Robert Frost ( )

※ The most popular 20th Century American Poet 4 Pulitzer Prize winner ※ read poetry at a presidential inauguration. ※ received honorary degrees from 44 colleges ※ unofficial poet Laureate, one of the most celebrated American’s modernist poets

Robert Frost on the farm in New England The farmhouse in Derry

Biographical Information  Born in San Francisco in 1874, died in Boston in  After his father's death in 1885, young Frost left California with his family and settled in Massachusetts.  Attended high school in Mass., entered Dartmouth College, but remained less than one semester.

Biographical Information  Did odd jobs: teaching school and working in a mill and as a newspaper reporter.  Attended Harvard College as a special student but left without a degree.  Over the next ten years he wrote (but rarely published) poems, operated a farm in Derry, New Hampshire, and supplemented his income by teaching at Derry's Pinkerton Academy.

Literary Career  At 38, he sold the farm and took his family to England.  In England, his efforts to establish himself as a poet was almost immediately successful. A Boy's Will was published 1913, followed a year later by North of Boston.  Favorable reviews on both sides of the Atlantic resulted in American publication of the books.

 Determined to win recognition in his native land, Frost sailed for the United States in February 1915 and landed in New York City.  After he returned to the US, he settled on a farm in his native land.  Sales of his books enabled Frost to buy a farm in Franconia, N.H.; to place new poems in literary periodicals and publish a third book, Mountain Interval (1916); and to embark on a long career of writing, teaching, and lecturing.  when he was eighty-seven he read his poetry at the inauguration of President John F. Kennedy.

Frost’s poetic theory  He emphasized on the dramatic qualities of poetry.  He believed that all poetry is essentially metaphorical.  He insisted that poetry cannot be forced into being.  He thought that poetry serves as a means of giving patterns to man’s existence.

Major Features of Frost’s Poems  He was an essentially pastoral poet often associated with rural New England.  He used the rural world as a source of symbols, whose philosophical dimensions transcend any region.  His adopts traditional verse forms, plain language and everyday speech to explore the complexity of human existence through treating seemingly trivial subjects.

 A Boy’s Will 1913 >  North of Boston, 1914 >  Mountain Interval, 1916 >  New Hampshire 1923 >  Collected Poems 1930 >  A Further Range 1936 >  A Witness Tree 1942 > II. Main Works

Frost's most popular poems:  Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening  The Road Not Taken,  After Apple-picking  Mending Wall  Nothing gold can stay

The Road Not Taken -Robert Frost

The Road Not Taken  Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth;  Then took the other, as just as fair And having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy and wanted wear; Though as for that, the passing there Had worn them really about the same,  And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back.  I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: two roads diverged in a wood, and I -- I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.

 Frost claims that he wrote this poem about his friend Edward Thomas, with whom he had walked many times in the woods near London. Frost has said that while walking they would come to different paths and after choosing one, Thomas would always felt wondering what they might have missed by not taking the other path.  About the poem, Frost asserted, “You have to be careful of that one; it’s a tricky poem– very tricky.”  Superficially, the poem has been and continues to be used as an inspirational poem, encouraging self-reliance, not following where others have led.  But a close reading of the poem proves not so. About the Poem “The Road Not Taken”

 Stanza One---- Describes Situations (position)  Stanza Two---- Decides to Take Less-travelled Road (Decision )  Stanza Three---- Continues Description of Road (exposition)  Stanza Four----Recalls the Road Taken and Not Taken (reflection)  Rhyming scheme: abaab The Framework of the Poem

Reflective Questions:  1. According to this poem, is Frost an innovative poet or not? Why?  2. What does the speaker do when facing two diverged roads? What is the speaker’s initial response?  3. Describe the similarities and differences of these two roads. Why does he choose the other road? Appreciating the Poem “The Road Not Taken”

 4. How do you understand the word “sigh”?Is it a kind of nostalgic relief or regret?  5. What might the two roads stand for in the speaker’s mind? (the symbolic meanings)  6. Why does Frost himself claim that this is a tricky poem? What does he want to convey in this poem?

 The word “sigh” is a tricky word. Because sigh can be interpreted into nostalgic relief or regret.  If it is the relief sigh, then the difference means the speaker feels glad with the road he took.  If it is the regret sigh, then the difference would not be good, and the speaker would be sighing in regret. Hence, sigh is ambiguous here for the speaker is not showing whether his choice is right or wrong. 4. How do you understand the word “sigh”?Is it a kind of nostalgic relief or regret?

 Clearly, this poem is endowed with abundant symbolic meanings. In the speaker’s mind, the two roads not only refer to the real roads he has to take while walking in the yellow wood, more significantly, it means two different ways of life when one hesitates before the life’s crossroad. Different choices will lead to different futures.  For the poet, it also shows his attitude towards poetry creation. “He prefers to take the less-travelled road” suggests that he doesn’t follow suit but employs the traditional pattern in spite of the influence of modernist innovation 5. What might the two roads stand for in the speaker’s mind?

 Three things make his poem tricky---- the time frame, and the words “sigh” and “difference”.  Traditionally, this poem has been understood as an inspirational poem, seeming to encouraging people to be self- reliant and not following where others have led.  Actually, it does not moralize about choice, it simply says that choice is inevitable but you never know what your choice will mean until you have lived it.  This is also the theme of the poem. 6. Why does Frost himself claim that this is a tricky poem? What is the theme this poem?

Fire and Ice  Some say the world will end in fire, Some say in ice. From what I've tasted of desire I hold with those who favor fire. But if it had to perish twice, I think I know enough of hate To say that for destruction ice Is also great And would suffice.

Scientific Interpretation of Fire and Ice  Some think that the earth may be burnt up by the sun (fire),  Others say Ice Age will kill life on the Earth.

Spiritual and Psychological meaning of the Symbols in the poem 1.Fire - a symbol of desire, or love  Helen of Troy  Cleopatra, Egyptian queen The two beauties had wars fought over them. 2. Ice - a symbol of hatred These are the two weaknesses of human beings that are as destructive as natural disasters

 His poetry concerns New England’s nature. He saw nature as a storehouse of analogy and symbol, so his concern with nature reflected deep moral uncertainties.  His poetry often probes mysterious of darkness and irrationality in the bleak and chaotic landscapes of an indifferent universe.  The quest of the solitary person to make sense of the world has become the central theme of all Frost’s collections and made his poetry among the most accessible of modern writers.  The poetry of Robert Frost combined pastoral imagery with solitary philosophical themes. III. Frost’s View and Theme

 rejected the revolutionary poetic principles of his contemporaries, used traditional forms such as the blank verse, plain language of rural New Englanders, and a graceful style.  there is a steady tone of wry humor, and a virtually inexhaustible verbal grace.  He used symbols from everyday country life to express his deep ideas.  As a whole, Frost’s art is an act of clarification, which, without simplifying the truth, renders it in some degree accessible to everyone. IV. Frost’s Style

That’s all, Thank you!