Frost
January’s Poet of the Month is New England’s own Robert Frost. Few people know that Frost actually hails from the bay area in San Francisco. His family moved east when he was a child and his love for the natural landscape became a crucial element to his poetry. Frost was educated at Dartmouth University and held many jobs before finally settling in as one of America’s premier poets. Frost wrote for a New York newspaper called, “The Independent” (which no longer exists) and even tried his hand at teaching of which he thought that he had a true gift.
It was Frost’s ability to capture the imagery and spiritual feel of the New England countryside that attracted readers. He had the uncanny ability to bottle the sights, sounds, and even smells of the area as he does in his most well known poem, “The Road Not Taken” (1915) - for more information on Frost please check the Poet of the Month- January link for a video salute to Frost
The Road Not Taken
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.
