Robert Frost, who passed
away on 29 January 1963, in Boson, Massachusetts, was an
American poet. Frost’s family
moved to New England early in his life. After stints at Dartmouth College and
Harvard University and a difficult period as a teacher and farmer, he moved to
England and published his first collections, A Boy’s Will (1913)
and North
of Boston (1914). At the outbreak of war, he returned to New
England. He closely observed rural life and, in his poetry, endowed it with
universal, even metaphysical, meaning, using colloquial language, familiar
rhythms, and common symbols to express both its pastoral ideals and its dark
complexities. His collections include New Hampshire (1923, Pulitzer Prize), Collected
Poems (1930, Pulitzer Prize), A Further Range (1936,
Pulitzer Prize), and A Witness Tree (1942, Pulitzer Prize). He was
unique among American poets of the 20th century in simultaneously achieving
wide popularity and deep critical admiration. Many of his poems, including
“Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” “Birches,” “The Death of the Hired
Man,” “Dust of Snow,” “Fire and Ice,” and “Home Burial,” are widely
anthologized.
'The
Road Not Taken' is Robert Frost's most celebrated
poem, and it is so popular that most people encounter it in school. This poem
about making decisions and maintaining independence is timeless and easy to
relate to. As such, it is, and likely will always be, one of the best poems of
all time.
