Robert Frost (March 24, 1874-January 29, 1963) was an American poet and teacher. He had been a farmer in New Hampshire; taught at Amherst College; was poet in residence at the University of Michigan; and professor of poetry at Harvard University, 1936. He won the Pulitzer prize for poetry, 1924, 1931, 1937, and 1943; was named consultant in poetry for the Library of Congress; and received the Congressional Gold Medal in 1960. His works include: A Boy's Will, 1913; North of Boston, 1914; Mountain Interval, 1916; West-Running Brook, 1928; A Way Out, 1929; From Snow to Snow, 1936; A Witness Tree, 1942; Masque of Reason, 1945; Steeple Bush, 1947; Complete Poems, 1949; and The Road Not Taken, 1951.
In a comment broadcast on WQED, Pittsburgh, quoted in Collier's, April 27, 1956, Robert Frost stated:
<Ultimately, this is what you go before God for: You've had bad luck and good luck and all you really want in the end is mercy.> 1874RF001
In "The Road Not Taken" (1951), Robert Frost wrote:
<Two roads diverged in a yellow wood
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same.
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.> 1874RF002
In the poem, "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening," Robert Frost wrote:
<Whose woods these are I think I know
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He give his harness bell a shake
To ask if there is some mistake,
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.> 1874RF003
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American Quotations by William J. Federer, 2024, All Rights Reserved, Permission granted to use with acknowledgement.
Endnotes:
1874RF001. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Robert Frost, April 27, 1956, comment broadcast on WQED, Pittsburgh, quoted in Collier's. James Beasely Simpson, Best Quotes of '54, '55, '56 (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1957), p. 352.
1874RF002. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Robert Frost, 1951, The Road Not Taken.
1874RF003. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Robert Frost, in the poem, "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening."