Born in San Francisco in 1874, Robert Frost was an American poet who was much admired for his depictions of the rural life of New England, his wide use of American colloquial speech, and his realistic verse portraying ordinary people in everyday situations. He won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1924, 1931, 1937, and 1943. In 1960, 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's public career reached a climax in 1961, when he recited his poem "The Gift Outright" at the inauguration of President John F. Kennedy.
After his father passed away, Frost moved to New England when he was eleven years old and promptly became interested in reading and writing poetry. He briefly attended Dartmouth and Harvard colleges but did not earn a degree. In the early 1890's, he worked in New England as a farmer, an editor, and a schoolteacher, however his career as a poet never blossomed as he had hoped it to until he moved with his wife, Elinor White, to London in 1912. There, he was introduced to contemporary British poets such as Edward Thomas, Rupert Brooke, and Robert Graves, who influenced his work greatly. Other influences of his work were of course the nature of his homeland, in New England, and his wife Elinor, who was more of an inspiration than an influence. .
Frosts" poetry has been noted to use "simple words" in order to achieve a certain style. In his poetry, there has been a distinctivly low content of both Romantic & Latinate words, but with a higher content of words of native derivation - and a large amount of one- and two- syllable words. .
Robert Frost had a love-hate relationship with Nature. In his personal life, he reveled in the simple joys of farming and being in touch with the earth. However, what he saw on the "underside" of nature disturbed him. He saw nature as beautiful and full of hope, yet random and chaotic at the same time.
