Skip to main content

How did Robert Frost's life influence his poetry?

The span of poet Robert Frost's life (1874–1963) affected his poetry, as both his life and the forms of his poetry embraced both 19th century and more modern 20th century styles. For example, while maintaining the traditional meters of poetry, he embraced a more modern, direct style. He used the traditional meter of poetry, not free verse as modern poets did, and he also kept to traditional line lengths. However, like modern poets, he included dialogue in his poems, in works such as "The Housekeeper," in New England vernacular language. 


In addition, his works came out of the years he spent living in New England, where his family returned in 1884. His ancestors were New Englanders, and he incorporated a sense of the land, particularly the countryside of New Hampshire, into his works. From 1915 on, he spent some of his time at a farm in Franconia, New Hampshire. In poems such as "After Apple-Picking," he is able to endow nature with a sense of wonder and the sublime, as the apples he picked become part of a dream in which "magnified apples appear and disappear." 


Frost also experienced tremendous personal loss. His father died when he was 11, and several of his children died young, as did his wife. In addition, mental illness ran in his family, and he suffered from depression. This sense of loss, along with melancholy, surfaces in his works, such as "Reluctance," in which he speaks of dead leaves scattered on the ground and the end of the season. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Is there a word/phrase for "unperformant"?

As a software engineer, I need to sometimes describe a piece of code as something that lacks performance or was not written with performance in mind. Example: This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. Based on my Google searches, this isn't a real word. What is the correct way to describe this? EDIT My usage of "performance" here is in regard to speed and efficiency. For example, the better the performance of code the faster the application runs. My question and example target the negative definition, which is in reference to preventing inefficient coding practices. Answer This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. In my opinion, reads more easily as: This coding style leads to unmaintainable and poorly performing code. The key to well-written documentation and reports lies in ease of understanding. Adding poorly understood words such as performant decreases that ease. In addressing the use of such a poorly ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Is 'efficate' a word in English?

I routinely hear the word "efficate" being used. For example, "The most powerful way to efficate a change in the system is to participate." I do not find entries for this word in common English dictionaries, but I do not have an unabridged dictionary. I have checked the OED (I'm not sure if it is considered unabridged), and it has no entry for "efficate". It does have an entry for "efficiate", which is used in the same way. Wordnik has an entry for "efficate" with over 1800 hits, thus providing some evidence for the frequency of use. I personally like the word and find the meaning very clear and obvious when others use it. If it's not currently an "officially documented" word, perhaps its continued use will result in it being better documented.
Post a Comment
Read more