Robert Frost - A Life (Jay Parini, 1999)

I continue reading biographies of artists in the hope that it might give some glimpse of the "creative process." I don't know that that's happening at all, but I am enjoying the bios (Goethe, Lizst, Tolstoy, Goya, now Frost).

Didn't know Frost actually grew up in San Francisco - he didn't get to New England until age 11 or 12 or whatever. The author comments that this might have helped him become such an effective observer of New England - not having grown up there, he didn't take for granted the look of the place, its folkways, its speech patterns, etc.

Didn't know that he lived in England for a few years, and that that interlude was a catalyst for putting his poetry into publication and bringing him into the public eye. Came back just as WWI was breaking out.

Interesting stories of his parents - the father was a hard living newpaperman, the mother a saintly figure. Frost was quite interested in Darwin's work, and loved being out in nature on long hikes, "botanizing."

Frost learned by reading; interesting that he was such a fan of Prescott's work on the conquest of Mexico - this author says that he wrote his first submitted poem on this. He didn't much care about being in college. He actually did try farming in a number of settings, after a fashion. Dramatic love affair with his bride-to-be; children in a what seemed to be a pretty undisciplined household; mental illness with children.

Also spent many years teaching, and then many years as a famed public figure doing minimal work for excellent pay at various colleges. Also was perhaps the first poet to do widely attended public lectures. It seems that he developed a certain on-stage persona, and really enjoyed playing it.

Also interesting - and seems contemporary - he was out of step with many of the university types because of his opposition to the New Deal - expressed belief instead in limited government and individual freedom and responsibility. This was particularly interesting to me because of the current intensified debate along these lines.

And then the poetry - no need to list favorites here, it would be long. Just re-read "Death of the Hired Man" the other day. I just really don't get how poets do it, but wish I had a better feel for this. Basically incredible to think about how much is packed into each line, once somebody breaks it down for me.