Robert Frost's "second hearing and second sight"

[Nightmare9870]

Frost has always been one of my favorite poets but I never knew much about his life. I did a search and came up with a ketzle.com/frost/frostbio.htm bibliography of some of the major events in his life. One entry seemed a bit strange to me. In 1883 it says, "Frost hears voices when left alone and is told by mother that he shares her gift for 'second hearing' and 'second sight.'"

Does anyone have any information on this? A Google search turned up a few similar articles, but no details. Was Frost a schizophrenic?

[Psycheinaboat]

I am a fan of Frost, too, but I have never read about this "second hearing/sight" thing. Very interesting. I hope someone answers your thread.

[livelaughlove]

I have "Robert Frost: A Life" with me since I'm doing a big presentation on him in my AP American Lit class. It's by Jay Parini, and this is on page 15: "Around the time of his seventh birthday, Frost himself began to hear voices and experience a touch of clairvoyance. His mother found this unsurprising, and comforted him with stories of other gifted people who could see and hear things that 'ordinary' people could not. 'To the end of his life,' said one friend, 'Robert believed he could hear voices, real voices. His poems came to him like voices from nowhere. He liked to be alone to just listen, to communicate with the spirit-world."

So, no, I don't think Frost was schizophrenic. Maybe it was just the "voice of the Muses" that he heard. He did battle with depression and nervous anxiety throughout his whole life, though-- whether that has anything to do with this spiritualism and hearing voices, we'll never know.

Hope this helps! Frost was incredible.