When thoughts find the right words

“Half the world is composed of people who have something to say and can't, and the other half who have nothing to say and keep on saying it.” – Robert Frost
 

Born on this date in 1874, Frost started his writing career in England before catching on in America.   His realistic depictions of rural life, usually set in New England, coupled with his command of American colloquial speech and language easily understood by the average reader, made him one of our all-time most popular writers. 

But it wasn’t just his ability to write in the language of the common man, it was also his ability to use that language to examine complex social and philosophical themes that made him a writing phenomenon.   Frequently honored during his long lifetime (he died in 1963 at age 88), Frost won 4 Pulitzer Prizes for Poetry, was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal for his life’s work, and was named Poet Laureate of Vermont for his final two years of life.  During that time he also was asked by President John F. Kennedy to create and read a poem for his 1961 inauguration. 

Born and raised in San Francisco,        Frost moved East to attend Dartmouth, later attended Harvard, and became a farmer in New Hampshire while honing and expanding his storied writing career.  There are too many of Frost’s poems to cite here, but his “Road Less Traveled By” and “Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening” are two of the most beautiful and poignant you ever might read. 

Frost once noted that “Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought, and the thought has found words.” I can only say:  Find a book of words by Frost and sit down in a quiet corner somewhere to read them.  You will be transported to his world in an instant and love each and every moment. 

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