The Poetry of Robert Frost and His Legacy

Every once in a while, a person leaves this world with a legacy that is passed on for thousands of years. While being a legacy is one of many people's main goals in this world, becoming one isn't easy. People's names are often recorded for feats like winning an Olympic medal, or becoming extremely rich, but a hundred years later, even those people are hardly thought about. The people who are really thought about are those who actually give something back to the world they leave.

Robert Frost is one such example. Frost gave, what many agree as, the twentieth century's best poetry. This is something that will stay with people for as long as human beings enjoy good poetry.

The legacy a person leaves is usually a reflection of the personals life. For example, some of the best comedians were able to give the funniest content because they saw the world differently from most people. Books are often enjoyed most when the author has rich, personal experiences to share and incorporate into their stories they write.

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Likewise, Robert Frost incorporated much of his life into his poetry. Because Robert Frost suffered the loss of many loved ones, and was extremely elusive, he was able to write poetry with a depth rarely seen in poetry.

To say Robert Frost suffered more than average would be an understatement. Robert Frost was born on March 26, 1874 into a family with a hard farther who was an alcoholic and was known to sometimes be abusive.

To make family conditions even harder, the Frost family was extremely poor. Possibly a result of his father's harsh treatment, Robert Frost reported hearing strange voices in his head when he was left alone. Robert attempted school 3 years in a row, but just as quickly, dropped out each year. To try to help Robert, Isabel Frost (Froställs mother) decided to home-school him. This seemed to be the start of something good, Robert started developing a strong education, but only a year later, his father died of tuberculoses. Instead of settling into a life that seemed to be coming together, Robert was forced to move from San Francisco to New Hampshire (his father's birthplace) to bury him; leaving his friends behind at home forever (the family only had eight dollars at the time, which was just the money for a one way trip). Living in New Hampshire, things at first were very hard. Robert Frost, eventually, with the help of his mother, decided to fight the difficulties of school and go back to a public school. Determined, Frost advanced so well that in 1889, he was able to finish the year at the top of his class. Frost graduated high school, and went to Dartmouth College where he met a girl named Elinor White. Frost soon fell in love, and asked to married Elinor. This short bit of happiness was unfortunately only followed by more grief. The first son that the Frosts had, died of Cholera, and sent both Robert and Elinor into a state of depression. Frost, devastated, quit school. To make matters worse, the same year, Froställs's mother died of cancer. Frost had two more kids, and the third one died three days after she was born. After this point, the next two pregnancies were miscarriages. Frostâis close sister soon began to go crazy, and he sent her to a mental hospital where she died a few years later. Next, one of Frostals' daughters received puerperal fever, and she too died. Just four years after the death of his daughter, his wife, Elinor, had heart failure and also died. Frost was so devastated at this point, that he collapsed and couldnant even attend his wifeâlls cremation. His son was also devastated, and, deciding that he couldnäitt deal with his pain any more, committed suicide just two years later. Lastly, Frosts remaining daughter went mentally insane and was forced to attend a mental institute.

The pain that Frost experienced seemed to enable him to write on two levels. The first level is the apparent, physical side of the world. For example, in âllStopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, anD Frost depicts a character who is tired from traveling in falling snow. Frost does an amazing job of describing a beautiful picture of nature, but continues on another level. The second level that Frost writes about is an emotional side of the world. Looking deeper into the same poem, the traveling character is seen not only as tired, but as also contemplated suicide. One might assume that Frost, after all of the pain that he went through in his life, would become angry and write strong words about the harshness of his world. Instead of becoming strongly opinionated, Frost, however, seemed to step back, and become elusive in his thinking. This elusiveness seemed to tie into his writing.

In Frostâlls poem, "The Road Not Taken", Frost writes about coming to a fork in a road, and having to decide which way to go. Instead of saying one direction was better than the other one, Frost simply says: I took the one less traveled by/And that has made all the difference. al0 A friend of Frosts, in describing how elusive he had become, said this: Perhaps in a group of men a new book had come up for comment. One man might say it was a good book; another man, that it wasn't a good book. Then Frost's voice would be heard, not making any judgment at all, but simply quoting one sentence from that book, one salient, significant sentence. It was unprofessorial enough to be startling.

Robert Frost could never seem to make up his mind about a vocation; he tried many different jobs, until writing seemed to almost automatically come together for him. One of Frostits friends recounts: allahe had never lifted his finger to advance his career, but that everything had come to him.af0 Frosts vagueness brings his writing to another level.

Almost every single one of Frosts works can be interpreted many different ways. Scholars debate over the meanings of some of his works, but the average reader just enjoys interpreting the work the way he or she sees it. This is most likely why so many people can relate to Robert Frost. Robert Frost had an incredible talent for arranging words very poetically. Fortunately, Frost went farther than just this. Because Frost was able to add personal elements to his writing; his suffering. and his elusiveness, he was able to bring his poetry to another level. This added level could be looked at as just frosting on a cake. With the hundreds of poems Frost wrote, he forever created legacy.