Robert Frost, (1874-1963) ©1954, Clara Sipprell

Robert Frost, (1874-1963) ©1954, Clara Sipprell

The First Inaugural Poem was “The Gift Outright” - 20 January 1961 ©UPI via NYT

The First Inaugural Poem was “The Gift Outright” - 20 January 1961 ©UPI via NYT

Robert Frost was born in San Francisco, but his family moved to Lawrence, Massachusetts, in 1884 following his father’s death. The move was actually a return, for Frost’s ancestors were originally New Englanders, and Frost became famous for his poetry’s engagement with New England locales, identities, and themes. Frost graduated from Lawrence High School, in 1892, as class poet (he also shared the honor of co-valedictorian with his wife-to-be Elinor White), and two years later, the New York Independent accepted his poem entitled “My Butterfly,” launching his status as a professional poet with a check for $15.00. Frost's first book was published around the age of 40, but he would go on to win a record four Pulitzer Prizes and become the most famous poet of his time, before his death at the age of 88.

Taken from: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/robert-frost


Excerpt from “Birches”

So was I once myself a swinger of birches.
And so I dream of going back to be.
It’s when I’m weary of considerations,
And life is too much like a pathless wood
Where your face burns and tickles with the cobwebs


"The Gift Outright"

(The First Inaugural Poem)

The land was ours before we were the land’s 
She was our land more than a hundred years 
Before we were her people. She was ours 
In Massachusetts, in Virginia, 
But we were England’s, still colonials, 
Possessing what we still were unpossessed by, 
Possessed by what we now no more possessed. 
Something we were withholding made us weak 
Until we found out that it was ourselves 
We were withholding from our land of living, 
And forthwith found salvation in surrender. 
Such as we were we gave ourselves outright 
(The deed of gift was many deeds of war) 
To the land vaguely realizing westward, 
But still unstoried, artless, unenhanced, 
Such as she was, such as she will become.

"Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening", written in 1922, published in 1923 in his New Hampshire volume. Rhyme scheme: AABA BBCB CCDC DDDD Meter: iambic tetrameter