Now I would like to have a few words about
the life of Robert Frost
Robert Frost enjoyed
a great popularityduring his lifetime
Not many American poets
have had their poetry
as well known
widely read
and highly honored as Robert Frost
His life and work
are often associated
with New England landscapes
but his reputation
transcends the regional boundaries
He did not publish
his first book of poetry
until he was 39 years old
but his poetic career
lasted nearly 50 years
On July 4, 1913
Frost wrote to his friend John Bartlett
describing his strengths as a poet
For about half a century
until his death in 1963
Frost was the unofficial
poet laureate of America
recipient of more than
forty honorary degrees from
colleges and universities
including Oxford and Cambridge
in the same year 1957
Even at age eighty-five
his public reading of his own poetry
in a quivering
hardly audible voice
still attracted thousands of listeners
who were satisfied
with just being there with him
enjoying the cadence of verse
Frost was born in San Francisco California
was educated in Lawrence Massachusetts
and died in Vermont
But he was pretty much loved
as a New Hampshire poet
because he lived in New Hampshire from
1895 to 1938
In 1892
Frost graduated
from Lawrence High School as a class poet
and shared valedictorian honors
with Elinor Mirian White
After his graduation
from Lawrence High School
Frost attended Dartmouth College briefly
taught at the Salem District School
and also at his mother's school
served in a Lawrence mill
and worked as a newspaper reporter
for the Lawrence Daily American
and Sentinel
Frost and Elinor had six children
But of the six
two died in childhood
one in childbirth
one of suicide
and one would end up in a mental hospital
However
Frost and Elinor faced financial difficulty
and struggled as a team
home-schooling all their children
Elinor supported Frost
when he tried his hand
both as a farmer and a teacher
before his lyric career took off
Elinor was instrumental
in managing Frost's career
The young couple were challenged
in all the ways imaginable
and the inevitable tensions
in such a lifelong friendship and partnership
are alluded to in Frost's poems letters
and conversations
In 1897 Frost entered Harvard University
but left before completing degree requirements
because of his being affected by tuberculosis
and the birth of his second child
And three years later
Frost's eldest child died
an event which led to marital disagreement
and which Frost later addressed in his poem
Home Burial
After years of his largely
unsuccessful farming in New Hampshire
and his inability to arouse interest
of American publishers in his poetry
Frost sold his farm
and moved his family
in 1912 to England
risking everything to become a poet
From 1912 to 1915
Frost his wife
and their four children lived in England
And during this period
he met such literary figures
as Ezra Pound and Edward Thomas
that helped establish
Frost's reputation in England
Frost has long been considered
to be a poet of nature
but the subject of his poems
is almost always the humanity
And on the frontispiece
of North of Boston was printed
his poem The Pasture
The Pasture
I'm going out to clean the pasture spring
I'll only stop to rake the leaves away
And wait to watch the water clear I may
I shan't be gone long
You come too
I'm going out to fetch the little calf
That's standing by the mother
It's so young It totters
when she licks it with her tongue
I shan't be gone long
You come too
Soon after North of Boston was published
Frost's family returned to the United States
in 1915
Upon his return to America
Frost was a successful
and celebrated poet
The American editions
of his first two volumes of poetry
also won critical acclaim
upon publication in the United States
In 1917 Frost began his affiliations
with several American universities
as a professor of literature
and a poet-in-residence
A poet of the New England soil
Frost spent most of his mature career
on farms in New Hampshire and Vermont
while serving intermittently
as a poet-in-residence
in Amherst Harvard Michigan and Dartmouth
He won 4 Pulitzer prizes for literature
But his most moving appearance
was his recitation of his poem