Elinor gave birth to five children, Carol (1902); Irma (1903), who later developed mental illness; Marjorie (1905); and Elinor (1907), and Lesley two of the Frost children died. Elliot died of cholera in 1900, and Elinor died of complications from birth just weeks after she was born.

During that time, Frost and Elinor tried several endeavors, including poultry farming, all of which were fairly unsuccessful. began setting many poems in the countryside. While two of these, "The Tuft of Flowers" and "The Trial by Existence," would be published in 1906, he could not find any publishers who were willing to underwrite his other poems.

Robert Frost