Analysis of Frost
Desert Places
Snow falling and night falling fast, oh, fast
In a field I looked into going past,
And the ground almost covered smooth in snow,
But a few weeds and stubble showing last.
The woods around it have it--it is theirs.
All animals are smothered in their lairs.
I am too absent-spirited to count;
The loneliness includes me unawares.
And lonely as it is that loneliness
Will be more lonely ere it will be less--
A blanker whiteness of benighted snow
With no expression, nothing to express.
They cannot scare me with their empty spaces
Between stars--on stars where no human race is.
I have it in me so much nearer home
To scare myself with my own desert places.
The poem Desert Places by Robert Frost tells of the narrator's sad feelings upon observing a snow-covered field. As he speaks, it becomes clear that the vast emptiness of the landscape is a reflection of the narrator's own personal sense of isolation
The first stanza of the poem has an urgent feeling, as "snow" and "night" are "falling fast, oh, fast." The narrator is gazing into a desolate field that has only "a few weeds and stubble" to remind him that it is a piece of ground farmed by man. Soon, the narrator thinks, all of the field's distinctive features will be enveloped by the falling snow. In the second stanza, the narrator acknowledges that the surrounding woods are all that possess the field, saying, "it is theirs." No other living creature has a claim upon it. The narrator himself is "too absent spirited to count." This phrase is the first indication of the narrator's depressed state of mind. He is lonely and feels isolated from the world around him. Because of this, he identifies with the bleak picture before him.
The third stanza reinforces the narrator's emotional condition. It contains three variations of the word "lonely," as well as a prediction that things will get worse for him before they get better. There will be "a blanker whiteness of benighted snow," we are
Snow falling and night falling fast, oh, fast
In a field I looked into going past,
And the ground almost covered smooth in snow,
But a few weeds and stubble showing last.
The woods around it have it--it is theirs.
All animals are smothered in their lairs.
I am too absent-spirited to count;
The loneliness includes me unawares.
And lonely as it is that loneliness
Will be more lonely ere it will be less--
A blanker whiteness of benighted snow
With no expression, nothing to express.
They cannot scare me with their empty spaces
Between stars--on stars where no human race is.
I have it in me so much nearer home
To scare myself with my own desert places.
The poem Desert Places by Robert Frost tells of the narrator's sad feelings upon observing a snow-covered field. As he speaks, it becomes clear that the vast emptiness of the landscape is a reflection of the narrator's own personal sense of isolation
The first stanza of the poem has an urgent feeling, as "snow" and "night" are "falling fast, oh, fast." The narrator is gazing into a desolate field that has only "a few weeds and stubble" to remind him that it is a piece of ground farmed by man. Soon, the narrator thinks, all of the field's distinctive features will be enveloped by the falling snow. In the second stanza, the narrator acknowledges that the surrounding woods are all that possess the field, saying, "it is theirs." No other living creature has a claim upon it. The narrator himself is "too absent spirited to count." This phrase is the first indication of the narrator's depressed state of mind. He is lonely and feels isolated from the world around him. Because of this, he identifies with the bleak picture before him.
The third stanza reinforces the narrator's emotional condition. It contains three variations of the word "lonely," as well as a prediction that things will get worse for him before they get better. There will be "a blanker whiteness of benighted snow," we are