Analysis Of Fireflies In The Garden By Robert Frost

Robert Frost is the most celebrated and eminent poet in American history. His roots traverse history and oceans alike. He was born on March 26, 1874 in San Francisco. His father died when he was 11, due to tuberculosis. He began his poetry career with the publishing of A Boy’s Will in 1913 and North of Boston in 1914, and thereafter moved back to the US after a short stay in England. It was these two works that brought Frost his early fame and built the foundation of his formidable reputation as US Poet Laureate from 1958-1959. He would go on to win four Pulitzer prizes, more than any other poet. Within his vast collection of poems, he has included a plethora of themes, with the large majority of them involving the contrast between nature and

The entirety of the poem is a metaphor for the arrogance present in the middle class. For example, lines 1-2 (“Here come real stars to fill the skies / And here on earth come emulating flies”) are meant to say that as soon as the real stars come out, their impostors (“emulating flies”) quickly follow them. Next, lines 3-4 (“That though they never equal stars in size / ( And they were never really starts at heart)”) establish the fraud of the fireflies: that they do not, in any way, resemble the target of their emulation. This is central to the poem. The last two lines, “Achieve at times a very star-like start. / Only, of course, they can’t sustain the part.” (Frost 5-6) show that in spite of their shortcomings, they are able to continue the pretense of their being a star; however, it eventually falls apart and they are unable to prop up the act for long. Now, all of these lines contribute to the theme shown in Fireflies in the Garden. The fireflies represent the men and women of society, while the stars depict whatever society aspires to be. As soon as something new or novel arrives, people immediately rush forward to copy it and apply the innovation to themselves regardless of whether it fits or not. In spite of this, the impostors are able to sustain their charade for a reasonable amount of time and create the perception that they belong to the target of their emulation. However, this only

The theme of vanity is nicely portrayed in lines 18-21 (“You spend your time sitting in circles with your friends / Pontificating to each other / Forever competing for that one moment of self-aggrandizing glory / In which you hog the intellectual spotlight”). They create an image of a group of friends gathered around, each explaining to the other a simple concept, but doing so in an deliberately pompous and showy way for the purpose of self-aggrandizement. Another example is line 43 (“I spend hours in front of the mirror, making my hair elegantly disheveled”). This line is an example of pretense. It speaks of someone making his hair look as if it is naturally disheveled, when in fact he has done so manually. He is attempting to create a perception; he is trying to be what he is not in order to achieve some social reward, such as popularity or a larger network of friends.The tone of the singer contributes to the theme as well. He says most of the stanzas in a mocking tone, pretending to be the high and mighty person described in the song. All together, these elements combine to convey the same themes present in Frost’s