Robert Frost

“The death of Robert Frost leaves a vacancy in the American spirit....His death impoverishes us all; but he has bequeathed his Nation a body of imperishable verse from which Americans will forever gain joy and understanding.” John F Kennedy

He is a man who was continuously plagued with grief and loss, but he could still write beautiful poems. His father died of tuberculosis when Frost was 11, leaving the family with just $8 after paying expenses. Frost's mother died of cancer in 1900. Frost’s sister was mentally ill and died in a mental hospital in 1929. Frost and his mother both suffered from depression, and his daughter Irma was also committed to a mental hospital in 1947. Even his wife was a little mentally ill.

Only 2 of his 6 children outlived Frost, with one of them mentally ill. One of his other children committed suicide, one died just days after birth and others died very young too.

Despite all these deaths and sadness, he was able to win 4 Pulitzer prizes (a US award for achievement in Literature, Journalism etc.) and he even managed to recite one of his poems at President John F. Kennedy’s inauguration ceremony! He is one of the most famous American poets of all time, and his poems are taught in many schools in America. In fact, I think that his life a one is very inspirational. Few people have seen so many loved ones die, Robert Frost is one of them. Despite having mental illness running through his family, he still managed to snap out of his depression and write poems. This is what we should do to. Whenever unfortunate events happen, we should not grief for too long. We should quickly “regain our composure” and try to return to our normal life.
Many of his poems are also inspirational poems. One example would be The Road Not Taken:

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,


And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

In case you do not understand the poem, it actually talks about the rewards of travelling the road that is less taken. Other poems of his that I like include: Going for Water and Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.

Sources:
http://poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/192
http://www.americanpoems.com/poets/robertfrost/12074
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Frost#Pulitzer_Prizes
http://www.ketzle.com/frost/
http://www.online-literature.com/frost/
http://www.poetry.org/famous.htm