How Does Robert Frost Use Of Human Nature
“Some say the world will end in fire, some say in ice. From what I’ve tasted of desire, I hold those who favor fire.” In this excerpt from Frost’s poem, “Fire and Ice”, the usage of the idea of the end of the world illustrates how Frost uses nature in his poem. In Robert Frost’s poems: “Fire and Ice”, “A Prayer in Spring”, and “Desert Place”, the power of nature is exercised metaphorically to exemplify the positive and negative aspects of human nature. Human nature can be described as pure nature; one minute, people are content with life and then the next they are devastated with it. Humans are just as complex in personality and behavior as is nature with its change in seasons and etc. Robert Lee Frost, one of America’s greatest poets, was born on March 26, 1874 in San Francisco, California. He grew up in Lawrence, Massachusetts after his father’s death and attended Lawrence High School. During his senior year of high school, he started writing poetry and realized that was what he wanted to do for the rest of his life. Frost then married his high school sweetheart, Elinor White, and they raised their family in Derry, New Hampshire for a few years, and then took his family and moved to England because he wasn’t
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being recognized as a poet. He then decided that he would move back to New Hampshire after two and a half years, and upon his return, he was considered a prominent poet. The year he wrote “A Prayer in Spring”, 1915, he returned to the United States, which inspired the joyful emotions that are expressed throughout the poem. The Frost family, then, packed up and moved to Vermont, which the poem “Fire and Ice” was created. Frost loved living on the farm in Vermont, but the cold winters created a challenge for him and his apple trees. He wrote this poem to depict how destructive the seasons can be and how he felt about his apple trees. In 1936, just two years before his wife’s death he wrote “Desert Places”. At that time, the family had moved to Shaftsbury, Vermont, where the surroundings inspired his poems. Robert Frost, overall, used his surroundings and problems in his everyday life to create some of the most notorious poems in American literature. In Frost’s poem, “Desert Places”, the line “And lonely as it is, that loneliness will be more lonely ere it will be less” personifies nature as being lonely in the place it dwells in (Poemhunter).
Throughout this piece of poetry, Frost depicts himself, possibly, or another narrator as being in a meadow at night. This is suggested by “Snow falling and night falling fast, oh, fast in a field” (Poemhunter). The narrator is in an empty meadow and snow is falling all around him, emphasizing the factor of loneliness. This poem depicts a negative aspect of human nature. A person can feel so alone and isolated within themselves that they do basically have something surrounding them; “woods around it” supports this theory
(Poemhunter). Contrastingly, “A Prayer in Spring” expresses a more positive aspect of human nature. “Pleasure in the flowers to-day” illustrates how people can find pleasure or happiness in nature, such as flowers (Poemhunter). They can represent a safe haven for an individual. The repetition of “And make us happy” personifies how nature can really influence human nature and behavior by just describing how little things in nature, such as bees and trees (Poemhunter). “For this is love and nothing else is love” (Poemhunter) represents how a person can behave while they are joyful and how much they can love themselves. The positive connotation expresses how nature can be used to describe delightful experiences in the human world. In contrast to the other two poems, Frost’s “Fire and Ice” poem views nature as destructive. “From what I’ve tasted of desire I hold those who favor fire” (Poetry Foundation). This line represents the detestation that can consume human nature and cause pure destruction. Even metaphorically, hate can consume someone and cause them to destroy themselves inside and out. “I think I know enough of hate to say that for destruction ice is also great” (Poetry Foundation). This line does refer to hatred but more in a cold-hearted way, hence Frost’s use of ice. Another way to view this poem would be from a relationship aspect. The fire can represent how “quickly passion can consume a relationship” (Grade Saver). Since passion has taken control of human nature, it can quickly, burn out. Frosts’ usage of fire and ice negatively, emphasizes that not everything in the world is as great and it can be destructive, mentally and physically. Finally, nature can affect human nature just as much as anything else. “Fire and Ice” and “Desert Places” provide an outlook on nature being depicted in negative connotations. In each poem, though, all deal with nature becoming an emotion or being personified as emotions that human nature can be expressed as. Also, another comparison would be that Frost uses his surroundings from where he’s lived in the United States and England to provide inspiration for how he’s feeling or how is “characters” in his poems are feeling at that present moment in time. All in all, Frost’s poems use nature as a true symbol of how human nature can be portrayed, even as the true nature of Earth. On the other hand, all three of Frost’s poems have one central thread: nature is used metaphorically to describe negatively and positively how human nature can truly be. These poems really define who Robert Frost is as a poet because he uses his surroundings to truly capture what he’s feeling or what problems he is having in his life at that present moment. They define the whole nature theme by personifying actual emotions that human beings feel. These poems were not really written in a specific time period of literature but they do have qualities of Romantic poems by using nature in almost all of Frost’s poems. In conclusion, Robert Frost uses nature to illustrate how human nature can be described metaphorically. His surroundings and his emotions in each of the three poems and in all of his poems actually, inspire the positive and negative connotations of human nature and the complexity of the human mind within itself.
being recognized as a poet. He then decided that he would move back to New Hampshire after two and a half years, and upon his return, he was considered a prominent poet. The year he wrote “A Prayer in Spring”, 1915, he returned to the United States, which inspired the joyful emotions that are expressed throughout the poem. The Frost family, then, packed up and moved to Vermont, which the poem “Fire and Ice” was created. Frost loved living on the farm in Vermont, but the cold winters created a challenge for him and his apple trees. He wrote this poem to depict how destructive the seasons can be and how he felt about his apple trees. In 1936, just two years before his wife’s death he wrote “Desert Places”. At that time, the family had moved to Shaftsbury, Vermont, where the surroundings inspired his poems. Robert Frost, overall, used his surroundings and problems in his everyday life to create some of the most notorious poems in American literature. In Frost’s poem, “Desert Places”, the line “And lonely as it is, that loneliness will be more lonely ere it will be less” personifies nature as being lonely in the place it dwells in (Poemhunter).
Throughout this piece of poetry, Frost depicts himself, possibly, or another narrator as being in a meadow at night. This is suggested by “Snow falling and night falling fast, oh, fast in a field” (Poemhunter). The narrator is in an empty meadow and snow is falling all around him, emphasizing the factor of loneliness. This poem depicts a negative aspect of human nature. A person can feel so alone and isolated within themselves that they do basically have something surrounding them; “woods around it” supports this theory
(Poemhunter). Contrastingly, “A Prayer in Spring” expresses a more positive aspect of human nature. “Pleasure in the flowers to-day” illustrates how people can find pleasure or happiness in nature, such as flowers (Poemhunter). They can represent a safe haven for an individual. The repetition of “And make us happy” personifies how nature can really influence human nature and behavior by just describing how little things in nature, such as bees and trees (Poemhunter). “For this is love and nothing else is love” (Poemhunter) represents how a person can behave while they are joyful and how much they can love themselves. The positive connotation expresses how nature can be used to describe delightful experiences in the human world. In contrast to the other two poems, Frost’s “Fire and Ice” poem views nature as destructive. “From what I’ve tasted of desire I hold those who favor fire” (Poetry Foundation). This line represents the detestation that can consume human nature and cause pure destruction. Even metaphorically, hate can consume someone and cause them to destroy themselves inside and out. “I think I know enough of hate to say that for destruction ice is also great” (Poetry Foundation). This line does refer to hatred but more in a cold-hearted way, hence Frost’s use of ice. Another way to view this poem would be from a relationship aspect. The fire can represent how “quickly passion can consume a relationship” (Grade Saver). Since passion has taken control of human nature, it can quickly, burn out. Frosts’ usage of fire and ice negatively, emphasizes that not everything in the world is as great and it can be destructive, mentally and physically. Finally, nature can affect human nature just as much as anything else. “Fire and Ice” and “Desert Places” provide an outlook on nature being depicted in negative connotations. In each poem, though, all deal with nature becoming an emotion or being personified as emotions that human nature can be expressed as. Also, another comparison would be that Frost uses his surroundings from where he’s lived in the United States and England to provide inspiration for how he’s feeling or how is “characters” in his poems are feeling at that present moment in time. All in all, Frost’s poems use nature as a true symbol of how human nature can be portrayed, even as the true nature of Earth. On the other hand, all three of Frost’s poems have one central thread: nature is used metaphorically to describe negatively and positively how human nature can truly be. These poems really define who Robert Frost is as a poet because he uses his surroundings to truly capture what he’s feeling or what problems he is having in his life at that present moment. They define the whole nature theme by personifying actual emotions that human beings feel. These poems were not really written in a specific time period of literature but they do have qualities of Romantic poems by using nature in almost all of Frost’s poems. In conclusion, Robert Frost uses nature to illustrate how human nature can be described metaphorically. His surroundings and his emotions in each of the three poems and in all of his poems actually, inspire the positive and negative connotations of human nature and the complexity of the human mind within itself.