Robert Frost is an American poet who was born on March 26th 1874 in San Francisco California, and he later died on January 29th 1963 in Boston Massachusetts. Frost was and still is a highly distinguished award winning poet winning the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. Frost’s work is very superficial, his work has many hidden meanings and this relates back to the focus statement, what matters most in a text is what goes on beneath the surface. This statement heavily relates to Frost’s work as all of his poems have hidden messages, and meanings throughout them, these are hidden beneath the surface of his poems. The Frost poems I will be writing about are, The Road Not Taken, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, and Nothing Gold Can Stay. All four …show more content…
of these poems have deep hidden meanings beneath the surface. The Road Not Taken is a very strong example of the focus statement, what matters most in a text is what goes on beneath the surface. This poem is very superficial and the true meaning of the poem is hidden within the text.This links into the concept of writing on two levels which has an extreme relevance to answering the statement. On the surface of this poem it is just about a man taking a walk, in a rich golden forest and he has to choose which path to go down, but if we go beneath the surface of the text we find a much deeper meaning. The statement of “what matters most in a text is what goes on beneath the surface” is displayed in this poem through many ways. One of this is looking at the metaphorical and literal meanings of the text. “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, and sorry I could not travel both”, this is said in the first two lines of the poem. This has a very bland superficial meaning; it means he is basically travelling and there is two roads but he is sorry because he can not travel down both, he has to choose one. However, when we look at this through a different perspective, a metaphorical perspective, we see what really matters in the text. What this literal text is telling us is that, in life we will have to make decisions, even if we do not like it. In stanza two lines five and ten, Frost talks on a literal level about going down the other track because it was grassy and wanted wear. If we look at this and go beneath the text, we find out what really matters; in life and in the text. “Because it was grassy and wanted wear; Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same”. In my own personal opinion I believe this passage on a metaphorical level talks about going down your own path in life, and making decisions for yourself. I say this because he states in the text, “because it was grassy and wanted wear”, this means beneath the surface that people are choosing to go down the other path and ignoring, or not even giving this path a chance. “Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same”. This passage from the poem shows us indecision in life. The two paths are a life decision, and the character must choose one path, and one path only. The passing if referring to people looking down the path to see if they can see the end or the future, but they always seem to only go down one path. The character chooses to go against the norm and go down the path less travelled by. What this tells us is that this character wants to make their own decisions, and they want to do their own thing, not what everyone else is doing. This really matters in the text because it is the foundation of what the hidden message is actually about. If we look beneath the surface of this text we find the true meaning of what Frost is trying to tell us. “I shall be telling this with a sigh” , a direct quote from the poem. This quote alone has huge significance when looking at the focus statement; “what matters most is what goes on beneath the surface of the text”. This quote really allows us to go beneath the surface of the text to find out the hidden message. The definition of a ‘sigh’ is a long, deep, audible breath expressing sadness, relief or similar. This leads us to create our own perspective on whether the sign is expressing sadness about his decision to go down the less travelled path, or whether it is expressing relief, telling us he made the right decision. This poems true hidden meaning is hidden beneath the surface, and I believe Frost has done this intentionally; to get us to think about the meaning of the poem, and to make our own interpretations and views. This text is very superficial and the true meaning and intention of this poem is what happens beneath the skeleton surface of the poem. Another poem by Robert Frost which the statement of ‘what matters most is what goes on beneath the text’, is Nothing Can Stay Gold.
This poem was published in October 1923, and was in Frost’s collection of pieces which won him the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1923. Like The Road Not Taken, this poem is very superficial and we have to go beneath the text to find out what truly matters in the poem. This poem has strong references to the seasons, Frost uses the seasons in this poem to display hidden messages and meanings; this links into writing on two levels, both metaphorical and literal. To understand and what goes on beneath the surface of the poem we must analysis the poem. Lines one and two writes, “Natures first green is gold, her hardest hue to hold”. If we look deeper at these two lines we can understand what Frost has hidden beneath the next. The word gold means a precious yellow metal but it can also be something considered to be precious, beautiful, or the most superior quality (according to google). This tells us that the word ‘gold’ in the poem on a metaphorical level could be a memory, or the present time where life if great. Lines one and two basically tell us that the concept of ‘gold’ or something staying ‘gold’ is very hard to hold, or to keep gold. This speaks to us on a metaphorical level as we might be very happy with our lives at the moment but this will not always be the case. So beneath the text this means our lives will not always be gold/happy, we …show more content…
will not always be joyful, while we would like to be, it will not always be the case. Lines three and four also show us what really matters is what goes on beneath the surface. “Her early leafs a flower, but only so a hour”. Looking at this on a literal level Frost just speaks about a flower blossoming one season, but only having a short life as the next season it will die. A flower is seen as a happy, loving object, so the flower could be a metaphorical meaning for a person,a memory or a time in place in which holds great meaning to Frost or an individual. These two lines tell us that everything is temporary and that a flower cannot live throughout all the seasons, and no one can be happy for their entire life. There will always be grief, sadness, and remorse. The change from leaves to flowers also reinforces the metaphorical concept that nothing can stay gold. Seasons are not permanent, and leafs can not stay leafs forever ever, and flowers can not stay flowers forever; there is a time and a place for everything. This shows us that someone can not always be happy, everyone has a range of emotions which change every hour of everyday. Nothing is permanent, and change will always occur; I believe this is what truly matters in this text, and I believe this is the message Robert Frost has hidden beneath the text for us to find. “So dawn goes down to day, nothing gold can stay” These last two lines of the poem really leave a strong impression on you and it really makes you think about your life and times in your life where life has gone from good to bad. It would appear that Frost could also be talking about the times in his life where things have gone from good to bad really spontaneously. But also how good times do not last forever but neither to bad times. Society is always changing and adapting and everyday something happens which changes the world. Some days our lives are gold (meaning we are happy) and some days our lives are like winter, a cold, heartless, unforgiving place. This has been the same for centuries and it will continue to be the same for many more to come. This poem is so deep and has such a true and relevant hidden message. On the surface this poem is just about the lives of plants during different seasons, but if we look deeper and beneath the text, we find out what truly matters. Life will not always be great, nor will it always be sad, life's a roller coaster and we just have to sit back and enjoy the ride. This is what I believe truly matters in this text. Stopping by Woods On a Snowy Evening is another example of a text which links into the statement of, what matters most in a text is what goes on beneath the surface.
This poem was written by Frost 1922 and published in 1923. This text like the other two is very superficial and what really matters in this poem is hidden beneath the text. The thing with this poem is that, like all of Frost’s other pieces he never tells us the true meaning of the poem; so we are left to make our own interpretations of the text. The tone of this poem is mysterious and I believe it is about a journey. However this poem also has strong links to ideas like, depression and isolation. In Stanza two line four Frost writes, “The darkest evening of the year”. Literally speaking, this could just mean what the poem is talking about the darkest day of the year. I believe this is referencing a dark time in Frost's/the characters life. If we look at this beneath the text, I believe Frost is referencing depression. I believe the author is talking about the struggles of depression and how it is a miserable dark, chilling place. The last stanza however further shows us what matters in the text. “The woods are lovely, dark and deep, But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep”. These lines I believe are talking about depression and also getting out of it. “The woods are lovely dark and deep, but I have promises to keep”. If we go beneath the text with these lines,
we can see that Frost is talking about being in depression, but also getting out of it. He says “but I have promises to keep”, this leads me to believe he is talking about getting out of depression and fighting it. “But I have promises to keep”, this quote reveals he is doing it not for himself, but for others. This shows us Frost could be talking about his friends or family, and how he wants to get better not for himself, but for others. The statement of “what really matters in a text is what goes on beneath the text” truly applies to this text. This text is just superficial and the naked eye does not pick up the true meaning just by reading the text, we must analysis it. Analysing this text we see what truly matters, I believe this about getting out of mentally tough times because others rely on us and we have to not be selfish with our decisions. This is shown in the text through the character in the poem, escaping the locks and chains of depression as he/she had promises to keep, and being in a state of depression was holding them back from completing these promises. All three of these poems have true deep hidden messages, but to see and understand these messages we must go beneath the text. By going beneath the text with these poems we see what truly matters and we also get to see the messages Frost hides in his work for us to discover. These poems relate to the focus statement with extreme relevance because, what truly matters in these poems is not the superficial stories which they tell, but the deep hidden messages in which the poem possess. These three poems show us links in Frost’s work as he creates these hidden messages, but he doesn’t specifically tell us what these messages are. I believe Frost does this because it leaves the hidden message open for interpretation for the reader to decide what it should be, and this is how these poems relate to the statement of ‘what matters most in a text is what goes in beneath the surface’.
Robert Frost is often known as one of the greatest American poets of all time. Although he is sometimes remembered as hateful and mean spirited, his life was filled with highs and lows. These differentiating periods are represented throughout his poetry. Frost once said that “A poem begins in delight, and ends in wisdom.” As can be seen, this quote not only reflected his poetry, but his life. Though many years of his life were troubled by misfortune, Frost always seemed to persevere. Robert Frost was a talented, thoughtful poet whose life was filled with complexity and tragedy (brainyquote.com).
Frost begins the poem by describing a young boy cutting some wood using a "buzz-saw." The setting is Vermont and the time is late afternoon. The sun is setting and the boy's sister calls he and the other workers to come for "Supper." As the boy hears its dinnertime, he gets excited and cuts his hand on accident. Immediately realizing that the doctor might amputate his hand, he asks his sister to make sure that it does not happen. By the time the doctor arrives, it is too late and the boy's hand is already lost. When the doctor gives him anaesthetic, he falls asleep and never wakes up again. The last sentence of the poem, "since they (the boys family and the doctor) were not the one dead, turned to their affairs" shows how although the boys death is tragic, people move on with their life in a way conveying the idea that people only care for themselves.
The Tragic Impermanence of Youth in Robert Frost's Nothing Gold Can Stay In his poem "Nothing Gold can Stay", Robert Frost names youth and its attributes as invaluable. Using nature as an example, Frost relates the earliest green of a newborn plant to gold; its first leaves are equated with flowers. However, to hold something as fleeting as youth in the highest of esteems is to set one's self up for tragedy. The laws of the Universe cast the glories of youth into an unquestionable state of impermanence.
Poetry is a form of art in which an exclusive arrangement and choice of words help bring about a desired emotional effect. Robert Frost said that a poem is formed when “an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words.” His popular poem, "The Road Not Taken," like any other poem, has as many interpretations as it has readers. Using rhetorical analysis, one can break down the meaning(s) of this seemingly simple poem.
Robert Lee Frost was born on March 26, 1874 in San Francisco. When his father died, he moved to Massachusetts with his family to be closer to his grandparents. He loved to stay active through sports and activities such as trapping animals and climbing trees. He married his co- valedictorian, Elinor Miriam White, in 1895. He dropped out of both Dartmouth and Harvard in his lifetime. Robert and Elinor settled on a farm in Massachusetts, which his grandfather bought him. It was one of the many farms on which he would live in throughout his lifetime. Frost spent the next 9 years writing poetry while poultry farming. When poultry farming did not work out, he went back to teaching English. He moved to England in 1912 and became friends with many people who were also in the writing business. After moving back to America in 1915, Frost bought a farm in New Hampshire and began reading his poems aloud at public gatherings. Out of the blue, he suddenly had many family disasters. Frost’s youngest daughter and wife died and his son committed suicide, soon after which another daughter institutionalized. Darker poetry, su...
Robert Frost is very successful poet from the 20th century, as well as a four time Pulitzer Prize winner. Robert Frost work was originally published in England and later would be published in the US. He was also considered one of the most popular and respected poets of his century. Robert Frost created countless of poems and plays, many of them containing similar themes. Some of the most popular themes found in his poems encompass isolation, death and everyday life.
In this poem, Frost illustrates that every person has his own opinion. He states “Then took the other, just as fair, and having perhaps the better claim” (line 6-7). What make it better was “it was grassy and wanted wear” (line 8). It was something that was obviously not for everyone because it seems that the other people take the more popular one. “And both that morning equally lay/ In leaves no step had trodden black” (line 11). No one had yet to pass by on this road since the leaves have fallen. “I kept the first for another day” (line 13). The desire to travel down both paths is expressed and is not unusual, but “knowing how way leads onto way” (line 14). The speaker of this poem realizes that the decision is not just a temporary one, and he “doubted if I should ever come back”
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."
Robert Frost was a talented American poet whose works have left a lasting impression on many people. Frost was born in San Francisco, California on March 26, 1874, and died in Boston, Massachusetts on January 29, 1963. Frost ‘s father died when he was a young boy, which forced his family to move across the country to live at his grandfather’s farm. On November 8th, 1894 Frost sold his first poem called “My Butterfly: An Elegy”, in the New York Independent. He was paid fifteen dollars. Frost married Elinor Miriam White In 18...
Robert Frost is considered by many to be one of the greatest poets of the twentieth century. Frost’s work has been regarded by many as unique. Frost’s poems mainly take place in nature, and it is through nature that he uses sense appealing-vocabulary to immerse the reader into the poem. In the poem, “Hardwood Groves”, Frost uses a Hardwood Tree that is losing its leaves as a symbol of life’s vicissitudes. “Frost recognizes that before things in life are raised up, they must fall down” (Bloom 22).
The poem is showing how many people are questioning the way Frost conducts himself and his happiness. Everything in Frost’s poem up until the last stanza is dark and depressing. An example of this is, “Between the woods and frozen lake The darkest evening of the year.” (Frost, Lines 7 and 8). Frost is so consumed in the sadness, that its very dark around him. The last stanza is where Frost’s hopefulness is presented. The happiness is hinted towards, “The woods are lovely, dark and deep, But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep.” (Frost, Lines 13 to 16). He has promised himself to always keep moving forward and focusing on the goodness that life has to offer. Frost knows that he isn’t quite there yet, but he will not give up. He emphasizes his perseverance by reaping himself twice when he says “And miles to go before I sleep,” (Frost, Line 15). He had a break through and knows that he cannot give up. He is taking the little bit of happiness he knows to transform his life completely too where he is happy with every aspect of it. He is taking the hope that he does have and running with it, not looking back at the despair he feels that surrounds
Darkness may also symbolize the mystery of the yet to be discovered secrets deep within the woods. (8) The silence makes the speaker feel secluded from all other aspects of reality. (11-12) Stopping by the woods provides the speaker with a temporary escape from reality. Frost does not ever tell what business the speaker is on, but you can assume it may be very stressful. This escape from reality is very important even in today’s world. This poem was written in 1923 and still has aspects of 20th century society.
Robert Frost, a poet that mastered the imagery of nature through his words. Such vivid details compressed in a few stanzas explains the brilliancy of his writing. He was born on March 26, 1874, in San Francisco. By the 1920s, he was the most celebrated poet in America; with his fame and honor increasing as well. His poems created themes like nature, communication, everyday life, isolation of the individual, duty, rationality versus imagination, and rural life versus urban life. The most controversial theme of this poems is nature and if his poems have a dark side in them. Readers can easily be guided to the fact that his poems are centered on nature; however, it is not. Frost himself says, "I am not a nature poet. There is almost a person in
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.
Robert Frost is an amazing poet that many admire today. He is an inspiration to many poets today. His themes and ideas are wonderful and are valued by many. His themes are plentiful however a main one used is the theme of nature. Frost uses nature to express his views as well as to make his poetry interesting and easy to imagine in your mind through the detail he supplies.