Robert Frost is one of the greatest poets of America in 19th century. To American and English readers, Frost is already a classic. He was born in March 26, 1874. Frost loved the earth and its ways. He had his roots deep in the rocky Vermont countryside. He has a deep love for natural things, for things of field and pasture, for birds, flower, weed and tree. So Robert Frost is called poet of nature. However his response to nature is entirely realistic. Nature is neither a source of romantic feelings and sentiments for him nor a symbol of evil it is in some of Hardy’s poems and Novels.
There is no ‘nature mysticism’ in Frost. Frost is
a ‘naturalistic’ poet. His central subject is humanity. Frost had three special
qualities. He was a humanist. He was a learned man, well versed in literature,
history and philosophy and he was a vigorous and patriotic individualist. In
addition to that, his work shows a deep-rooted delight in nature. Frost is a
metaphysical poet in the tradition of Emerson and Emily Dickinson. Frost
belongs to the movement of naturalistic revolt. There is a strong resemblance
between Frost and Wordsworth. Frost’s blank verse narratives and dialogues are
closer to the exact life of the folk like Wordsworth’s poem Michael.
In his poems Frost speaks directly to objects of nature, as Wordsworth does.
Frost’s poetry is classical, realistic and conversational in idiom.
Nature is certainly an important subject in
Frost’s poetry. But he is not a nature poet in the tradition of Wordsworth.
Frost’s best poetry is concerned with the drama of man in nature. Frost said in
1952: “I guess I am not a nature poet. I have written only two poems without a
human being in them.” Robert Frost was above all a poet of nature. In his early
works, we find the sensuous pleasure which nature has given to most nature
poets. Frost treats nature as both a menace and a comfort. Nature is the mother
and home of man. According to Robert Frost, divorced from nature the human life
is very dull and meaningless.
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