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What impact has Robert Frost made on society?
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Robert Frost's impact on society is profound, as he is one of the few twentieth-century poets whose work resonates deeply within the American consciousness. His poetry, known for its relatable themes and universal meanings, is widely taught in schools, influencing generations of readers. Frost's ability to blend traditional and modern poetic styles with colloquial language made his work accessible. His influence is recognized through his four Pulitzer Prizes and his memorable performance at JFK's inauguration.
Frost is probably the only twentieth-century poet whose work has actually entered the collective American consciousness. This can be seen in the fact that even people who are not English majors or literary specialists can often quote his work extemporaneously—or are at least very familiar with it.
It's partly the arresting nature of his wording, as in lines like "Something there is that doesn't love a wall" and "Warren? she questioned / Dead, was all he answered," that accounts for this. Additionally, the fact that his verse grows out of ordinary situations but has universal meaning is what makes it understandable and relevant. The best example is probably "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening."
Two anecdotal facts are also worth mentioning.
First, though I was very young at the time, one of my earliest memories is of Frost reading his poetry at John F. Kennedy's inauguration in January, 1961....
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In the freezing cold of that day, Frost presented a heroic image, in spite of (or perhaps, conversely,because of) the difficulty he had reading his own words, after which he recited from memory.
Second, the use, in a television commercial about cancer treatment, of a few of his most famous lines—
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep
—is incredibly moving and poignant. There are few poets from any time—apart from the very greatest like Shakespeare, Shelley, and Tennyson, for instance—whose work, when quoted, has a similar power.
Perhaps the best way to assess the impact of Robert Frost is to look at his
reception – in other words, the ways in which his poetry has circulated and the
types of audience it has attained. Roland Barthes famously said “literature is
what gets taught”, meaning that the literary canon and the works that most
influence the culture of a given society are those taught in schools. By that
measure, Frost’s poetry has a significant impact on North American society, as
his works are standard in secondary and tertiary curricula, and on standardized
exams (AP literature, GRE literature).
A few other indications of his broad influence are that his four Pulitzer
prizes are the largest number awarded to any individual poet in the history of
the prize. He also wrote a poem for John F. Kennedy’s inauguration, which he
performed from memory after stumbling and dropping his copy.
What impact did Robert Frost have on American literature?
Few poets in American history have had the influence of Frost. Though never having graduated from college, he received over 40 honorary degrees and was awarded four Pulitzer Prizes. There are several factors which distinguished Frost from his predecessors and contemporaries. Firstly, his poetry was concerned with issues the common man addressed on a daily basis as well as philosophical and political issues. For example his work "The Road Not Taken" addresses issues of fear, indecision and acceptance of one's decisions.
One other important aspect of poems and other works by Frost is his ability to combine the historic styles of the past with the more modern styles emerging in the early 20th century; he was able to use colloquial terms and passages in his poetry with little regard to the meter. In short, the works of Frost are attractive to the common man because these works are concerned with the common man, using realistic backdrops and the vocabulary of the common man.