Life and Nature - Scf - State College of Florida

Robert Frost
Robert Frost was born in San Francisco, surprisingly, on March 26, 1874. The
famous New England writer did not move to Massachusetts until after his father died
when he was 11. Frost reminisced that his train ride to the other side of the country was
“the longest, loneliest train ride” ever (qtd. in Ho “Robert Frost”). This displayed “the
impact of the loss of a vital figure in Frost‟s childhood” (“Robert Frost”). As a child in
school, his mother would read him works by many famous authors, one being Emerson,
who became his favorite author, and possibly sparking his attraction to nature. The
person who inspired him to start writing poetry was a high
school friend, Carl Burell, who was “interested in botany [and]
also an aspiring writer” (“Robert Frost”). Both Burell and
Frost wrote for the High School Bulletin and contributed
verses and prose, one of which was a poem by Frost entitled,
“La Noche Triste.” Between 1892 and 1893, Frost spent a
difficult time trying to figure out where to go to college.
According to Ho, he had his hopes on Harvard, which was “his
father‟s alma mater,” but his grandparents objected because
they did not want him to “revolt against his puritanical heritage,
reject religion, and behave wildly” like his father (“Robert
Frost”). He ended up going to Dartmouth and staying there
for less than a semester because he hated the conservatism.