Robert Frost
at Kitty Hawk
For over 60 years the famed poet
guarded the truth about his painful
eonfrontation with death.
By GUY owi;\
Robert Frost is not only one of
America's greatest poets, but he had
more than a tenuous connection with
North Carolina — though not always a
happy one. He frequently gave readings
in the state and one of his valuable
notebooks was donated to a North
Carolina library. For many years on
his winter visits to Florida he stopped
over in Chapel Hill to teach for a week,
often visiting Randell Jarrell’s poetry
classes at UNC at Greensboro, as well.
His numerous friends at the University
of North Carolina included the play¬
wright Paul Green and Clifford Lyons,
Lyman Cotten, A. P. Hudson and Rob¬
ert Sharpe, of the Department of En¬
glish.
But more germane here is the fact
that the poet’s last ambitious poem,
"Kitty Hawk,’’ deals with man’s first
flight and is related to Frost’s first trip
to North Carolina — which nearly
proved fatal and was kept a secret for
over half a century. In fact, the poem
cannot be fully understood without
some knowledge of Frost's brief trip
to coastal Carolina. For the truth is
that Robert Frost came to North Caro¬
lina in 1894, when he was eighteen, to
commit suicide. This occurred after his
proposal to Elinor White was rejected
and he felt that his early poetic efforts
were failures in her eyes.
In an attempt to cover up an episode
that haunted him all his life, the poet
told many versions of his experiences
in Elizabeth City and on Roanoke
Island. In Robert Frost: The Trial by
Existence Elizabeth Sergeant makes no
mention of his plans for suicide, nor
does the earlier Gorum Munson. One
of his biographers writes that no one
knew where Frost had disappeared to
until "Kitty Hawk" was published in
1957. Still another biographer places
14
Robert Frost in the Appalachian Moun¬
tains during his three weeks as a run¬
away from Massachusetts.
"Destroyed Symbolically”
Today the fascinating facts can be
pieced together from Lawrence Thomp¬
son’s Robert Frost and a taped inter¬
view made in Chapel Hill in 1961,
which was unknown to the poet’s offi¬
cial biographer — although it was pub¬
lished in North Carolina Folklore in
1968 as "A Trip to Currituck, Eliza¬
beth City and Kitty Hawk (1894)."
During the interview Paul Green asked
Robert Frost about his first visit to
North Carolina. The poet’s reply is
rich in detail, but he made no mention
of his decision to kill himself.
When young Rob Frost proposed to
Elinor White and was rejected (he
later married her), he was determined
to kill himself — or at least "throw his
life away" to make her feel sorry for
turning him down. According to Law-
rance Thompson, he started toward
Dismal Swamp with the vague idea erf
drowning himself. Without telling any¬
one where he was going, he went to
Boston and caught a train to Norfolk,
where he asked for directions to Dismal
Swamp and started walking in the
night. As he got deeper into the wilds
of the swamp he became frightened
by visions of snakes and alligators. He
hoped that he would fall off the nar¬
row plank walk and drown "acciden¬
tally." Ultimately, he lost his nerve
and merely "destroyed himself sym¬
bolically" by throwing his extra clothes
and a few books into the murky waters.
Continuing his walk, he later found
himself ten miles south of Deep Creek,
Virginia, where he caught a ride on a
boat to Elizabeth City.
(According to one version — dis¬
counted by his official biographer —
Frost was followed for miles by a huge
Negro with an ax on his shoulder.
Ironically, he told one biographer, "I
was afraid for my life all the time." On
the other hand, in Chapel Hill he de¬
scribed the man as “a pleasant Negro"
apparently walking home from work.)
Saved by Hunters
The eighteen year old poet tried un¬
successfully to get a job as a deck hand
on the Norfolk boat, but finally paid
his last dollar for passage. The next
morning at Elizabeth City Frost did
not disembark, although he was weak
from hunger. There the captain picked
up a party of duck hunters for their
annual outing to Nags Head, near Kitty
Hawk.
It may be that the friendly Tar Heel
hunters saved Robert Frost’s life by
their kindness and concern for the
brooding, unhappy youth. In any case.
Lotcr in life, Robert Frost and his dog Gillie.
<N.C. Dep't. of Archives ond History photo)
he must have been touched by their
Southern hospitality; he recalled it
vividly after sixty years. The young boy
was taken in hand by Ed Dozier, who
owned "the best damn bar" in Eliza¬
beth City. As they crossed the forty
miles to the Outer Banks, the tavern
owner plied the hungry poet with fried
chicken, and all the hunters offered
him whiskey out of their plentiful demi¬
johns. The despondent poet could not
admit that he had run away from home
to commit suicide because his girl had
rejected him, so he told the hunters
that he was looking for work. He was
THE STATE. MARCH 1975
