Portrait of Robert Frost in 1910

Robert Frost was born in San Francisco on March 26, 1874, to William Prescott Frost, Jr. and Isabelle Moodie Frost (Biography.com Editors). His father died when he was eleven, and he moved to Massachusetts with his mother and sister to live with his grandparents. Frost graduated from high school in 1892 as the co-valedictorian with his future wife, whom he would marry in 1895 (Gerber). They would go on to have six children, although Frost would outlive four of them. After graduating high school, Frost alternated between attending a few different colleges and working unfulfilling jobs, but he never earned a degree (Gerber).
His grandfather bought him a farm in New Hampshire, and he moved there with his family in 1900 (“Robert Frost”). Frost was not successful in poultry farming, so he also taught and worked on poetry. Though his farming efforts did not work out, this was a critical time in Frost’s life for his poetry. He was inspired by the New England countryside, and many of his poems contain descriptions, images, and the feel of New England.
Frost and his family tried to farm for about twelve years, but their efforts were unsuccessful. Frost’s poetry kept getting rejected by publishers, and he was beginning to lose hope because of his age. Frost was about forty years old, and none of his works had been successful. At that time, poetry was believed to be “a young person’s game” (Gerber). In 1912, the Frost family decided to move to England in hopes that people there would be more receptive to Frost’s poetry. They sold the farm and sailed across the Atlantic, and within a year, Frost published his first book of poems with the help of fellow poets Ezra Pound and Edward Thomas (Biography.com Editors). He published a second collection a year later.
World War I caused the Frosts to move back to America, and by this time, he had built quite the reputation (Biography.com Editors). Publishers that once rejected his work begged for it. His works quickly became bestsellers, and Frost went back to farming, writing poetry, and teaching. He lectured at Amherst and the University of Michigan while continuing to publish collections of poems (“Robert Frost”).
Frost received many honorary degrees, four Pulitzer Prizes, and became one of the nation’s most celebrated poets (Biography.com Editors). One of his most well known moments was reciting his poem, “The Gift Outright,” at President Kennedy’s inauguration (Gerber). He died on January 29, 1963 (Gerber).

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Works Cited

Biography.com Editors. “Robert Frost.” Biography.com, A&E Networks Television, April 2. 2014, http://www.biography.com/writer/robert-frost.

Gerber, Philip L. “Robert Frost.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., January 30 2020, http://www.britannica.com/biography/Robert-Frost.

“Robert Frost.” Poets.org, Academy of American Poets, poets.org/poet/robert-frost.