Rights Questions - Please Help?

May be "fair use"

One life from a poem may fall under "fair use" of the copyright law and of course needs to be cited but may not need permission. However, some publishers require permission even if quotes fall under "fair use." In this case, I've always secured rights, but my experience is in academic publications. But no worries, it's not that hard. Just go to a recently published collection of Frost poems, see who is credited as granting reprint permissions in the Acknowledgments page and write for permission. Warning: There is usually a fee.

As Laurie says, it's most likely fair use, but it is always worth checking. I don't think it's worth doing until you are signing a publishing contract, though. Some such contracts include a clause to the effect that it is the author's responsibility to clear rights (and pay fees), so it might be you rather than the editor who does this.

(If it doesn't fall under fair use or you do end up checking with the rights holder, you might bear in mind that Frost was, AFAIK, a Unitarian Universalist.)

Another rights question occurs to me: if you are quoting extensively from a translation of the bible that is still under copyright, might you have to clear rights? You could easily avoid it by using, say, the good old King James.