Though Robert Frost has been gone for more than half a century—he died on January 29, 1963—his poems remain timeless, inspiring everyone from John F. Kennedy to George R.R. Martin. Though most people know him for “The Road Not Taken,” there’s more to Frost than that—and according to him, we’ve all been interpreting that poem wrong anyway.
1. HE WAS NAMED AFTER CONFEDERATE GENERAL ROBERT E. LEE.
Frost’s father, Will, ran away from home at a young age in an attempt to join the Confederate Army. Though he was caught and returned to his parents, the elder Frost never forgot his war heroes, and eventually named his son after one of them.
2. HE WAS A COLLEGE DROPOUT—TWICE OVER.
First, Frost attended Dartmouth for just two months, later explaining, “I wasn’t suited for that place.” He got his second chance in 1897 at Harvard, but only made it two years before dropping out to support his wife and child. “They could not make a student of me here, but they gave it their best,” Frost later said. Still, he managed to get a degree anyway—Harvard bestowed honorary honors upon him in 1937.
3. HE MADE $15 FROM THE SALE OF HIS FIRST POEM.
Published by the New York Independent in 1894, when Frost was 20, Frost’s first paid piece was called “My Butterfly: An Elegy.” The payday for the poem was the equivalent of $422 today; the sum was worth more than two weeks’ salary at his teaching job.
4. EZRA POUND HELPED FROST GAIN A FOLLOWING.
As an established poet with a following, Ezra Pound exposed Frost to a much larger audience by writing a rave review of his first poetry collection, A Boy’s Will. Frost considered it his most important early review. Pound might have reviewed the book sooner had it not been for a bit of a misunderstanding—he once gave Frost a calling card with his hours listed as “At home, sometimes.” Frost “didn’t feel that that was a very warm invitation,” and avoided visiting. When he finally stopped in, Pound was put out that he hadn’t come sooner. He wrote his review of Frost’s poetry the same day.
5. HE BELIEVED “THE ROAD NOT TAKEN” WAS VERY MISUNDERSTOOD.
“The Road Not Taken” is often read at high school and college graduations as a reminder to forge new paths, but Frost never intended it…
The post 11 Facts About Robert Frost appeared first on FeedBox.