Robert Lee Frost (March 26, 1874 - January 29, 1963) was, in the estimation of many Americans, the greatest American poet of the 20th century, and one of the greatest poets writing in English of the 20th century. Frost received 4 Pulitzer Prizes.

Frost, although most associated with New England, was born in San Francisco and lived in California until he was 11. Frost grew up as a city boy and published his first poem in Lawrence, Massachusetts. He attended Dartmouth College and Harvard University but did not complete a degree. But he purchased a farm in Derry, New Hampshire and eventually became known for a wry voice that was both rural and personal.

In 1912 he sold his farmand moved to England to become a full-time poet. His first book of poetry, A Boy's Will, was published the next year. He returned to America in 1915, bought a farm in Franconia, New Hampshire and launched a career of writing, teaching and lecturing.

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 poems include "Mending Wall", "Birches", "After Apple Picking", "The Pasture", and "Fire and Ice".

On his passing in 1963, Robert Frost was buried in the Old Bennington Cemetery, in Bennington, Vermont.

Books of Poetry

  • A Boy's Will 1913
  • North of Boston 1914
  • Mountain Interval 1916
  • New Hampshire 1923 (Pulitzer Prize in poetry)
  • West-Running Brook 1928
  • The Lovely Shall Be Chooser 1929
  • Collected Poems 1930 (Pulitzer Prize in poetry)
  • The Lone Striker 1933
  • From Snow to Snow 1936
  • A Further Range 1936 (Pulitzer Prize in poetry)
  • A Witness Tree 1942 (Pulitzer Prize in poetry)
  • Come In, and Other Poems 1943
  • Masque of Reason 1945
  • Steeple Bush 1947
  • Hard Not to be King 1951
  • In the Clearing 1962

External links