The Church Near Frost's Grave

Robert Frost purchased a plot in the cemetery of the The Old Bennington Congregational Church after the death of his wife Elinor, and the suicide of his son Carol.

He had originally intended to sprinkle Elinor's ashes over the brook at their farm in Derry, NH. When he returned there to carry out her wishes, he was sickened at the disrepair the property suffered and felt that it would not be what she wished if she could see their former home in its current condition. He placed Elinor's ashes along with Carol's in the family plot in September of 1941.

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Robert Frost died on January 28th, 1963 in the Peter Brent Brigam Hospital in Boston. A private memorial service was held in Appleton Chapel of Memorial Church in Harvard Yard. A few weeks later a public memorial service was held in Johnson Chapel of Amherst College.

On June 16, 1963, Frost's ashes were buried in the plot at the Old Bennington Cemetery. The epitaph that he chose was, "I had a lover's quarrel with the world."

Francis McGovern is editor and founder of Literary Traveler

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