Graham Jarvis
Research Paper
English 1020
Tri-C
Mr. Adam Brodsky
12/17/2007

Robert Frost’s influences that made him the honored American poet of the 20th century

Robert Frost’s influences that made him the honored American poet of the 20th century

Robert Frost was the most widely admired and highly honored American poet of the 20th century. His occurrences throughout his life inspired his poetry, most of which were inspired by his own life story. For that reason many of Frost’s poems have the same or similar topics to what Frost was dealing with in his life. Robert Frost’s main influences for his poetry came from his experiences in life. He used his relationships, nature, and the religion that surrounded him to create the poems that have made him the recognized poet that he is today. Robert Frost had many important relationships throughout his life that affected many of his choices as well as his poetry. In several of his relationships he suffered devastating losses including the death of his father, his mother, his sister, two of his children, and his wife. The loss of each of these important relationships influenced his career and affected poetry in a different way. Robert Frost’s relationship with his father, William Frost Jr., impacted Frost’s life which in result affected his poetry. Frost’s father was a journalist and a teacher that moved his family out to San Francisco to earn his fortune as a journalist (Poirier and Richardson). His dreams of becoming wealthy didn’t come true and he began gambling and drinking excessively. During this time Robert endured the sadness and abuse of an alcoholic father. Frost’s father died from tuberculosis when he was eleven, leaving his family a huge financial burden (Poirier and Richardson). The death of Frost’s