ROBERT LEE FROST,
the most quoted and
quotable poet in American literature.
Who in America is not familiar with:
“….and miles to go before I sleep”
“The Road Not
Taken”
the poem, “The
Gift Outright” read at JFK’s inauguration
“Good
fences make good neighbors”?
If not recognized, that person must be living on another
planet.
Frost’s personal life was plagued with grief
and loss; an alcoholic father, mental illness in the immediate family, deaths
of several young children. He, his wife and mother all suffered from depressive
episodes. His epitaph: “I had a lover’s quarrel with the world”.
Most of his poetry
stays clear of religion and politics. He writes of men alone in an indifferent
universe. Yet, he uses metaphors of nature to illustrate man’s condition. With
much ironic humor and conversational language describing ordinary situations
such as walking along a country road and rural life settings, complex social
and philosophical themes are explored.
I believe he did
not drink alcohol, but did write a poem about cider, “In A Glass of Cider”. Therefore, I toast him with both a glass of
cider and clear, cool water drawn
from a well on a New England farm.
Elliot O. Lipchik
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