Robert Frost is my favorite poet. Born in 1874 in San Fransisco, he became one of the best-known poets in the world. He received four Pulitzer Prizes for Poetry and was extremely well regarded in his day, earning many other great awards and titles. He taught for years and was prolific in publishing throughout his life.
I connect with Frost the most when reading his poems centered around nature. He has an intuitive sense of the innate beauty of the world around him. He paints the scene of Northeastern America with only a few words.
Frost captures the attention of his audience with easy prose and meaningful connections. He wrote short and long poems, some reflected his troubled life, others show hope and inspiration. Like many others living in the late 1800s and early 1900s, his life was filled with the deaths of his family members. I think this greatly influenced his attitude to life and writing.
I wanted to share my three favorite pieces by Frost below. Each is surprisingly short. I hope you are each able to take away a small piece of contentment with these works.
Enjoy.
Fire and Ice
Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
-Robert Frost
Dust of Snow
The way a crow
Shook down on me
The dust of snow
From a hemlock tree
Has given my heart
A change of mood
And saved some part
Of a day I had rued.
-Robert Frost
Nothing Gold Can Stay
Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.
-Robert Frost
Spine & Leaf Books 