March 26th marks the 145th birth anniversary of the timeless American poet Robert Frost. Frost was famous for his knowledge of human behavior and he used it to explore complex social and philosophical themes in his poems.
‘The Road Not Taken’ is perhaps his most famous work. Other popular poems by him include ‘Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening’, ‘Mending Wall’ and ‘Acquainted with the Night’.
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On his 145th birth anniversary here are some facts about the famous poet
- Robert Frost was an excellent student. He went to high school in Lawrence, Massachusetts. Both he and his future wife Elinor White were co-valedictorians in the 1892 graduating class.
- Frost’s first published poetry collection was ‘A boy’s will’. In 1913, his first book of poems was published by British publisher David Nutt. The following year Nutt also published another poetry collection by Frost titled North of Boston.
- In 1894, Frost sold his first poem ‘My Butterfly. An Elegy’, to the New York Independent, for $15.
- After becoming acclaimed in England, Frost came back to America and famously sent Atlantic Monthly the same poems that they had turned down before he went to England
- He remains the only poet and one of only four persons who have won four Pulitzer Prizes. In 1924, Robert Frost won the Pulitzer Prize for his book New Hampshire: A Poem with Notes and Grace Notes. He went on to win three more Pulitzers; for Collected Poems in 1931, A Further Range in 1937, and A Witness Tree in 1943.
- In 1960, Frost was awarded the highest civilian award, United States Congressional Gold Medal, ‘in recognition of his poetry which enabled the culture of the United States and the philosophy of the world’.
- He was the first poet to had honored a presidential inauguration. At the age of 86, Frost was asked to write and recite a poem for President John F. Kennedy’s inauguration. Frost recited his famous poem ‘The Gift Outright’.On January
On January 29, 1963, Robert Frost died in Boston due to complications from prostate surgery. He was buried at the Old Bennington Cemetery in Bennington, Vermont. The epitaph engraved on his tomb is the last line from his poem ‘The Lesson for Today (1942).’ It reads: ‘I had a lover’s quarrel with the world.’