The Gift Outright  "The Gift Outright" is a poem written by Robert Frost. Frost first recited it at the College of William & Mary on December 5, 1941, but its most famous recitation occurred on January 20, 1961 at the inauguration of John F. Kennedy. The poem was first published in the "Virginia Quarterly Review" in Spring 1942. It was collected in Frost's volume "A Witness Tree" in 1943. According to Jeffrey S. Cramer the poem may have been written as early as 1936. At the presidential inauguration Frost recited "The Gift Outright" from memory instead of reading his new poem "For John F. Kennedy His Inauguration".