Published: 6/29/2018 1:18:04 PM
The Granite State’s most celebrated poet, Robert Frost, wrote works that evoked the beauty of the New England landscape, using spare language and poignant imagery that emphasized Yankees’ resilience and reverence for traditions but also the bleakness and isolation that characterized rural life in northern New England.
Despite having New Hampshire ancestry, Frost was originally from the American West. After a brief stint at Dartmouth College, he spent nearly a decade working on his grandfather’s farm in Derry, writing many of the poems for which he would later become famous. He eventually bought a farm in Franconia, which became known as The Frost Place.
His agricultural efforts met with little success, but he taught English and American literature at preparatory schools and colleges throughout New England. Over the course of his life, he received four Pulitzer Prizes, the first being for New Hampshire, which included one of his more well-known pieces, “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” although that particular piece, ironically, was written when he was in Vermont.
N.H. Historical Society