Robert Frost, famous for his poems about nature, was a New England poet and farmer. Frost was born in 1879, in the state of California. At the age of eleven, Frost’s father died and subsequently the family moved to New England. Although Frost was born in California, he identified with the working farmers of New England. Frost bought his first farm in Derry, New Hampshire. Living and owning his own farm gave Frost firsthand experience with agriculture and living with nature. From harvesting the crops to staying warm in the winter, Frost knew the hardships of being a farmer in New England. Frost often wrote about nature and work, the labor required to run a farm. He believed the two to coincide, as it takes physical labor and hard-work to be …show more content…
However, contrary to man’s appreciation, nature is indifferent towards man. The poem is a metaphor for humanity’s uniqueness, since only humans can stop and reflect, yet also hold higher cognitive functions than animals. Humans have a sense of duty, have responsibilities, and can admire the beauty of nature. In the poem, the speaker traverses through a stranger’s woods amid snowfall before he stops to admire nature until he must continue on his journey. While the speaker stops to watch the woods “fill up with snow,” he thinks his horse “must think it queer” (Frost 245). A poet, like Frost, must once in a while stop and reflect before writing. The horse finds it odd to stop and reflect on the beauty of nature because this is only a human behavior. According to Cleanth Brooks, an American critic whose work helped establish the New Criticism movement, in Frost and Nature, describes the speaker’s decision to stop and observe nature as solely a human trait, as only humans “can find a place for aesthetic appreciation.” There is no rational reason to stop and appreciate one’s surroundings because only humans happen to do “detached contemplation” (Brooks). A poet must use “detached contemplation” in order to be a successful poet, as it takes time to write (Brooks). Although the speaker finds the woods “lovely,” he has …show more content…
Alike the speaker in “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” who has a “promises to keep” (Frost 245), the speaker for “After Apple-Picking” is obligated to finish “the great harvest” (Frost 240). Moreover, the metaphors of both poems share similarities. While the metaphor for “Stopping by Woods on a Snow Evening” is humans are unique for their ability to stop and reflect on the beauty of nature, in “After Apple-Picking” the speaker reflects upon his life and calculates all the missed opportunities, the “two or three / apples I didn’t pick,” and the desire for a release from his work, life, to achieve a “long sleep” (Frost 240). Both metaphors are an example of the human experience as only humans can stop to observe nature, while working for a harvest is a very human
In both poems “ Blackberry Picking” by Seamus Heaney and “After Apple Picking” by Robert Frost, the luxury of picking fruit could be related to a much deeper meaning than just the simple and boring concept. Using literary devices, both poets achieved to portray memorable moments in their life, or in the other case, even death by using hyperbole, imagery, and simile. Firstly by using hyperbole in lines 28- 29 “For I have had too much of apple picking: I am overtired of the great harvest I myself desired”, Frost exaggerates how exhausted he is from “apple-picking” and had done more than he expected to do with his life. In contrast, Heaney uses hyperbole to grab the reader’s interest by reminiscing his childish infatuations of preserving blackberries
Wordsworth is raised in a simple country side and he views his childhood as a time when his relationship with nature was at its greatest; he revisits his childhood memories to relieve his feelings and encourage his imagination. Even if he grew up within nature, he didn’t really appreciate it until he became an adult. He is pantheistic; belief that nature is divine, a God. Since he has religious aspect of nature, he believes that nature is everything and that it makes a person better. His tone in the poem is reproachful and more intense. His poem purpose is to tell the readers and his loved ones that if he feels some kind of way about nature, then we should have the same feeling toward it as well. On the other side, Coleridge is raised in rural city such as London and expresses his idea that, as a child, he felt connected to nature when looking above the sky and seeing the stars. Unlike Wordsworth who felt freedom of mind, Coleridge felt locked up in the city. Since he did not have any experience with nature, he did not get the opportunity to appreciate nature until he became an adult. In Coleridge’s poem “Frost at Midnight,” readers see how the pain of alienation from nature has toughened Coleridge’s hope that his child enjoy a peaceful nature. Instead of looking at the connection between childhood and nature as
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.
This view of the imagery helps the reader understand the narrator’s loneliness. Instead of using words that convey the loneliness and emotions of the narrator, he instead describes the field to reflect the emotions. In the second stanza, Frost describes the scenery surrounding the field in the same way. He explains that there are “woods around” the field. Inside the forest there are “animals [that] are smothered in their lairs” (6).
Robert Frost wrote poetry about nature and it is that nature that he used as symbols for life lessons. Many critics have been fascinated by the way that Frost could get so many meanings of life out of nature itself. Frost‘s poetry appeals to almost everyone because of his uncanny ability to tie in with many things that one is too familiar with and for many, that is life in itself. “Perhaps that is what keeps Robert Frost so alive today, even people who have never set foot in Vermont, in writing about New England, Frost is writing about everywhere” (294).
par. 1). With clever poetic purpose, Frost‘s poems meld the ebb and flow of nature to convey
Analyzing a poem involves examining various elements. After understanding the story, one can explore the speaker's perspective, as well as other aspects such as setting, language, figures of speech, symbols, atmosphere, mood, characterization, theme, and conflicts. Ultimately, the analyst should determine the poem's underlying message. Robert Frost's "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" is a poem about the speaker who halts his horse near the woods on a snowy evening to admire the serene beauty of the falling snow. The speaker takes a moment to appreciate the peacefulness of the scene as the snowflakes descend from the dark sky.
Frost uses nature as a reflection of human experiences; just like humanity it can have seasons and life cycles. He uses different scenes to depict a certain mood for readers to step into the psychological happening of a man. The idea of how seasons change, Frost compares it through the life cycles that humans encounter. Contrary to popular opinion, I believe that nature is not Frost’s central theme in his poetry; it is about the relationship that man has with nature in which can be seen from “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”, “The Road Not Taken”, and “An Old Man’s Winter Night.”
Frost’s nature poetry interconnects the world of the natural and the world of human beings – Both key elements of his motivation in writing poetry. The harsh reality of nature and the thoughtless expectations in the minds of man scarcely cohere to one another. Frost usually starts with an observation in nature, contemplates it and then connects it to some psychological concern (quoted in Thompson). According to Thompson, “His poetic impulse starts with some psychological concern and finds its way to a material embodiment which usually includes a natural scene” (quoted in Thompson).
...uses his poetry to celebrate, compare, and contrast the beauty of nature and rural living. Throughout Frost’s poetry he draws upon the beauty of nature to build up vast amounts of scenery. To contrast from nature, Frost also uses the integration of industrialized rural life. Frost uses nature to build the beauty in his poetry, but also uses it to say things that cannot be said with words alone. Heller once wisely spoke: “Maybe freedom really is nothing left to lose. You had it once in childhood, when it was okay to climb a tree, to paint a crazy picture and wipe out on your bike, to get hurt. The spirit of risk gradually takes its leave. It follows the wild cries of joy and pain down the wind, through the hedgerow, growing ever fainter. What was that sound? A dog barking far off? That was our life calling to us, the one that was vigorous and undefended and curious.”
Robert Frost wrote his poems during the early- to mid-20th century, and that was during the time period of a huge change in the rural community. This was a very influential point for the people in America, because of the drastic changes of a rural community. People were used to living on secluded farms, that had no grocery store and everything relied on their work on the farm. Children would grow up around nature and using the world around them as their playground. With the new rural community people were getting away from the isolation and moving into mass groups into cities, which rid of nature as a playground for little kids. It seemed as if nature was being thrown out of the picture as the world grew, but Robert Frost made a point of including the beauty and importance of nature in his poems. There is something poetic about nature, and Robert Frost always mentioned these in his poems. In Frost’s poems, Birches, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, and Out, Out-, he includes the importance for children to play on trees, to admire all nature around, and to stop to admire nature sometimes.
It can easily be argued that Frost believed that little difference existed between humanity’s inner nature and the nature of the world which surrounded him. Time and again Frost personifies nature in human terms and points out the many ways in which what happens in an individual’s life is a reflection of what occurs in the natural world. In fact, it can be said that this poet viewed nature as being separate from humanity only by the virtue by which humanity removes itself from the outside world. In other words, nature never leaves, humans are the ones to leave nature. Many of Frost’s poems clearly demonstrate the ways in which the peace of being fully juxtaposed to nature when a human steps outside their rigid human realm and learns to appreciate their natural surroundings.
Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” and “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” both portray weighing of choices in life. The former is about youth and experiencing life and the latter is about old age, or more probably, an old spirit wearied by life. In both poems the speaker is in a critical situation where he has to choose between two paths in life. In “The Road Not taken” the speaker chooses the unconventional approach to the decision making process, thus showing his uniqueness and challenging mentality while in “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” the speaker seeks a life without any pain and struggle but at the end, he has to comply with social obligation, which reflects his responsibility towards the society.
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.
...ert Frost 's poems, I now see his poems in a different perspective. I once thought as many do, that Frost 's poems where about nature but now I know that Frost 's true intention was of “taking life by the throat” (Frost Interview). While others consider him as a nature poet, Frost doesn’t believe himself as one and we can see his perspective in his poems but especially in “Mowing,” “After Apple-Picking,” and “The Road Not Taken.” Frost actually uses nature as an analogy to human life experiences or the troubles that people go through. He reflects these poems back to his personal life and the struggles he has been through also. After researching and reading about Robert Frost I have became very fond his work and enjoy looking deeper into his work trying to picture what he truly meant. While Frost uses a simple idea like nature, he relates it back to human nature.