Desire can come in a variety of circumstances, whether it is nostalgia or something looking forward to in the future. The future could hold material or sentimental desires wanting to be achieved. In Robert Frost’s poem A Boundless Moment it states, “He halted in the wind, and - what was that. Far in the maples, pale, but not a ghost? He stood there bringing March against his thought, And yet too ready to believe the most”. The traveler in this poem encounters a wanting and an appreciation. Many of life’s wants go unnoticed until they begin with an instance of realization, followed by chasing a desire and thinking back on missed chances. Our stages in our life encounter this cycle in our everyday environments. Desire isn’t always in our thoughts in today’s society. It is essential that we learn from the written experiences of the past to recognize desire’s variety of roles in society. Desire in Illusion Frost’s display of nature helps define and clarify the connection of nature and desire in the A Boundless Moment. The poem portrays immense beauty, but is interrupted by the illusion that the leaves the two men see are dead. John F. Lynen of Yale University discusses in his book that, “The incident shows man's tragic limitations. His imagination cannot sustain the ideal vision long for a “boundless moment” it can mold nature to its desires, then the "Paradise-in-bloom" again becomes the dead tree of reality” (Lynen 147). Even in circumstances of illusion and imagination, desire doesn’t distort itself. The molding of nature holds its purpose with imagination to help create the desire. Frost’s use of imagery also helps to highlight the desire and the return to reality. The two men “stood a moment so in a strange worl... ... middle of paper ... ...en them and the rest (Whitman 1037). Whitman’s casual tone suggests a state of normalcy for all of these people that would otherwise be persecuted for their societal state. The tone also suggests an egalitarian outlook for society with Whitman’s belief that the meal, “is for the wicked just the same as the righteous”(Whitman 1036). In a way Whitman’s statement regarding equality seems almost as a sort of religious doctrine. Ed Folsom, author of The University of Iowa’s Whitman Quarterly Review, includes a detailed analysis of this principle from poet and literary critic C.K Williams in the Review’s 2010 edition. Williams defines this “doctrine” as, “a religion of the imagination, a kind of anti-religion that sought to free rather than repress desire and to allow the wild leaps mind can make towards truth if it’s released from conceptual strictures”(Folsom 68).
Instructor Mendoza English 1B 22 July 2015. Robert Frost: Annotated Bibliography. Research Question: What are the common themes in Robert Frost's work? Robert Frost is a very successful poet from the 20th century, as well as a four time Pulitzer Prize winner.
“Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words,” Robert Frost once said. As is made fairly obvious by this quote, Frost was an adroit thinker. It seems like he spent much of his life thinking about the little things. He often pondered the meaning and symbolism of things he found in nature. Many readers find Robert Frost’s poems to be straightforward, yet his work contains deeper layers of complexity beneath the surface. His poems are not what they seem to be at first glance. These deeper layers of complexity can be clearly seen in his poems “The Road Not Taken”, “Fire and Ice”, and “Birches”.
In summary, the explication of “Design” served to process both poems by examining one, then identifying and comparing the changes. Such a maneuver provided a clearer perspective of Frost’s initial rendering and subsequent finished work. Thus, exposing their subtle differences resulted in a way to compare the work and draw a subjective conclusion regarding the more effective poem. However, one must remain mindful that without the lesser first “draft,” the second would have had no life. Indeed, an exercise in refinement, the poet revised this piece with a delicate hand, shaping precise images and giving voice to each word, producing a superior message which posed more questions than solid answers about whether life (or death) happens by coincidence, or by “Design.”
Frost is far more than the simple agrarian writer some claim him to be. He is deceptively simple at first glance, writing poetry that is easy to understand on an immediate, superficial level. Closer examination of his texts, however, reveal his thoughts on deeply troubling psychological states of living in a modern world. As bombs exploded and bodies piled up in the World Wars, people were forced to consider not only death, but the aspects of human nature that could allow such atrocities to occur. By using natural themes and images to present modernist concerns, Frost creates poetry that both soothes his readers and asks them to consider the true nature of the world and themselves.
Robert Frost is considered by many to be one of the greatest poets of the twentieth century. Frost’s work has been regarded by many as unique. Frost’s poems mainly take place in nature, and it is through nature that he uses sense appealing-vocabulary to immerse the reader into the poem. In the poem, “Hardwood Groves”, Frost uses a Hardwood Tree that is losing its leaves as a symbol of life’s vicissitudes. “Frost recognizes that before things in life are raised up, they must fall down” (Bloom 22).
In this poem, the speaker stopped by the woods on a winter evening observing its beauty while wrestling with himself about the idea of returning to the warmth of the village he lives in or stay and watch the snow fill up the freezing woods. “This poem illustrates many of the qualities most characteristic of Frost, including the attention to natural detail, the relationship between humans and nature, and the strong theme suggested by individual lines” (Explanation of: 'Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening). The speaker’s tone appears to be pensive as he wants to stay in the woods longer, but concedes that he has certain responsibilities to fulfill like travelling before resting. It is as if this outdoorsy person adores nature and needs to be a part of the
On the other side, Coleridge is raised in rural London and expresses his idea that, as a child, he felt connected to nature when looking above the sky and seeing the stars. Unlike Wordsworth, who felt freedom of mind, Coleridge felt locked up in the city. Since he did not have any experience with nature, he did not get the opportunity to appreciate nature until he became an adult. In Coleridge’s poem “Frost at Midnight,” readers see how the pain of alienation from nature has toughened Coleridge’s hope that his children will enjoy a peaceful nature.
Robert Frost uses metaphor and symbolism extensively in ‘Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening’, developing deeper and more complex meanings from a superficially simple poem. Frost’s own analysis contributes greatly to our appreciation of the importance of metaphor, claiming that “metaphor [is] the whole of thinking,” inviting the reader to interpret the beautiful scene in a more profound way. However, the multitude of possible interpretations sees it being read as either carefully crafted lyric, a “suicide poem, [or] as recording a single autobiographical incident” . Judith Oster argues, therefore, that the social conditions individual to each reader tangibly alter our understanding of metaphor. Despite the simplicity of language, Frost uses conventional metaphors to explore complex ideas about life, death and nature. The uncertainty, even in the concluding stanza, that encompasses the poem only adds to the depth of possible readings.
Gilbert, Roger. "Robert Frost: The Walk as Parable." Poetry Criticism, edited by Lawrence J. Trudeau, vol. 173, Gale, 2016. Literature Resource Center, proxy.campbell.edu/login?url=http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=LitRC&sw=w&u=nclivecu&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CH1420120652&it=r&asid=ce43321a2e99d7cd8ccbc328976c3726.
...ed by many scholars as his best work. It is through his awareness of the merit, the definitive disconnectedness, of nature and man that is most viewable in this poem. Throughout this essay, Frosts messages of innocence, evil, and design by deific intrusion reverberate true to his own personal standpoint of man and nature. It is in this, that Frost expresses the ideology of a benign deity.
Robert Frost, well known American poet of 191 poems, has a common message in his writing. Focusing mainly on Birches, The Road Not Taken, Dust of Snow, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, Beech, Come In, and In Winter In, his main message is to always focus on the positive when everything else is trying to pull you down. This idea could also be seen as trying to always keep a positive attitude. The thesis above can be proven through a textual analysis.
According to John F. Lynen, “Frost sees in nature a symbol of man’s relation to the world. Though he writes about a forest or a wildflower, his real subject is humanity…his concept of nature…is a paradox and it points toward the greater paradox in man himself” (4,5).
In “Birches”, Robert Frost uses imagery and analogies as a way of conveying his message. Frost’s use of imagery and analogies are used in the themes of nature, analogies, and imagination. Frost uses imagery throughout the poem to create a vivid image of how he imagines the Birches to be. His use of comparisons enables the reader to view the Birches in numerous perspectives. His use of imagery and metaphors are appealing because they are pragmatic, and create a clear image for the reader.
The vivid imagery, symbolism, metaphors make his poetry elusive, through these elements Frost is able to give nature its dark side. It is these elements that must be analyzed to discover the hidden dark meaning within Roberts Frost’s poems. Lines that seemed simple at first become more complex after the reader analyzes the poem using elements of poetry. For example, in the poem Mending Wall it appears that Robert frost is talking about two man arguing about a wall but at a closer look the reader realizes that the poem is about the things that separate man from man, which can be viewed as destructive. In After Apple Picking, the darkness of nature is present through the man wanting sleep, which is symbolic of death.
...uses his poetry to celebrate, compare, and contrast the beauty of nature and rural living. Throughout Frost’s poetry he draws upon the beauty of nature to build up vast amounts of scenery. To contrast from nature, Frost also uses the integration of industrialized rural life. Frost uses nature to build the beauty in his poetry, but also uses it to say things that cannot be said with words alone. Heller once wisely spoke: “Maybe freedom really is nothing left to lose. You had it once in childhood, when it was okay to climb a tree, to paint a crazy picture and wipe out on your bike, to get hurt. The spirit of risk gradually takes its leave. It follows the wild cries of joy and pain down the wind, through the hedgerow, growing ever fainter. What was that sound? A dog barking far off? That was our life calling to us, the one that was vigorous and undefended and curious.”