"Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" by Robert Frost The woods beckoned Frost as a refuge from the enormous personal tragedies he endured throughout his life. Of his six children with wife Elinor, four preceded him in death - son Elliott from cholera as a young boy, daughters Marjorie from puerperal fever after childbirth, and Elinor Bettina just one day after being born. His wife herself battled heart problems for years before succumbing to breast cancer and heart failure in 1938. Frost stoically shouldered these devastating blows, a retreat to the woods representing an escape from such profound grief and stress in his family life. Yet as much as he may have wanted to lose himself in the lovely, dark depths of nature, his obligations as a provider, father to his surviving children, and public figure endured. Though the solitude of the woods called out, Frost felt compelled to stay the course, denying himself the sweet revelry of solitude in order to remain dutifully grounded in the promises he had to keep.