Robert Frost

Sayed Mansoor Afzali

ID: 12195

Prof. Raj Chandarlapaty

ENG 240
Date: May 12, 2014

Assignment 3: Survey of American Literature I
Robert Frost
Robert Frost was one of the most prominent American poets of the twentieth century. He was born in the United States and moved to England at the age of 38. His first books were published in England. According to a researcher at the Institute of
American Culture, “Robert Frost can be said as the only of nature poet of eminence in modern American poetry.” (Tien). Frost’s poems reflect his interest in nature and man himself. Nature is usually prominent in his poems and most of the times includes an instant of contact between a man and nature, in which man speaks to a phenomenon.
These interactions produce a sense of realization and have vital results for the man speaking. According to his poems, this encounter can result in enhancing one’s knowledge about nature and about himself.
Another feature of Frost’s poetry is his ability to use metaphoric language. This theme is common in most of his poems. He is quoted to have said, “There are many other things I have found myself saying about poetry, but the chiefest of these is that it is metaphor, saying one thing and meaning another, saying one thing in terms of another, the pleasure of ulteriority. Poetry is simply made of metaphor.” (Frost, The Constant
Symbol). His poems such as the “After Apple-Picking” also reflect upon this theme. For instance, the poem “After Apple-Picking” is about picking apples and winter season, however, its actual meaning is to signify the idea of harvesting human efforts and death.

1

In “The Oven Bird”, Frost talks about an oven bird who sits on a tree and sings about the arrival of winter season. This poem contains an element of sadness.
When the bird watches the leaves fall it is saddened by it. A similar trend is found in humans when they experience change of trends in their lives. The element of metaphor is once again imminent in the poem. The fall season represents old age while winter is known to portray death. The poem towards the end poses a philosophical question. Since life is short, what we need to think about is how to make it useful.
His poem “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” portrays simplicity and the human desire towards observing nature. He says:
The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep
Frost tries to drag the reader’s attention to the idea that nature is beautiful and should be experienced. However, our obligations do not allow us to do so. The last two lines reflect upon living life and enjoying it. The short poem seems to convey this message to the reader that enjoying nature is highly important for enjoying life.
His other poems about nature also portray his love towards describing nature. For instance, in “Design”, Frost explains a simple scene of nature which involves a spider, a moth, and a flower. He portrays nature as evil and dark. It may is due to the fact that he believed in Darwin’s theory of evolution which mainly involves struggle for survival and
2

brutal killings. This theme is prominent in this poem. It seems like he is mocking at the idea of design. He tries to say that although the element of design exists, it is a deadly design—the one which is brutal.
“The Road Not Taken” is another of his brilliant works. In this poem, the poet is in a state of dilemma. He does not know which of the two roads he should take. As he says:
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth
The poem tries to explore the twists and turns of life by comparing them with bents in roads. The poet mentions that both roads are used equally. This could be translated as pointing to our free will and fortune. We are always dealing with alternatives but we never get to decide what we choose between beforehand. Hence, our way of life is determined by chance and informed decisions and we cannot separate the two. Frost says that he must travel on one of the two roads, meaning that his life may completely change if he chooses either one. He remains confused and at the end has to make a decision and travel on of the roads. However, the title of the poem “The Road Not Taken” gives the impression that the poet wasn’t happy with his decision or he was thinking about the other road—the one he didn’t take.

3

In “The Tuft of Flowers”, Frost once again shows his pleasure towards nature. In the poem, a speaker goes to a field to observe the grass which has been mowed. He sees a butterfly. His attention then diverts to a bunch of flowers which the mower has left standing. The speaker on encountering the flowers experiences the pleasure the mower might have felt when he left the flowers. The theme of relationship between humans is prominent in this case. The man observing the flowers feels like being related to the mower. In the beginning, he feels lonely, but his loneliness is gone after encountering the beauty of the flowers and the feeling of the mower.
Similar theme can be found in his poem “Mending Wall”. The poem describes how the speaker is unhappy with the wall that separates him and his neighbor. He says that the wall does not make sense as there are no cows that would be stolen. On the other hand, his neighbor sticks to the old idea of separating neighborhoods with walls. Frost tries to say that man has to overcome the old idea of separating one another by meaningless walls. Instead, there should be mutual trust and communication between the neighbors. This idea of building trust and relation could in turn help us to grow as humans.
The whole idea of making barriers between each other is non-significant. This backward thinking should be replaced with positive thinking and enhancement of relationship among humans. In conclusion, Robert Frost has had a variety of themes in his poetry. His focus has always been on natural beauty and man. His poems have usually have a speaker who questions a certain phenomenon. This theme appears in many of his poems. He believes that man could progress by understanding nature and experiencing it.
4

Metaphorical theme is prominent in his poems. His poems mean one thing on the surface but contain an incredibly deeper meaning. Moreover, his poems present confusions and different dilemmas instead of presenting solutions or giving advises. It is these abilities of
Robert Frost that make him one of the best poets of the modern American poetry.

Works Cited
Frost, Robert. The American Tradition in Literature. Ed. George Perkins and Barbara
Perkins. 10th Edition. New York: McGraw Hill Companies, Inc., 2002. 1386-1410.
—. "The Constant Symbol." Atlantic Monthly (1946).
Tien, Morris Wei-hsin. "Frost 's Realistic Approach to Man and Nature." Academia Sinica
(1998): 31.

5

Cited: Frost, Robert. The American Tradition in Literature. Ed. George Perkins and Barbara Perkins. 10th Edition. New York: McGraw Hill Companies, Inc., 2002. 1386-1410. —. "The Constant Symbol." Atlantic Monthly (1946). Tien, Morris Wei-hsin. "Frost 's Realistic Approach to Man and Nature." Academia Sinica (1998): 31. 5