WEBVTT 00:00:01.130 --> 00:00:04.870 ROBERT FROST REMINDED US OF WHO WE WERE AS AMERICANS. 00:00:15.170 --> 00:00:17.500 (narrator) NO WRITER IN THE FIRST HALF OF THE 20th CENTURY 00:00:17.500 --> 00:00:21.270 SPOKE MORE FOR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE, 00:00:21.270 --> 00:00:24.800 POINTED OUT AMERICA'S GREATNESS, 00:00:24.800 --> 00:00:28.630 PRAISED AMERICA'S IDEALS, 00:00:28.630 --> 00:00:31.330 REVEALED AMERICA'S BOUNDLESS ENERGY 00:00:31.330 --> 00:00:34.870 AND RICH TRADITIONS OF LIFE-- 00:00:34.870 --> 00:00:37.330 NO WRITER PAID TRIBUTE TO AMERICA 00:00:37.330 --> 00:00:42.430 MORE THAN HER PREMIER POET LAUREATE, ROBERT FROST. 00:00:42.430 --> 00:00:48.870 FROST WAS BORN IN SAN FRANCISCO ON MARCH 26, 1874. 00:00:48.870 --> 00:00:52.700 THE FAMILY, FOLLOWING THE DEATH OF HIS FATHER 11 YEARS LATER, 00:00:52.700 --> 00:00:57.130 RETURNED TO THEIR ORIGINAL HOME IN NEW ENGLAND. 00:00:57.130 --> 00:00:59.400 IT WAS HERE THAT FROST ATTENDED COLLEGE 00:00:59.400 --> 00:01:01.600 AT DARTMOUTH AND HARVARD. 00:01:01.600 --> 00:01:03.900 IT WAS HERE THAT HE WORKED AS A FARMER, 00:01:03.900 --> 00:01:07.730 EDITOR, AND SCHOOLTEACHER. 00:01:07.730 --> 00:01:10.830 AND IT WAS HERE THAT HE SOAKED UP THE RICHNESS 00:01:10.830 --> 00:01:12.900 OF NEW ENGLAND LIFE THAT WOULD MAKE HIM 00:01:12.900 --> 00:01:17.770 20th-CENTURY AMERICA'S GREATEST POET. 00:01:17.770 --> 00:01:22.770 IN 1923, FROST WROTE ONE OF HIS MOST ENDURING POEMS, 00:01:22.770 --> 00:01:26.470 STOPPING BY WOODS ON A SNOWY EVENING. 00:01:26.470 --> 00:01:30.230 IT WAS A POEM THAT WOULD WIN HIM HIS FIRST PULITZER A YEAR LATER. 00:01:33.830 --> 00:01:37.170 "WHOSE WOODS THESE ARE I THINK I KNOW. 00:01:37.170 --> 00:01:40.870 "HIS HOUSE IS IN THE VILLAGE, THOUGH. 00:01:40.870 --> 00:01:42.870 "HE WILL NOT SEE ME STOPPING HERE 00:01:42.870 --> 00:01:47.370 "TO WATCH HIS WOODS FILL UP WITH SNOW. 00:01:47.370 --> 00:01:50.730 "MY LITTLE HORSE MUST THINK IT QUEER 00:01:50.730 --> 00:01:53.700 "TO STOP WITHOUT A FARMHOUSE NEAR 00:01:53.700 --> 00:01:57.730 "BETWEEN THE WOODS AND FROZEN LAKE 00:01:57.730 --> 00:02:01.630 THE DARKEST EVENING OF THE YEAR." 00:02:01.630 --> 00:02:05.100 ROBERT FROST, STOPPING BY WOODS ON A SNOWY EVENING. 00:02:05.100 --> 00:02:06.930 (narrator) FROST'S POEM 00:02:06.930 --> 00:02:09.500 IS A SYMBOLIC CROSSROADS FOR THE COUNTRY, 00:02:09.500 --> 00:02:13.570 A TURNING POINT IN THE DIRECTION OF AMERICAN CULTURE, 00:02:13.570 --> 00:02:16.200 AMERICAN LIFE. 00:02:16.200 --> 00:02:20.170 IT IS THE TURNING POINT FROM THE OLD TO THE NEW, 00:02:20.170 --> 00:02:24.970 FROM THE 19th CENTURY TO THE 20th CENTURY. 00:02:24.970 --> 00:02:27.370 THE SNOWY WOODS REPRESENT THE RURAL LIFE 00:02:27.370 --> 00:02:30.070 THAT HAD SUSTAINED THE COUNTRY FROM ITS FOUNDING, 00:02:30.070 --> 00:02:33.400 AND YET THERE IS A NEW AMERICA WAITING, 00:02:33.400 --> 00:02:38.400 AN AMERICA OF TECHNOLOGY AND SCIENCE. 00:02:38.400 --> 00:02:42.170 FOR THE NEXT 40 YEARS, HE WOULD BE AMERICA'S POET, 00:02:42.170 --> 00:02:45.070 HIS POEMS SHOWING WHAT AMERICA HAD BEEN 00:02:45.070 --> 00:02:48.070 AND WHAT IT WAS BECOMING. 00:02:48.070 --> 00:02:51.730 HIS POETRY WOULD WIN FOUR PULITZERS. 00:02:51.730 --> 00:02:56.570 BUT HIS GREATEST ACCLAMATION AS AMERICA'S POET CAME IN 1960, 00:02:56.570 --> 00:02:59.600 WHEN CONGRESS VOTED FROST A GOLD MEDAL, 00:02:59.600 --> 00:03:01.730 "IN RECOGNITION OF HIS POETRY, 00:03:01.730 --> 00:03:04.470 "WHICH HAS ENRICHED THE CULTURE OF THE UNITED STATES 00:03:04.470 --> 00:03:08.200 AND THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE WORLD." 00:03:08.200 --> 00:03:11.430 THEN, IN 1961, HE ADDRESSED THE NATION 00:03:11.430 --> 00:03:14.000 AT JOHN F. KENNEDY'S INAUGURATION 00:03:14.000 --> 00:03:18.700 AND GAVE TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE HIS LAST GREAT PIECE OF WISDOM. 00:03:18.700 --> 00:03:22.200 HERE IS WHAT HE SAID. 00:03:22.200 --> 00:03:26.570 "THE LAND WAS OURS BEFORE WE WERE THE LAND'S. 00:03:26.570 --> 00:03:27.930 "SHE WAS OUR LAND 00:03:27.930 --> 00:03:30.800 "MORE THAN 100 YEARS BEFORE WE WERE HER PEOPLE. 00:03:30.800 --> 00:03:34.470 "SHE WAS OURS IN MASSACHUSETTS, IN VIRGINIA. 00:03:34.470 --> 00:03:37.600 "BUT WE WERE ENGLAND'S, STILL COLONIALS, 00:03:37.600 --> 00:03:40.870 "POSSESSING WHAT WE STILL WERE UNPOSSESSED BY, 00:03:40.870 --> 00:03:43.930 "POSSESSED BY WHAT WE NOW NO MORE POSSESSED. 00:03:43.930 --> 00:03:46.800 "SOMETHING WE WERE WITHHOLDING MADE US WEAK. 00:03:46.800 --> 00:03:49.870 "UNTIL WE FOUND OUT THAT IT WAS OURSELVES 00:03:49.870 --> 00:03:52.430 "WE WERE WITHHOLDING FROM OUR LAND OF LIVING, 00:03:52.430 --> 00:03:55.570 "AND FORTHWITH FOUND SALVATION IN SURRENDER. 00:03:55.570 --> 00:03:59.370 "SUCH AS WE WERE, WE GAVE OURSELVES OUTRIGHT-- 00:03:59.370 --> 00:04:02.730 "THE DEED OF GIFT WAS MANY DEEDS OF WAR-- 00:04:02.730 --> 00:04:05.770 "TO THE LAND VAGUELY REALIZING WESTWARD, 00:04:05.770 --> 00:04:09.700 "BUT STILL UNSTORIED, ARTLESS, UNENHANCED, 00:04:09.700 --> 00:04:14.030 SUCH AS SHE WAS, SUCH AS SHE WOULD BECOME." 00:04:14.030 --> 00:04:17.100 (narrator) HOWEVER, WIT N THREE YEARS, 00:04:17.100 --> 00:04:21.330 FROST'S CAMELOT IMAGE OF AMERICA WOULD BE SHATTERED. 00:04:21.330 --> 00:04:24.530 FROST, THE SYMBOL OF THE OLD GUARD, 00:04:24.530 --> 00:04:26.270 THE OLD AMERICA, 00:04:26.270 --> 00:04:30.630 WOULD DIE ON JANUARY 29, 1963. 00:04:30.630 --> 00:04:32.670 TEN MONTHS LATER, KENNEDY, 00:04:32.670 --> 00:04:36.070 THE SYMBOL OF AMERICA'S ENDURING SPIRIT AND FORWARDNESS, 00:04:36.070 --> 00:04:39.630 WOULD BE DEAD AT THE HANDS OF AN ASSASSIN IN DALLAS, TEXAS.