From 1897 to 1899 Frost studied at Harvard, but left without
receiving a degree. He moved to Derry, New Hampshire, working
there as a cobbler, farmer, and teacher at Pinkerton Academy and at
the state normal school in Plymouth. When he sent his poems to The
Atlantic Monthly they were returned with this note: "We regret that
The Atlantic has no place for your vigorous verse."
In 1912 Frost sold his farm and took his wife and four young children
to England. There he published his first collection of poems, A BOY'S
WILL, at the age of 39. It was followed by NORTH BOSTON (1914),
which gained international reputation. The collection contains some
of Frost's best-known poems: 'Mending Wall,' 'The Death of the
Hired Man,' 'Home Burial,' 'A Servant to Servants,' 'After ApplePicking,' and 'The Wood-Pile.' The poems, written with blank verse or
looser free verse of dialogue, were drawn from his own life,
recurrent losses, everyday tasks, and his loneliness.
While in England Frost was deeply influenced by such English poets
as Rupert Brooke. After returning to the US in 1915 with his family,
Frost bought a farm near Franconia, New Hampshire. When the
editor of The Atlantic Monthly asked for poems, he gave the very
ones that had previously been rejected. Frost taught later at Amherst
College (1916-38) and Michigan universities. In 1916 he was made a
member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters. On the same
year appeared his third collection of verse, MOUNTAIN INTERVAL,
which contained such poems as 'The Road Not Taken,' 'The Oven
Bird,' 'Birches,' and 'The Hill Wife.' Frost's poems show deep
appreciation of natural world and sensibility about the human
aspirations. His images - woods, stars, houses, brooks, - are usually
taken from everyday life. With his down-to-earth approach to his
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