An Analysis of Birches

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Recommended: Birches by robert frost how the poem's language, images, and symbols convey its themes to readers

"Birches" is a memorable poem that is rich and interesting enough to repay more than one reading. Robert Frost provides vivid images of birches in order to oppose life's harsh realities with the human actions of the imagination. "Birches" has a profound theme and its sounds, rhythm, form, tone, and figures of speech emphasize this meaning.

Theme

"Birches" provides an interesting aspect of imagination to oppose reality. Initially, reality is pictured as birches bending and cracking from the load of ice after a freezing rain.

They are dragged to the withered bracken by the load

And they seem not to break; though once they are bowed

So low for long, they never right themselves:

Reality has its ups and downs. This passage suggests that people never fully recover from being dragged down by life even if they don't seem broken.

Imagination is portrayed as "a swinger of birches." The portrayal of the boy refines this image:

One by one he subdued his father's trees

By riding them down over and over again.

The boy seems to take in lessons about life from these encounters with the trees on his father's land:

He learned all there was

To learn about not launching out too soon.

This boy lives away from town and must play by himself. He has learned his father's lessons. Imagination is the gift for escaping reality that each one of us possesses. We do not have to depend on anyone to take a mental vacation. Mastering your art of imagination will increase your ability to handle the bad things life dishes out.

That's why the narrator advocates using imagination. On Earth we can become weary from life's everyday occurrences--that "pathless wood." However, Earth's the place for lo...

... middle of paper ...

...ture poetry. I could picture a winter scene: "As the breeze rises" and the effect of "the sun's warmth" on the sheaths of ice covering the tree branches. But this is where I ended the scene. I did not picture the shattering of ice "on the snow crust" like "heaps of broken glass to sweep away." Initially, I did not get the

shattered feeling; I felt the scene was peaceful.

Conclusion

I enjoyed reading "Birches," and I believe my reaction is both personal and aesthetic. This poem was lengthy and complex enough to contain many of the aesthetics of an excellent poem. I will always remember the vivid images provided by Frost's use of figures of speech and sound. This poem also stirred my feelings.

Frost, Robert. Frost: Collected Poems, Prose, & Plays “Introduction to Threescore: The Autobiography of Sarah N. Cleghorn,” New York, The Library of America, 1995.

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