An Analysis Of Robert Frost's Poem 'Ice-Storm'

We start off the poem with Frost imagining a forest of bent birch trees. He wishes that the trees were bent by children playing on them, a nostalgic, childhood merriment that Frost once engaged in when he was a child, but we’ll get more into that later. Despite his lofty indulgence, he knows what really causes the birches to bend, and that is the “ice-storms”. Using this fact, he goes on to elaborate on the beauty of birch trees; such as comparing the falling ice from the trees as “crystal shells”, or as “the inner dome of heaven had fallen” and even going on to say the trailing leaves were “like girls on hands and knees that throw their hair before them over their heads to dry in the sun”. He tends to lose himself in this embellished fabrication
of his, most likely trying to remember the sheer tranquility of a time long forgotten. Despite this though, he eventually pops back in to reality when he says ‘But I was going to say when Truth broke in…” allowing himself to retrieve his bearings, and return to the plot once more. Whether this is the true interpretation or not, it offers a great start that grabs your attention, as it transits from a fictional description, to an eventual reality.