Robert Frost: Contribution to American Literature - Research Paper Example

Robert Frost: Contribution to American Literature Robert Frost was born in San Francisco on March 26, 1874. When he was only eleven years old his father, a teacher and a journalist, died of tuberculosis. During his early years, Robert was very introverted and only occasionally attended kindergarten. Later, as the time has come for him to be schooled, he entered the first grade, and then dropped out. After his father’s death, Robert travels with his mother and sister to Massachusetts to live with his grandparents. To support the family, his mother became a teacher and his grandfather was homeschooling Robert and his sister. He was very stern, yet with him Robert received a very solid education. About a year later they moved to Salem where Robert passed examinations to enter Lawrence High School. He finished the school year ahead of his class. When in Lawrence High, his poems first appeared in his school’s Bulletin. In his senior year in High School he became an editor of The Bulletin, he fell in love with Elinor Miriam White. Right after the graduation ceremony Robert asked her to marry him right away, but she decided to postpone the marriage until more appropriate time since both of them were to enter different colleges. Frost was admitted to Harvard, but because his grandfather and mother thought Harvard to be full of freethinkers that could lead Robert astray and also because it was cheaper, in the fall of 1892 Frost entered Dartmouth College, yet he spent there less than a semester and dropped out. (Ketzle) He returned to Salem and became a school teacher. He also worked at various jobs and in 1894 he sold his poem “My butterfly: An Elegy” to a New York magazine, The Independent. Elated, he visited Elinor and asked her marry him at once, but she wanted to finish college first. After her refusal, depressed, he went on a reckless two week journey to Virginia’s Dismal Swamp. He came back and started working as a reported for Daily American and Sentinel, taught district school and in the end of 1895 married Elinor White. In 1897 Frost entered Harvard College as a special student and studied there for two years. Then, due to his poor health, he returned to Lawrence and lived on the farm. At that time he worked on his poem that would make up his first volume. But being a farmer was not Frost’s forte, so he sold the Derry farm and traveled with his family to England. He decided to live there and became a teacher. Shortly after arrival in England, Frost gave his first book of poems to a small London publisher. He also got acquainted with many literary men, such as Rupert Brooke, Earnest Rhys, Ezra Pound, William Butler Yeats, Robert Bridges, Walter de la Mare, W. H. Davies, and Ralph Hodgson, and many others. When England entered into the First World Frost returned to United States. He learnt that Henry Hold and Company would publish his book. In America, Frost gave talks and reading throughout New England. He got elected to the National Institute of Arts and Letters. He was teaching, advising students at the Michigan University in accordance with accepted fellowship. In 1924 he was awarded his first Pulitzer Prize for New Hampshire. He also earned other numerous awards and prizes. In 1930 Collected Poems won Frost a second Pulitzer Prize. Later in life he received another two Pulitzer Prize - great honors for achievements in literature. In his life he received total of four such rewards. During the next ten years, Frost became even more honored and revered. Yet, in his personal life, he endured serious of grievous disasters. In 1934 died his youngest and favorite child Marjorie; in 1938 of a heart attack suddenly died his wife. Frost went into heavy depression, having his whole world collapsing. Then, to add to the grief, his son Carol committed suicide. Another daughter suffered from mental disorders. So after this series of tragic occurrences a number of poems in A Witness Tree derived their dark tone, yet some of his best poetry such as “The Silken Tent”, “I could give all to time”, “Never again would birds’ song be the same”, “Most of it” also contained in this book. Frost felt that A Witness Tree contained some of the best poetry he had written…He was, in fact, absolutely right about the book, which reveals a range of feelings and atmosphere beyond what he had conveyed in his previous one. (Pritchard, 239) In 1963 Robert Frost was awarded the Bollingen Prize for Poetry. Frost’s impact on America’s literature is hard to overestimate. After his first two books were published, he received recognition from Edward Thomas for the originality of Frosts experimentation with what Frost called “the sound of sense.” (Modern American Poetry) It was said about Robert Frost that he was able to speak and write simply and naturally, utterly sincere, in his own way. Frost’s simplicity in his poetry was so strong that it might seem difficult to classify him as a “modern” poet. He disregarded anyone else’s rules and it resulted in books of unusual power. In his first two books he expressed his affection for New England themes. Also, Frost used the physical world as an inexhaustible source for new metaphors, symbols, and images, having nature as a symbol of the spirit. He was using many parallels, such as the natural cycle from spring to fall, which represents the transition from the beginning of life to the destruction and then, again, to regeneration. Frost position in American poetry is a very distinct. Critics say that Frost is different from other poets in the contemporary society because his sentences are clear and easy to understand, his verse forms are traditional, and language is simple and similar to everyday speech. Frost’s poetry remains fresh as a breeze even to this day because it does not picture the main topic of the day only. It explores humanity and its aspects that are eternal, everlasting and universal. When writing about individuals, Frost emphasizes that man’s fate depends only on him and he is the only one to deal with it. He does recognize that people’s life holds possibility of hardship and suffering, yet there is also a potential for beauty and happiness, the one just needs to keep looking for it. His images for poems –woods, stars, houses, brooks –are usually taken from everyday life. He had a very down to earth approach to his subject, so readers found it easy to relate and follow the poet, to discover truths. Frost used different and very versatile themes for his poetry, yet he liked the most to investigate how the man communicates with the natural world, he used small encounters to bring metaphors in the larger scale aspects of human condition. Often the main motif of his poetry was the ability of a man to turn even the slightest incident or natural occurrence to emotional benefit (Liukkonen). Frost was very skillfully using metric forms. He often set it in the opposition to the natural rhythm of usual everyday speech. He used this method in sonnets such as “Design” and “The Silken tent”. He was fond of using simple rhythm, and within its restriction, he managed to reach great variety. He never liked “free verse”, even though he did use it occasionally, one example of it is “After Apple-Picking”, where he used random short and long lines, and non-traditional rhyme. Frost showed his power to stand as a very traditional figure between old fashioned poetry and a new way of writing. Frost mastered a blank verse and became one of the few modern poets to use it appropriately. Example is one of his earlier works “Mending Wall”, which is a metaphorical poem written in blank verse. “Mending Wall” is an opening poem for Frost’s second volume, North of Boston. It is set in the countryside and is about neighbors discussing with each other why each spring they have to rebuild the stone wall that divides their farms. This poem is best known for the lines “Good fences make good neighbors”, which is a 17th century proverb. This poem is also a sample of using conversational style Robert Frost was known for. The simpler English metrics are admirably suited to the subject and themes Frost presents, and Frost does select them for the majority of his poems. At the same time, within these limits, he brings to his verses and unending variety, the mark not of a primitive but of a true sophisticate. (Gerber, 66-67) A lot of times Frost would use a very balanced seriousness and humor. He believed humor to be a perfect vehicle to convey ideas, and very serious ideas at that. Frosts’ humor takes on a bit dark and subtle form, as in the poem “Fire and ice.” In the last 14 years of his life Robert Frost was the most highly esteemed American poet of the 20th century. He had received 44 honorary degrees and a host of government tributes, such as birthday greetings from the Senate, a gold medal from Congress, an appointment as honorary consultant to the Library of Congress, and an invitation from John F. Kennedy to his presidential inauguration. Frost was given the unprecedented honor of being asked to read a poem, "Dedication," which he wrote for the occasion.Yet, on the occasion, he was unable to read more than a few lines, because sun’s glare was too bright for his eyes. He became unofficial poet laureate of the United States. In 1950 Senate of the United States adopts the resolution in his honor. Later, in 1955, the State of Vermont named a mountain after him in Ripton, the town of his legal residence and more.  In 1962 Robert Frost became seriously ill with the pneumonia. But in late August as a part of cultural exchange program he travels to Soviet Union on invitation by President Kennedy. There are many collections of Frost materials, one of them, to which he himself contributed is in the Jones Library in Amherst, Massachusetts. There are approximately twelve thousand items in this collection. In his work, Jay Parini portrayed Robert Frost this way: He was a loner who liked company; a poet of isolation who sought a mass audience; a rebel who sought to fit in. Although a family man to the core, he frequently felt alienated from his wife and children and withdrew into reveries. While preferring to stay at home, he traveled more than any poet of his generation to give lectures and readings, even though he remained terrified of public speaking to the end...(Parini, 1999) To sum up the significance of Robert Frost’s contribution to American Literature, here is what President John F. Kennedy said in his speech at the dedication of the Robert Frost Library in Amherst, Massachusetts in October, 1963: In honoring Robert Frost we therefore can pay honor to the deepest source of our national strength. That strength takes many forms and the most obvious forms are not always the most significant.... Our national strength matters; but the spirit which informs and controls our strength matters just as much. This was the special significance of Robert Frost. (Copeland, 749) Works Cited Copeland, Lewis, Lamm, Lawrence W., McKenna, Stephen J. The World's Great Speeches. 4th ed. Dover Publications, 1999. Print Gerber, Philip. Robert Frost. 2nd ed. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1982. Print Ketzle, Jeff, Robert Frost Biographical Information, 13 Dec 2010. Web. 28 Mar 2011 Liukkonen, Petri & Pesonen, Ari, Robert (Lee) Frost (1874-1963) Kuusankosken kaupunginkirjasto, 2008. Web. 27 Mar 2011 Modern American Poetry Robert Frost (1874-1963) University of Illinois Board of Trustees, 2008. Web. 27 Mar 2011 Parini, Jay. Robert Frost: A Life. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1999. Print. Pritchard, William H., Frost: A Literary Life Reconsidered,Oxford University Press, 1984. Print. Robert (Lee) Frost (1874-1963) Read More