The Nature of Frost

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Recommended: The role of nature in poetry

Whether he wrote about woods, milkweed, apple-picking, fire and ice, or rolling hills Robert Frost stands out among poets with his descriptive use of nature with its beauty and splendor. These images hold in a reader's mind and are hard to forget. In many of the works of Robert Frost, you can see the use of nature to convey emotions and thoughts. Not only does Frost use nature to convey images and emotions, but he allows for nature to take its place in the human world around him. Frost's nature poetry is closely related to his pastorlism (Lynen), but unlike most pastoralists, Frost includes nature.

Robert Frost saw nature as an alien force capable of destroying man, but he also saw man's struggle with nature as a heroic battle. The grasp that Frost had on the understanding of nature is written clearly within his poems. The rural scenes and landscapes, the farmers, and the natural world are only used to illustrate a struggle. It was a struggle with an everyday psychological experience that was met with courage, will, and purpose. (http://www. frostfriends.org/tutorial-4.html).

Frost uses nature as his scene, natural processes and features, such as the snow in Frost's work "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" are used to signify events in human lives and draw conclusions about human nature.(http://www. litertureclassics.com/authors/Frost/). In this poem the rider is returning home one late evening, but is tempted by the beauty of the snow filled woods, perhaps evil lurks behind the branches. The mystery continues with the contrast between the light of the village and the darkness of the woods. This mystery is an allure to humans, as we try to conquer nature, but it still has the power to drag us behind its change...

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...plain the continuance of life.

Bibliography

Frost and Nature. March 2, 2003 <http://www.frostfriends.org/tutorial-4.html>

Liebman, Sheldon W. "Robert Frost, Romantic." Twentieth Century Literature. Vol.42 Issue 4

Literature Classics- Robert Frost. <http://www.literatureclassics.com/authors/frost>

Lynen, John F. "The Pastoral Art of Robert Frost." (March 2, 2003) <http://www.frostfriends.org/FFL/Nature%20and%20Pastoralism%20-%20Lynen/lynenessay1.html>

Pasero, Jeanne. "A Tribute to Robert Frost." October 9, 2002. March 3, 2003.

<http://www.jeannepasero.com/frost.html>

Robert Frost's Use of Personification. March 3, 2003. <http://members.truepath.com/onegirlarmy/frost.html>

Selection of Robert Frost Poems. March 4, 2003. <http://ssl.pronet.co.uk/home/catalyst/rf/poem2.html>

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