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~ The Gift Outright ~
The land was ours
before we were the land's.
She was our land more than a hundred years
Before we were her people. She was ours
In
Massachusetts, in Virginia.
But we were England's, still colonials,
Possessing what we still were unpossessed by,
Possessed
by what we now no more possessed.
Something we were withholding made us weak.
Until we found out that it was ourselves
We
were withholding from our land of living,
And forthwith found salvation in surrender.
Such as we were we gave ourselves
outright
(The deed of gift was many deeds of war)
To the land vaguely realizing westward,
But still unstoried, artless,
unenhanced,
Such as she was, such as she would become.
The Gift Outright was the poem read at John F. Kennedy's inaguration. Robert Frost was going
to read the poem dedication that he wrote for the inaguration, but he couldn't see because of the sun's glare reflecting off
of the snow so he decided to read a poem from memory which was The Gift Outright. Frost sent the handwritten poem, Dedication
to the Kennedy Family. Jacqueline Kennedy wrote in pencil on the back of the framed poem, “For Jack. First thing
I had framed to be put in your office. First thing to be hung there.” What Did John F. Kennedy Have to say
about Robert Frost? He said,"He has bequeathed his nation a body of imperishable verse from which Americans will forever gain
joy and understanding."
A Collection of Poems by Robert Frost
   “Writing a poem is discovering”
Robert Forst
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