Robert Frost (1874–1963) was born in San Francisco and grew up in Lawrence, Massachusetts, where, after his father’s death, Frost’s mother supported the family as a schoolteacher. Frost attended Dartmouth and then Harvard but did not graduate from either. In 1912, Frost moved to England with his wife and four young children. There, at the age of 39, he published his first collection of poems, A Boy’s Will, and two years later published North of Boston, which was acclaimed in England and later, thanks in part to a glowing review by the poet Amy Lowell, in the United States as well. Frost returned to the U.S. in 1915 with his family and bought a farm near Franconia, New Hampshire, and five years later moved to a farm in South Shaftsbury, Vermont, near Middlebury College. His wife died in 1938, two of his daughters suffered mental breakdowns, and his son committed suicide. He won the Pulitzer Prize four times and was made poetry consultant for the Library of Congress in 1958, a position which was the equivalent of England’s poet laureateship. His most famous reading was at the presidential inauguration of John Kennedy. In the final two decades of his life, Frost was America’s most famous and best loved living poet. “Reluctance” is the final poem in Frost’s first collection, A Boy’s Will.
Robert Frost (1874–1963) was born in San Francisco and grew up in Lawrence, Massachusetts, where, after his father’s death, Frost’s mother supported the family as a schoolteacher. Frost attended Dartmouth and then Harvard but did not graduate from either. In 1912, Frost moved to England with his wife and four young children. There, at the age of 39, he published his first collection of poems, A Boy’s Will, and two years later published North of Boston, which was acclaimed in England and later, thanks in part to a glowing review by the poet Amy Lowell, in the United States as well. Frost returned to the U.S. in 1915 with his family and bought a farm near Franconia, New Hampshire, and five years later moved to a farm in South Shaftsbury, Vermont, near Middlebury College. His wife died in 1938, two of his daughters suffered mental breakdowns, and his son committed suicide. He won the Pulitzer Prize four times and was made poetry consultant for the Library of Congress in 1958, a position which was the equivalent of England’s poet laureateship. His most famous reading was at the presidential inauguration of John Kennedy. In the final two decades of his life, Frost was America’s most famous and best loved living poet. “Reluctance” is the final poem in Frost’s first collection, A Boy’s Will.