The quintessential New England poet, Robert Frost was in fact a native of California. Born in San Francisco on March 26, 1874, Frost came east to attend Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, and though he wouldn&#8217;t last long at school, the mountains, rivers, and farmland of New Hampshire and Vermont constitute the primary setting for his plain-spoken, image-rich, often brutal, poetry. After many years spent working odd jobs, variously farming and teaching, Frost traveled to England, where his first volume of poems, A Boy&#8217;s Will, was published by David Nutt in 1913. His rise to fame began not long thereafter, and upon returning to the United States, Frost enjoyed a long career of publication, popularity, and prizes. He gave us many famous turns of phrase, and many of his poems, including &#8220;The Road Not Taken,&#8221; and &#8220;Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening,&#8221; are enduring achievements. Many deep readers still possess his poetry by heart, even today.
Some of Frost&#8217;s highlights as a popular figure include a visit to the Soviet Union and the reading of his poem, &#8220;The Gift Outright,&#8221; at President John F. Kennedy&#8217;s inauguration ceremony in 1961. Though hugely popular in his own lifetime, Robert Frost was in many respects a difficult man and a largely misunderstood poet; nevertheless, his legacy lives on in the hearts and minds of many devotees of American Romanticism. He died in Boston, Massachusetts, aged 88 years.