They frequently took long walks together, observing nature in the English countryside. This interpretation of “The Road Not Taken” is debatable (more on that later), but it was enough to inspire Frost’s friend Edward Thomas to make a very grave decision to fight in World War I.įrost and Thomas were great friends while Frost lived in England, both of them were well-read and very interested in nature. This is partly why lots of people misremember the poem’s title as “The Road Less Travelled.” “The Road Not Taken” has become well known for its perceived encouragement to take the “ less traveled by.” In other words, many people interpret this poem as a call to blaze new trails and break away from the status quo. The Background Behind “The Road Not Taken” Poem “The Road Not Taken” was first published in the August 1915 issue of The Atlantic Monthly, and then was re-published as the opening poem in his poetry collection Mountain Interval the next year.įrost's most famous poem got its start as part of a letter sent to his best friend on the eve of World War I. (Yes, that’s right: one of the most famous American poems was originally written as a goofy private joke between two friends!)įrost first read it to some college students who, to his surprise, thought it a very serious poem.
Frost and Thomas were fond of hiking together, and Thomas often had trouble making up his mind which trail they should follow. It was written in 1915 as a joke for Frost’s friend, Edward Thomas. “The Road Not Taken” is a narrative poem, meaning it is a poem that tells a story. Frost’s poetry continued to focus on rural New England life up until his death in 1963. Throughout his career, Frost never strayed far from old-fashioned, pastoral poetry, despite the fact that newer American poets moved in a more experimental direction. Late in life, at 86 years old, Robert Frost also became the first inaugural poet at John F. He received numerous awards and recognitions, including the Pulitzer Prize for poetry, and became the public face of 20th century American poetry. in 1915 and began teaching at Amherst College and the University of Michigan, all the while continuing to write poetry. In order to avoid WWI, Frost returned to the U.S. Finally, after years of struggle, Frost became a famous poet essentially overnight. įrost’s second anthology, North of Boston, was published in 1914 and found massive success in England. It was there he published his first anthology of poetry, A Boy’s Will, in 1913. Consequently, Frost decided to sell the farm in 1911 and moved his family to London. But Frost’s poetry was still largely overlooked by American publishers. Frost would live there for nine years, and many of his most famous early poems were written before his morning chores while tending to the farm. In 1900, feeling frustrated by his job prospects and a lack of traction in his poetry career, Frost moved his family to a farm left to him by his grandfather in Derry, New Hampshire. To complicate matters further, Frost and his wife, Elinor, suffered personal tragedy when two of their six children died in infancy. His poetry wasn’t gaining traction in the United States, either. He attended both Dartmouth and Harvard, but dropped out of both before graduating. But unfortunately, the next segment of Frost’s life would be marked by upheaval. Frost was named both the valedictorian and the “class poet” of his high school graduating class.and two years later published his first poem, “My Butterfly: An Elegy,” in the New York Independent magazine.Īt this point, Frost knew he wanted to be a poet. When he was about ten years old, his family moved to Massachusetts to be near his grandfather, who owned a sawmill. His father was a newspaper editor (a profession Frost later practiced himself, among others), and his mother was a teacher and Scottish immigrant. Robert Frost was born in 1874 in San Francisco, California. Robert Frost is widely recognized as one of the most influential American poets of the 20th century. There’s a lot to talk about, so let’s get going! The poetic devices in “The Road Not Taken” that you need to know.“The Road Not Taken” analysis, including the top two themes in the poem.Information about the poem’s background.
A brief intro to the poet, Robert Frost.We’re here to help you build a deeper understanding of “The Road Not Taken.” To help you learn what Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” poem is all about, we’ll cover the following in this article: Because he’s so famous, chances are you’ve encountered “The Road Not Taken” before. Robert Frost is arguably one of the most well-known American poets of all time, so it’s not surprising that his work is taught in high schools and colleges across the nation.
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