Create Your Own Inspiration; Power Of Words: Robert Frost turned everyday observations into literary gold.(LEADERS & SUCCESS)

Byline: CURT SCHLEIER

Robert Frost didn't write his poetry at a desk in an ivory tower.

The four-time Pulitzer Prize winner valued opportunities to work with his hands on the several New England farms he owned. He often hiked in the woods, familiarizing himself with species of plants and animals. It was there that he found his inspiration.

Frost believed that "one must inhabit the factuality of life, embrace it" to be a great poet, said biographer and poet Jay Parini, author of "Robert Frost: A Life."

His technique was effective. Considered one of the best American poets of the 20th century, Frost won four Pulitzer Prizes and was elected to the American Academy of Arts & Letters. He also received the Congressional Gold Medal.

He was set on becoming a poet and pursued his goal with an astonishing single-mindedness. He knew what he wanted to do "and he wanted to go it alone, depend only on himself," Parini wrote. Because it had strings attached, he even rejected an offer of financial assistance from his grandfather.

"The elder Frost offered to support him so he could write full-time for a year, on the condition that if he did not succeed he must give up trying to be a poet," Parini wrote. "Frost argued that he would need 20 years to become a recognized poet, and this proved uncannily accurate." The offer was made in 1894; Frost's first book of poems, "A Boy's Will," was published in 1913.