By: Robert Frost
Robert Frost’s life was marred by a series of tragedies. First, the early demise of his father, later the deaths of his children, and then the loss in business. However, all these hindrances could not destroy his writing talent. He graduated from Lawrence High School as a poet but could not polish his poetic abilities due to the unfavorable luck. His first poem, “My Butterfly: An Elegy” was published in 1894. Various poets such as Robert Graves, Edward Thomas, and Robert Brooke used to meet him and encourage him to write poetry. During his visit to England, he became friends with Ezra Pound, who later helped him in his publications. He published “A Boy’s Will” in 1913. Later, in 1916, in his book “Mountain Interval” he presented a perfect combination of narratives and lyrics in his poetry. “Selected Poems” and “New Hampshire” hit the shelves in 1923. He became so much popular with his simplicity in poetry that it earned him four Pulitzer Prizes. Besides poetry, he produced the updated version of Biblical story, A Masque of Mercy, in 1947. Furthermore, he was the first poet honored to recite a poem at the Presidential Inauguration of John F. Kennedy.
Robert Frost added more colors to the world of literature. Despite having a traumatic life, he secured a reputable place as a literary man with his creative and thoughtful ideas. The early demise of his father and his children provided him with an insight to feel the intense pain of loss and express it in simple and ordinary language. He documented these ideas in his poems and plays so well, such as “After Apple-Picking”, “Mending Wall” and “Out- Out” have become household names on account of their deceptively innocent themes. Moreover, his ideas about social outcasts and love for nature are reflected well in his works. The recurring themes in most of his poems are love, death, beauty, man and the natural world, and struggle. Robert Frost used literary devices that turned to visual and sensual imagery, metaphors, similes, and symbolism to create a unique style.
Written in 1915 in England, "The Road Not Taken" is one of Robert Frost's—and the world's—most well-known poems. Although commonly interpreted as a celebration of rugged individualism, the poem actually contains multiple different meanings. The speaker in the poem, faced with a choice between two roads, takes the road "less traveled," a decision which he or she supposes "made all the difference." However, Frost creates enough subtle ambiguity in the poem that it's unclear whether the speaker's judgment should be taken at face value, and therefore, whether the poem is about the speaker making a simple but impactful choice, or about how the speaker interprets a choice whose impact is unclear.
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