Robert Frost

American poet (1874–1963)

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Lived 1874–1963, aged 89United States

United States WritersWriter / Author

Wikipedia
84 languages
Cross-language footprint
Era
1874–1963
Aged 89
Known for
Shed No Tears
1948

Summary

Updated 2026-06-08

He turned New England stone walls and country roads into the architecture of American thought — spare lines that read like plain speech but collapsed into something harder the longer you looked.

Biography

About

Robert Lee Frost was born March 26, 1874, and spent decades writing verse that used the rhythms of actual speech to examine what happened between people in rural New England settings. The work earned him four Pulitzer Prizes for Poetry, the only poet to receive that many, and made him what one critic called "one of America's rare public literary figures, almost an artistic institution." In 1958 he was appointed United States Poet Laureate; in 1960 he received the Congressional Gold Medal; in 1961 Vermont named him its poet laureate. Randall Jarrell placed him alongside Stevens and Eliot as the…

Voice

In their own words

Sourced, dated quotes from Robert Frost

Robert Frost

said1 Jan 1916

A poem...begins as a lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, a homesickness, a lovesickness. It is a reaching-out toward expression; an effort to find fulfillment.

— Letter to Louis Untermeyer (January 1, 1916)

Robert Frost

said8 Jul 1915

Forgive me my nonsense as I also forgive the nonsense of those who think they talk sense.

— Letter to Louis Untermeyer (July 8, 1915)

Robert Frost

said2 Jan 1915

It is only a moment here and a moment there that the greatest writer has. Some cognizance of the fact must be taken in your teaching.

— Letter to Sidney Cox (January 2, 1915)

Robert Frost

said1913

My Sorrow, when she's here with me, Thinks these dark days of autumn rain Are beautiful as days can be; She loves the bare, the withered tree; She walks the sodden pasture lane.

— My November Guest

Robert Frost

said1913

Her pleasure will not let me stay. She talks and I am fain to list: She's glad the birds are gone away, She's glad her simple worsted gray Is silver now with clinging mist.

— My November Guest

via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA

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