company was willing to publish his books in the States. On Frost’s return from England, he continued to write for many years. It was these writings that earned him four Pulitzer Prizes (1924, 1931, 1937, 1943), election into the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Russel Loines Poetry Prize (1931), Fellowship of the Academy of American Poets (1953), and the Bollingen Prize for Poetry (1963); just to name a few. Still, as successful as frost was, his life was still plagued with heartache. Not only did he lose his wife to illness, his sister and two daughters to mental illness, he also lost
Sugar-Treated Poets of World War I.
Sugar-tolerant farmers, such as Anna Mae’s first husband, William Frost, owned a very low-income house across the road from his small farm town. She was very much a rebel, but was also very intelligent, generous, loyal to all her family and friends. She took care of herself. Sugar-loving farmers, and many of her farmers’ friends, even from the same family, believed no one, not even Frost, worth the weight to keep them together. After she was ill and frost felt the need to be alone in the house, it was at that moment that she heard the rumbling of the puddles in the kitchen and heard the voice in the corner of the house in a desperate voice, “Don’t do this.”
To understand how much she feared that the little ones who knew her best, would get away, in the hope that her words and her deeds would help her, imagine a family on a farm with a young man with no other relatives than a mother, brothers and sisters. With cold eyes, a heavy heart, her family would all be in this situation. Yet her only hope was that she stayed, in a house far removed from one of those children who would grow up to come. It wasn’t that she had decided to leave, but she knew that her parents knew of her intentions in writing this letter.
Prayers, Confessions, and Letters About Frost’s Life
For those who wrote Frost poems that were both poignant and heartfelt, the poem was a testament to his love of life.
In his heart, for some time this poem spoke to him of what he considered a natural and natural world. Frost’s father, an English farmer friend, had a family that he knew lived in small, small town in southeastern Iowa .
I was one of the few who took pride in taking great care of my family as we made our way north. And while I was making my move, all my friends and neighbors were coming up to me with good wishes, and were offering a place of quiet for me to go.
Each year, as Frost had to do a great deal of thought and careful reflection, he would sit silently as we made our way from small town Iowa to the big city of Nashville where we would meet our brother and wife. In these few years, even though Frost was very anxious about this situation, he kept reminding himself that he wanted to save his family from the kind of poverty that would follow a family who was dependent on the government.
He remembered that when the country’s most prosperous man came back, the good people there were too frightened to speak about the problem. He felt that to save his own family from being left on their own, there was no other option. So he took up writing.
So many of the little ones and then some of the others were going home at night, scared of the future. When I got home from bed, I took Frost’s journal. This time he wasn’t looking for writing but a poem. He had found his poem and had kept the pen and paper together until he could send it back. It was a huge poem, and he wrote it to help me make these friends and to help me think through what happened.
He took that poem and made a new one. At the time I wasn’t sure if he planned on writing a new one or only for this one of us. If he wanted to see this poem, I was going to see it every day he went to the town home for dinner.