The Write Life
A Road Less Traveled with Robert Frost
Photo Courtesy of GettyImages.com
Hey Readers!
The results are in! Robert Frost won by a landslide for this month’s The Write Life at A Busy Lady, and I couldn’t be more excited. Frost is by far my favorite poet. Thank you to all of you who voted. It seems we are all on the same page as I was secretly hoping Frost would win ;)
Each historic writer adventure I’ve taken so far has left a lasting imprint on my heart, and Frost is no exception. The thing about visiting Frost’s home(s) is that it is not a one trip deal. Five Frost home locations exist, but the public can only access three of them: the Robert Frost Farm in Derry, NH, Frost Place in Franconia NH, and the Robert Frost Stone House Museum in Shaftsbury, Vermont - the town where he is also buried. For this Busy Lady post, I’ll share my experience at the Robert Frost Stone House Museum.
Upon arriving at the Robert Frost Stone House Museum, the first thing that resonated with me was how peaceful it was. Also, since I’ve been to his Derry, NH farm twice, I wanted to familiarize myself with the time of Frost’s life when he lived in Shaftsbury. Where was he in his career at that moment? What was his daily life like? After all, this is the place he wrote the famous Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.
Above Photos Courtesy of my iPhone
Here’s what I learned:
1. Robert Frost’s mother, Isabelle Frost, often read to her children from the Bible and shared stories from her homeland of Scotland. Apparently, until the age of 14, he never read a book all the way through by himself, as his mother often read to him.
2. Child Robert Frost also wasn’t a fan of school. He often complained about stomachaches and didn’t want to go. He spent some time homeschooled, but when he learned he could play sports in high school, he decided he'd give going in person to school a try. It was there that he became an avid reader, honor student, editor of his high school newspaper, started writing poetry, and fell in love with his future wife, Elinor White.
3. Elinor and Robert graduated in 1892 as co-valedictorians of their class. Both loved poetry. After high school, they were secretly engaged, planning to marry after college graduation. Things took a turn when Robert left college before the first semester and asked Elinor to marry him. Elinor made him wait though three years while she finished school. The two high school sweethearts finally wed in 1895. It’s said that Elinor was his muse. They were married over 40 years until her death in 1938. Her death was one of many tragedies for Frost.
Above photo taken courtesy of my iPhone
4. Elinor and Robert had six children, however, not all survived. The death of their first son, who died of infant cholera at the age of 3 ½, is likely tied to his poem “Home Burial.” Their surviving children were born between 1899-1905. They mostly grew up on the Derry Farm in NH until Frost sold it. Which brings us to #5.
5. There’s a fabulous interview of Frost that was done around 1952, which I watched on You Tube after my visit. In it, he explains how, while he was never “discouraged” by American publishers, he was never “encouraged” either. So, he took a chance, sold his Derry NH home, and moved the entire family to England. He planned to write a novel to get the family back on its feet. When he got there, he spread his poems out on the floor and realized he had enough for a book. A publisher agreed and quickly published his first poetry collection, A Boy’s Will. Shortly after, he moved back to America in 1915 because the family was home sick. They set out to find a home where they could “live cheap and get Yankier and Yankier.” They settled on a home in Franconia, NH, where they lived before coming to Vermont.
6. It wasn’t until 1920 that they came to the Stone House in Vermont. By this time, one of his children was working in New York, another had finished high school and wanted to farm. His two youngest were finishing up high school. Frost generously deeded the house to his son, and daughter-in-law, with the caveat that the entire Frost family could continue living there while the last two children completed high school.
7. As I noted, the Stone House is the famous house where Frost wrote Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening. I always imagined he wrote this in the middle of a New England winter, however, that’s not true! He really did experience the moment he wrote about, during the winter, but didn’t write the poem right away. The image of that moment stayed with him, and he finally jotted the poem down in June in his dining room. Here’s a pick of the space.
Above photo taken courtesy of my iPhone
8. Something that is really resonating at the Stone House is that they have both a record player that plays Frost reading his poetry on loop in the dining room, and a brand new Virtual Reality Exhibit where you can experience Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening with VR. Both are amazing, but to be honest, I enjoyed just soaking up the liminal space where Frost once sat crafting his poetry.
Above photos taken courtesy of my iPhone
9. Frost never had a desk or office space. He liked to write wherever, except outside, because, well, according to Frost in the 1952 interview, outside you have to deal with bugs.
10. At the Stone House, there is a gorgeous walk around the property that connects various postings of his poems to the nature that inspired them. Here’s a pic of one of my favorites, Mending Wall.
Photo courtesy of my iPhone
Overall, visiting Frost’s Stone House is a must. It’s a self-guided tour that lets you immerse yourself in the space. They have some of Frost’s items, such as his spectacles and various books on display. There’s also a great gift shop where I picked up a very interesting read titled “Vermont Afternoons with Robert Frost” by Vrest Orton. Vrest was Frost’s neighbor, and shares his memories of Frost and poetry inspired by those memories in this gorgeously written book.
Above photo of Frost’s own books courtesy of my iPhone and on display at the Stone House.
I also really enjoyed hanging out by the Adirondack chairs outside, where everyone in my family on our adventure took some time to pause, reflect, and write some poetry! There is something magical about writing in the same spaces where Frost once spent his time (even if he didn’t enjoy writing outside, I didn’t mind it one bit!).
Phone Courtesy of my iPhone - the blank page before I filled it with poetry!
Honestly, I could write a book on Frost—or maybe—a book on all of these adventures. I never imagined that exploring these historic writer homes would touch me so deeply and teach me so much about myself, others, history, and what it means to be a writer.
Until then, I’ll leave you with my favorite Frost Poem. No, it’s not A Road Less Traveled (though I love that one very much too!) It’s Birches. And there’s no one better to read it to you than Frost himself.
Till Next Time,
Sarah
AKA A Busy Lady
P.S. The various written displays at the Frost Stone House Museum provided most of the information shared in this post.
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