Misgiving by Robert Frost
Misgiving
By Robert Frost
All crying, 'We will go with you, O Wind!'
The foliage follow him, leaf and stem;
But a sleep oppresses them as they go,
And they end by bidding them as they go,
And they end by bidding him stay with them.
Since ever they flung abroad in spring
The leaves had promised themselves this flight,
Who now would fain seek sheltering wall,
Or thicket, or hollow place for the night.
And now they answer his summoning blast
With an ever vaguer and vaguer stir,
Or at utmost a little reluctant whirl
That drops them no further than where they were.
I only hope that when I am free
As they are free to go in quest
Of the knowledge beyond the bounds of life
It may not seem better to me to rest
One of the finest qualities in most of Frost's poems is the liberal use of nature for setting. Along with the use of seasons for backgrounds, he also utilizes trees and leaves to transfer human feeling onto them. Frost delivers his poetry in the easily comprehensible, conversational style of New England inhabitants of the twentieth century. The use of simple English metrics is admirably suited to the subjects and themes Frost presents.
In the poem, "Misgiving" (1923), Frost creates a metaphor by comparing the narrator's death and afterlife to the lifecycle of the leaf. When the leaf is finally released from its bondage to the tree, he implies that it has the option of flying free with the wind and exploring the world. Frost has shown the human protagonist identifying in some way with the trees, feeling somehow related to them because of mood, emotion, fear, or desires that are being projected onto the trees, creating relationships that are more than analogy, that approach an expression of identity. But, unfortunately, most leaves tend to fall straight to the ground and lie motionless against a wall or in a ravine. His hope is that his own impending departure from this mortal spiral is not equally as anticlimactic. He shows this by
By Robert Frost
All crying, 'We will go with you, O Wind!'
The foliage follow him, leaf and stem;
But a sleep oppresses them as they go,
And they end by bidding them as they go,
And they end by bidding him stay with them.
Since ever they flung abroad in spring
The leaves had promised themselves this flight,
Who now would fain seek sheltering wall,
Or thicket, or hollow place for the night.
And now they answer his summoning blast
With an ever vaguer and vaguer stir,
Or at utmost a little reluctant whirl
That drops them no further than where they were.
I only hope that when I am free
As they are free to go in quest
Of the knowledge beyond the bounds of life
It may not seem better to me to rest
One of the finest qualities in most of Frost's poems is the liberal use of nature for setting. Along with the use of seasons for backgrounds, he also utilizes trees and leaves to transfer human feeling onto them. Frost delivers his poetry in the easily comprehensible, conversational style of New England inhabitants of the twentieth century. The use of simple English metrics is admirably suited to the subjects and themes Frost presents.
In the poem, "Misgiving" (1923), Frost creates a metaphor by comparing the narrator's death and afterlife to the lifecycle of the leaf. When the leaf is finally released from its bondage to the tree, he implies that it has the option of flying free with the wind and exploring the world. Frost has shown the human protagonist identifying in some way with the trees, feeling somehow related to them because of mood, emotion, fear, or desires that are being projected onto the trees, creating relationships that are more than analogy, that approach an expression of identity. But, unfortunately, most leaves tend to fall straight to the ground and lie motionless against a wall or in a ravine. His hope is that his own impending departure from this mortal spiral is not equally as anticlimactic. He shows this by