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Robert frost english essays
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Desert Places
In the poem Desert Places by Robert Frost, the author describes the scenery in which he came across with. It was on a winter day, and the day was turning into a night. As he went across a field, he saw that the ground was almost all covered in snow. But then he noticed a few weeds and stubble on the ground.
On the first line, Frost talks about how the night falling fast. This is referring to how fast Frost felt concerning time, which went by fast in real life. At the end of the line, Frost added two simple words which seems to add a sense of desperation, or even a sense of hopelessness, to the whole idea of time going by fast. The words “oh, fast” seem to show that although Frost did not like it, but there was nothing he could do or change about it. Time will ...
Robert Frost’s poem Desert Places (1936) begins to stimulate the reader’s visual senses in the first stanza. The poem begins, “Snow falling
Frost uses different stylistic devices throughout this poem. He is very descriptive using things such as imagery and personification to express his intentions in the poem. Frost uses imagery when he describes the setting of the place. He tells his readers the boy is standing outside by describing the visible mountain ranges and sets the time of day by saying that the sun is setting. Frost gives his readers an image of the boy feeling pain by using contradicting words such as "rueful" and "laugh" and by using powerful words such as "outcry". He also describes the blood coming from the boy's hand as life that is spilling. To show how the boy is dying, Frost gives his readers an image of the boy breathing shallowly by saying that he is puffing his lips out with his breath.
Frost's poem addresses the tragic transitory nature of living things; from the moment of conception, we are ever-striding towards death. Frost offers no remedy for the universal illness of aging; no solution to the fact that the glory of youth lasts only a moment. He merely commits to writing a deliberation of what he understands to be a reality, however tragic. The affliction of dissatisfaction that Frost suffers from cannot be treated in any tangible way. Frost's response is to refuse to silently buckle to the seemingly sadistic ways of the world. He attacks the culprit of aging the only way one can attack the enigmatic forces of the universe, by naming it as the tragedy that it is.
Frost was known for writing poetry with an emphasis on nature. He used the changing of the seasons to symbolize events that were also occurring in the lives of the characters portrayed in his poems as well as to give a vivid depiction of the human condition. For instance, in “Nothing Gold Can Stay”, Frost opens the poem with a line about the shade of the leaves, but by the end of the poem it becomes evident that the gold in which he is describing has little to do with nature, but rather is a depiction of things valued in life and the frailty there of. Mordecai Marcus stated in his book The Poems of Robert Frost: an explication, “Frost's view resembles Emerson's idea that being born into this world is the fall implying that the suffering and decay brought by natural processes are what we know of evil… The "Nothing" of the last line, repeated from the title, receives special emphasis; the gold that cannot stay comes to represent all perfections” (Marcus) Using nature as a means to symbolize the cycle of human existence was a common thread in a large number of Frost’s poems.
In the third line Frost states, "And the ground is almost covered in snow. " This starts to paint the image of an empty field being covered by more and more snow. Towards the end of the poem, Frost makes reference to the stars. Space between stars is perhaps the biggest empty space we can begin to comprehend. The "Desert Places" are demonstrated through the use of a snowy field and outer space.
Although this poem also is connected with nature, the theme is more universal in that it could be related to Armageddon, or the end of the world. Even though this theme may seem simple, it is really complex because we do not know how Frost could possibly relate to the events leading to the end of the world. It is an "uncertain" and sometimes controversial topic, and even if everyone was certain it was coming, we do not know exactly how it will occur and when. Therefore, how did Frost envision this event? Is he portraying it in a religious context, a naturalistic one, or both? The last line (14) speaks of God putting out the light, which brings out a religious reference, but the bulk of the poem deals with nature entirely. Physical images of water, clouds, continents, and cliffs present a much more complex setting than the simple setting in "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" or the yellow wood in "The Road Not Taken."
A.E. Housman, perhaps one of modern poetry's most enigmatic writers, was well known for his mastery of concise language. His poem "The night is freezing fast" perfectly illustrates his typical style: short, but effective. Housman makes the most of his carefully selected words as he ties together themes of death, bereavement, and the afterlife with creative poetic devices.
In particular, the use of the phrase “daylight falls” is interesting. Typically, daylight, or light in general, is viewed as a symbol of happiness and life. Frost shows his mastery of poetry when he pairs it with the word “falls,” and so the mood is darkened despite the positive connotations with light. Also, normally light is described as casting upon or brightening a place, which makes the use of “falls” slightly surprising, which adds to the feeling of uneasiness in that line. This is not the only example of eerie language acting as a dynamic in “Ghost House”.
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.
Frost’s sentence structure is long and complicated. Many meanings of his poems are not revealed to the reader through first glance, but only after close introspection of the poem. The true meanings contained in Frost’s poems, are usually lessons on life. Frost uses symbolism of nature and incorporates that symbolism into everyday life situations. The speaker in the poems vary, in the poem “The Pasture”, Frost seems to be directly involved in the poem, where as in the poem “While in the Rose Pogonias”, he is a detached observer, viewing and talking about the world’s beauty. Subsequently, the author transfers that beauty over to the beauty of experiences that are achieved through everyday life.
After reading this poem and being quite confused by it, I was determined to find out what it meant. Its simplicity is misleading because it can represent several opposites in the world today that correspond to fire and ice. To begin my understanding of the poem, I decided to answer some questions. First question was who is some? Some represents humans, which is not difficult to understand, but then some can also represent lovers. This poem is mainly about desire and hate. In the poem, fire represents desire and ice represents hate. The first theory of fire most likely came from the bible, which describes the world ending this way and the second theory of ice is the scientific theory of the world freezing over when the sun burns out. Knowing these theories was somewhat useful, but did not really aid in understanding Frost's opinion on which would make for a better end.
Robert Frost's Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening is about a person the speaker, who stops near the woods when it is snowing out to take a break and look around. He notices how beautiful it is to look at the snow falling in such a peaceful way out of the dark sky.
Frost uses symbolism throughout all his works. In A Patch of Old Snow the narrator notices the patch of snow and assumes that it is something else instead straightaway. The snow was a symbol of the winter season while it was new and white but after a few weeks on the ground it is dirty and not cared about anymore like an old newspaper, which Frost compares it to. The narrator feels at fault about the misidentification and believes that he should have been able to acknowledge the snow right away and he should have recognized the beauty of winter as well. Then the narrator says the dirt on the snow looks like the print of a newspapers so it was not his fault for making the mistake and he should not have to take responsibility for the mistake. The narrator says the beauty of winter is only present in the perfect white and n...
The two roads in the poem relate to various paths one might be faced with in life. One path “bent in the undergrowth” (5) which means it had taken many times. However, the other path “was grassy and wanted wear” (8). This is the path in one’s life, which seems “unpopular” at the time. Not many people choose the path that is not typically chosen by others. This is what Frost is doing in his poem as he uses these solid metaphors: challenging his readers to “go against the flow” as the man did.
Frost explores a different aspect of life and death with his poem, Acquainted With the Night. "Acquainted With the Night belongs with a group of dark poems in a section subtitled Fiat Knox (let there be night), an ironic allusion to Fiat Lux (let there be light), the divine command in Genesis, when God created the heaven and the earth" (Meyers194). This poem is the story of a person who walks at night, silently watching everything happen around them. I seemed confused with the whole concept of walking the night away, until I reread the poem and discovered a possible translation. " When far away an interrupted cry, Cam...