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Robert Frost was, and still is, a well-known American poet who was most famous for his view of life and nature demonstrated throughout his poems. Throughout Robert Frost’s life, he suffered devastating losses with the unfortunate deaths of his sister, two of his children, and his wife. Frost enrolled at Dartmouth but soon became dissatisfied with the atmosphere of campus life //(Robert Frost//)//.// He later attended Harvard but had to leave due to illness. It seems as if all aspects of Robert Frost’s life were fragmented in some way. Nothing ever remained complete or the same except for his poetry. Frost’s writing was heavily influenced by all the fragmentation in his life resulting in poems such as //The Road Not// Taken, //Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, Design, Mending Wall, and Birches// demonstrating ambiguity throughout each one.

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Robert Lee Frost was born on March 26, 1874 in San Francisco, California. Both of Frost’s parents, Isabelle Moodie and William Prescott Frost Jr. were teachers, who introduced Robert to literature at a young age. When Frost was eleven years old, his father died. His mother had to resume her teaching in order to support Frost and his younger sister, Jeanie. Robert Frost attended Lawrence High School, where he graduated as Co-Valedictorian. While in school, Frost really began to enjoy writing poems, and his first poem, “La Noche Triste” (1890), was published in his school’s paper. In 1892, Frost enrolled in Dartmouth, an Ivy League College in Hanover, New Hampshire. He left the college before the end of the term. In 1894, Frost’s first poem, “My Butterfly”, was published by the New York Magazine, Independent. On December 19, 1895, Robert Frost married his high school sweetheart, Elinor White. They had six daughters (Lesley, Irma, Marjorie, and Elinor Bettina) and two sons (Elliott and Carol). (online-literature.com)======

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From 1897 to 1899, Frost enrolled in Harvard University but left due to an illness. In 1900, while living in New Hampshire, Frost’s son Elliot died of cholera and his mother died from cancer. In 1907, Frost’s daughter, Elinor Bettina died one day after her birth. During this tragic time, Frost felt much guilt and pain which set the tone for many of his poems (online-literature). In 1913 Frost’s first collection of poetry, A Boy’s Will, was finally published. His second collection of poetry, North of Boston, included the popular poem, “The Mending Wall” (1913). Frost’s Mountain Interval was published in 1916, which included his famous poem, “The Road Not Taken”. In 1920, Frost wrote his fourth collection of poetry, New Hampshire, which won him his first Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1923. In 1929, his sister Jeanie passed away (frostfriends.org).======

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Robert Frost received his second Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1931 for Collected Poems (1930). His daughter, Marjorie died in 1934, following childbirth. Frost received his third Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1937 for his collection, A Further Range (1936). In 1938, Frost’s wife, Elinor, died from a heart attack and two years later his son Carol died by committing suicide. Robert received his fourth and last Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1943 for A Witness Tree (1942) (frostfriends.org).======

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On January 20, 1961, at the Inauguration of President John F. Kennedy, Robert Frost had the opportunity to recite his poem, “The Gift Outright” (1942). Robert Lee Frost died on January 29, 1963 in Boston, Massachusetts at the age of 88 (online-literature).======

Works Cited: Loeffelholz, Mary. "Robert Frost." Ed. Nina Baym. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. 7th ed. Vol. D. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2007. 1388- 389.

Merriman, C. D. "Robert Frost - Biography and Works." The Literature Network: Online Classic Literature, Poems, and Quotes. Essays & Summaries. Web. 07 Nov. 2010. .

Pacific, By The. "Robert Frost - Books, Biography, Quotes - Read Print." Online Books, Poems, Short Stories - Read Print Library. Web. 12 Nov. 2010. .

"Frost Chronology." The Friends of Robert Frost. Ed. Lawrence Thompson. Web. 08 Nov. 2010. [].

Robert Frost’s poem “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” is about a man’s pause in his journey to observe his surroundings. He stops on somebody’s propriety to take in all that he see’s before moving on his unknown quest. “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” leads the reader on an ambiguous whirlwind of visuals as one reads of one man’s brush with nature. The poem is written from the perspective of the poet who asks “whose woods these are I think I know. His house is in the village though;” (Frost 1403). The reader knows at this point that the central character is on someone else propriety. Frost does not go into any expanse of details into where the central figure is or why he is there. With this vague opening the reader is to believe that the main character is passing by but to where or why we do not know. There are a few specifics within the poem that describes the environment for the reader. “Between the woods and frozen lake, The darkest evening of the year.” (1403). This stanza lets us know that the poem takes place in the dead of winter at night. It sets the mood of the poem as dark and depressing, with the central character and his horse being the only living creatures in sight. Frost lets it be obvious to the reader that the man is alone in his journey. The purpose of the man’s journey is the ultimate question that Frost leaves unanswered. He ends his poem with the line “I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep”. Frost leads us to believe that whatever his final destination is, he is reluctant to get there. The ambiguity of the final stanza can be open for vast amounts of interpretation, which is the goal of the Author. The reader of the poem has the chose to what his journey is what his journey is whether it is an allegory for the end of life or the beginning, it depends on ones frame of mind at the time of reading. Works Cited Reesman, Jeanne Campbell and Arnold Krupat, eds. __The Norton Anthology of American__ __Literature.__ New York 2007.

The word 'perhaps' in line seven of //The Road Not Taken// illustrates doubt in the speaker’s choice of which road to take. Frost writes, “Then took the other, as just as fair, / And having perhaps the better claim/ Because it was grassy and wanted wear” (6-8). Frost’s use of the word perhaps in line seven shows ambiguity of the speaker’s decision on which road to take. The fact that the speaker is questioning any difference between the two roads is shown by Frost’s word choice. Eliminating that single word would change the entire meaning of those three lines. Without ‘perhaps’ the reader would be lead to believe that the roads are actually different when they really are not. Frost’s diction creates fragmentation throughout the entire poem. The word ‘about’ in line ten of //The Road Not Taken// shows ambiguity in the speaker’s view of each road. Frost writes, “Though as for that, the passing there, / Had worn them really about the same” (9-10). The word ‘about’ in line ten signifies uncertainty, again, in the speaker’s consideration of each path. This shows how Frost is emphasizing ambiguity throughout the whole poem. His word choice enables him to manipulate the reader’s understanding of the poem. Without words that point out doubt or uncertainty, the poem becomes a shallow read without any meaning behind it. Frost uses a pause at the end of line nineteen to emphasize hesitation. Frost writes, “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—/ I took the one less traveled by, / And that has made all the difference” (18-20). The pause at the end of line nineteen emphasizes hesitation which adds to the theme of doubt throughout the poem. The speaker is defending his choice of which road to take even though they are no different from each other. This act of the speaker looking into the future and predicting what he is going to say demonstrates the tenet of modernism known as the restoration of meaning. Frost is establishing the meaning to the entire poem in a single pause. The entire poem leading up to the last few lines is completely ambiguous, leading the reader into doubt about how the roads really are, but a cohesive meaning is found at the end. Even though the roads are no different, the speaker feels the need to defend his choice of the second road even before he has gone down it.

Works Cited

Frost, Robert. “The Road Not Taken.” //The Norton Anthology: American Literature.// Ed. Julie Reidhead. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2007. 1399-1400. Print. //Robert Frost – Poems.org.// Academy of American Poets. Web. 14 November 2010.

In Robert Frost’s poem “Birches,” Frost conveys much fragmentation through the speaker’s tone. The speaker shows much uncertainty when he uses the phrase “I like to think” in line three. He is stating his ambiguous opinion about what he would rather think than what is actual fact. Frost writes, “I like to think some boy’s been swinging them” (Frost 3). This phrase is an opinion based on the fantasy of going back to his childhood to ride birch tree branches and escaping his troubles. Although the speaker knows that the branches are bowed because of the weight of snow on them, he prefers to think they are bowed because of a happier occurrence -- a child playing on them. If he had left off the phrase “I like to think“, then he would actually be saying that the trees were bowed because of a child swinging on them rather than the heaviness of the snow weighing them down. There would be no uncertainty as to why the branches are bowed if Frost had left off this phrase, and the meaning would be clear to the reader. The phrase “I don’t know where it’s likely to go better.” (Frost 53), shows much ambiguity in the speakers tone because he is not sure if there is another place where life could be or get any better, because he himself is unsure of his fate. By the speaker stating, “May no fate willfully misunderstand me” (Frost 50), shows that the speaker believes that there is some power of fate out there, but he is unclear of who or what power of fate he is speaking of. This idea shows uncertainty regarding his life and death, or if there is an afterlife at all. If the speaker was talking of a direct God or a direct power in this poem, there would be no doubt of his afterlife, and the question of his outcome would be clear to him. In this section of the poem, Frost displays much uncertainty and doubt about the speaker‘s future because there is no underlined statement of what the speaker really believes about the afterlife. Although the poem has much uncertainty in its meaning, when you read the final paragraph, you see that the speaker is stating that one of the best things in life is to be as a young carefree child. The last line of this poem is also ambiguous, although the speaker seems to be saying that he made the right decisions in life. The speaker states, “One could do worse than be a swinger of birches” (Frost 59). This single phrase conveys that the speaker has made good decisions in life because he correlates swinging in branches, as he did as a child, as a wonderful means of escaping the cares of this life. He states that one could do far worse than being a swinger of branches, which means that his memories of swinging on branches helps him deal with trials in his life instead of turning to other vices that could be far worse. Throughout this poem, Frost uses ambiguity as a means to make the reader think and use his own imagination as to possible conclusions the speaker may make.

Works Cited Frost, Robert. "Birches." The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Ed. Nina Baym. 7th ed. Vol. D. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2007. 1400-1402.

Robert Frost’s “Mending Wall”  In “Mending Wall”, the speaker of the poem has a neighbor and the two of them have a stone wall separating their property (1-4 Frost). After every hunting season, the both of them have to walk along the wall and make repairs to it because hunters knock over the stones chasing after game, this illustrates an example of fragmentation because the pieces of the wall have been separated and the two of them work to bring it together (11-15 Frost). When the speaker mends the wall, he begins to question why the wall needs to be there in the first place and much like bringing the pieces of the wall back together; the speaker is trying to exemplify some kind of meaning for the wall (21-23 Frost). Walls would only need to be raised if there were cattle that needed to be herded, but both the speaker and the neighbor only have trees on their property (24-26, 31 Frost). The neighbor only replies to any inquiries about why the wall is needed with repeating the old saying, “Good fences make good neighbors,” which shows to the speaker that the neighbor only has a vague and fragmented understanding of the purpose of the wall (27-35 Frost). The only answer the speaker could think of for the neighbor to need this wall is elves, with that the speaker means to compare the neighbor’s almost superstitious reason for the wall to a reason that involves having the wall there to defend from a mythical creature like an elf (36-40 Frost). The speaker makes the comment of moving in darkness and makes the distinction that the darkness is not confined to the shade under the trees to epitomize that the neighbor’s superstitious need for the wall is comparable to that of a dark age mystical tradition (41-42 Frost). The speaker finishes his argument with a conclusion that the neighbor will not try to understand it from the speaker’s perspective and will only stubbornly continue to repeat his favorite saying, that which the speaker deduces might be a hand-me-down from his family by mentioning the neighbor’s father (43-45 Frost). Conclusion Robert Frost’s poems are as dense in content as his life was dense in sadness. Frost lived his life fragmented and surely he wondered if it had meaning. Any endeavor Frost would become a part of, whether it was a career, an education, or his family, would fall apart like a scattered jigsaw puzzle atop a disheveled tabletop. The majority of Frost’s love ones passed away long before he did. Frost had trouble keeping his scholastic career from shambles, due to sickness and disinterest. A jack of all trades, Frost worked mostly odd jobs. There is an obvious correlation with those aspects of his life and Frost’s poetry. Each one of the poems discussed had common themes like fragmentation, confusion, ambiguity, and an attempt to restore meaning to the unknown. A wise surmise would be that those themes were Frost’s personal life bleeding through the only thing that Frost could have felt he had any true control over: his art. Works Cited Frost, Robert. "Mending Wall." The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Ed. Nina Baym. 7th ed. Vol. D. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2007. 1390.