Robert Frost, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry,  was born on 26th March 1874 in San Francisco, California, USA. The U.S. Congress voted Frost a gold medal "in recognition of his poetry which has enriched the culture of the United States and the philosophy of the world". Frost had varied work experience. In early 1890s , he worked in New England as a farmer, an editor and a school teacher, absorbing the materials that were to form the themes of many of his most famous poems. His first volume of poetry, A boy's will, appeared in 1913 while his final collection 'In the clearing' appeared in 1962. Frost died on 29th Jan 1963.

Robert Frost's poetry is identified with New England, particularly the states of Vermont and New Hampshire. Frost found inspiration for many of his finest poems in the region's landscapes, folkways, and speech mannerisms. His poetry is noted for its plain language, conventional forms and graceful style. Many of his earlier poems are as richly developed as his later ones. Frost is sometimes praised for being direct and a straightforward writer. While he is never obscure, he cannot always be read easily. His effects, even at their simplest, depend upon a certain slyness for which the reader must be prepared to. His range of moods in his poetry is rich and varied. He assumes the role of a puckish, homespun, philosopher in 'Mending Wall'. In such poems as 'Design' and 'Bereft', he responds to the terror and tragedy of life. He writes soberly of vaguely threatening aspects of nature in 'Come In' and 'Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening' He wrote:

"My Little horse must think it queer, To stop without a farmhouse near,
Between teh woods and frozen lake, The darkest evening of the year"

"The witch of the Coo" is a comic account of the superstitions of rural New England. In 'Home Burial", it is tragedy centering around a child's death. In "The Hill Wife' Frost shows the loneliness of a rural existence driving a person insane. Robert Frost often appears to write the kind of romantic poetry associated with England and the United States in the 1800s. The romantic poets of 1800s believed people could live in harmony with nature. Frost thought, the purpose of people and nature are never the same and so nature's meanings can never be known. Probing for nature's secrets is futile. Humanity's best chance for serenity does not come from understanding the natural environment but comes from working usefully and productively amid the external forces of nature. Frost often used the theme of 'Significant toil' toil by which people are nourished and sustained. This theme appears in such famous lyrics as 'Birches', 'Apple Picking' and 'Two Tramps in Mud Time'

FEW QUOTES BY ROBERT FROST

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken

The brain is a wonderful organ. It starts working the moment you get up in the morning and does not stop until you get into the office.

Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence.


There are two kinds of teachers: the kind that fill you with so much quail shot that you can't move, and the kind that just gives you a little prod behind and you jump to the skies.

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.

Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence.

At bottom the world isn't a joke. We only joke about it to avoid an issue with someone, to let someone know that we know he's there with his questions; to disarm him by seeming to have heard and done justice to his side of the standing argument.

A poem begins with a lump in the throat; a homesickness or alovesickness. It is a reaching-out toward expression; an effort to find fulfillment. A complete poem is one where an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words.