The Dark Side of Robert Frost’s Nature

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Robert Frost is known for his poems about nature, he writes about trees, flowers, and animals. This is a common misconception, Robert Frost is more than someone who writes a happy poem about nature. The elements of nature he uses are symbolic of something more, something darker, and something that needs close attention to be discovered. Flowers might not always represent beauty in Robert Frost’s poetry. Symbolism is present in every line of the nature’s poet’s poems. The everyday objects present in his poems provide the reader an alternative perspective of the world. Robert Frost uses all the elements of poetry to describe the darker side of nature. After analyzing the Poem Mending Wall and After Apple Picking it is clear that nature plays a dark and destructive role for Robert Frost. This dark side of Frost’s poetry could have been inspired from the hard life he lived. 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. It might seem that the poem is about apple picking and hard work but it is actually about the nature of death. Poets use events in their lives as a... ... middle of paper ... ...y. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2002. Print. Conder, John J. Frost: Centennial Essays. Jackson: University of Mississippi, 1974. Print. Frost, Robert, and Robert Faggen. The Notebooks of Robert Frost. Cambridge, MA: Belknap of Harvard UP, 2006. Print. Kemp, John C. Robert Frost and New England: The Poet as Regionalist. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 1979. Print. Lentricchia, Frank. Robert Frost: Modern Poetics and the Landscapes of Self. Durham, NC: Duke UP, 1975. Print. Lindsay Nash. "Mending Wall: Playing the Game of Neighborhood Ordering." Yale Journal of Law & the Humanities 5th ser. 21.1 (2009): n. pag. Web. 1 Dec. 2013. . Parini, Jay. Robert Frost: A Life. New York: Henry Holt, 1999. Print. Richardson, Mark. The Ordeal of Robert Frost: The Poet and His Poetics. Urbana: University of Illinois, 1997. Print.

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