Robert Frost Influences

Robert Frost is considered one of the most celebrated poets in America. Although he grew up in urban New England, Frost chose a distinct rural literary style using everyday language. Frost lost his father to tuberculosis at eleven and his mother to cancer fifteen years later. It was through his grandfather’s financial support that he continued on in high school where he published his first poem in the school’s magazine. He briefly attended college but returned home to various unsatisfactory jobs until he sold his first poem in 1894. He married Elinor Miriam White, who often influenced his work, and attempted farming while writing for nearly a decade. When the farm failed, he moved his family to England for a few years where he published his first volumes of work, became friends with other poets of the time, like Edward Thomas and Ezra Pound. He was heavily influenced by the writings of James Hardy, Keats, and Yeats. Some critics feel his work was also heavily influenced by his study of Greek and Roman classics during his time in college. He eventually returned to New England, purchased a farm, and commenced a successful career in writing, teaching, and lecturing. He is renowned for his work in depicting rural life, but also for encouraging his students to look for the variety of sounds and intonations in daily speech which he referred …show more content…
His parents were lost while he was quite young. In addition, of his six children, all but two died, one of the surviving children was institutionalized for mental illness which was pervasive in his family. His wife, Elinor, passed from cancer and heart failure. Much of his poetry explores the fundamental questions of existence and loneliness in a seemingly indifferent world. He examined “human reactions to nature’s processes” with a certain bleakness, frequently utilizing satirical elements with an ear of sympathy toward his