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Robert Frost (1874–1963) was—and indeed remains—an immensely popular American poet. Frost rose to prominence in the early twentieth century, when experimental poetics were all the rage. By contrast, Frost’s poetry centered folksy speakers and colloquial diction, and it focused thematically on the regional culture and landscape of New England. Though remembered as a New England poet, Frost was born in San Francisco and moved with his family to Massachusetts at the age of eleven. Frost attended college sporadically, but the strain of a growing family made it necessary for him to drop out. He and his wife moved to the country and rented a farm. Frost wrote all the while, but he found it difficult to break through on the American scene. In 1912, he moved his family to England and remained there for three years. There he met many luminaries, including Ezra Pound, who championed his work and enabled the publication of his second book, North of Boston, in 1914. Thereafter, his approachable yet finely crafted verse earned him a popular readership as well as a record-breaking four Pulitzer Prizes. He reached the height of his fame in 1961, when he delivered a poem during John F. Kennedy’s presidential inauguration.

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