Poetry of Robert Frost

Poetry of Robert Frost

Our theme this month is "Scriptural Messages in Poetry." We'll be experiencing poetry as a restful form of worship, by reading poets who were or are Swedenborgians or influenced by Swedenborg. Today, our poet is Robert Frost.

Robert Lee Frost was born March 26th, 1874, in San Francisco. He was named after General Robert E. Lee. His father, William Prescott Frost, was a Confederate, a Universalist, and an active alcoholic.

The Frosts had not been in San Francisco for long.  Mrs. Frost was Presbyterian, but not finding the right worship community with Presbyterian churches.  She started reading Emerson, and soon found herself reading Swedenborg. Frost's mother joined the Swedenborgian church in San Francisco. 

When Robert was in 2nd grade, she had him baptized by Swedenborgian minister Rev. John Doughty. Not long afterwards, Robert started hearing voices. When he told his mother, she said that he had "second sight," as she did.  She encouraged him not to talk about it with others.

In 1923, Frost wrote:  

What is my philosophy? That is hard to say. I was brought up a Swedenborgian. I am not a Swedenborgian now. But there is a good deal of it that's left with me. I am a mystic. I believe in symbols. I believe in change and in changing symbols. Yet that does not take me away from the kindly contact of human beings. No, it brings me closer to them.  

Frost died on Jan. 29, 1963, on Swedenborg's birthday!

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