The Gift Outright, By Robert Frost

When reading the poem “The Gift Outright” by Robert Frost I was intrigued by how it came across. When reading it through the first time, it gives off the sense of an ancient people who were one with nature and watched the world change around them. More specifically, I believe Frost was at first referring to the Native Americans. The first few lines give off that ancient connection of man and nature that does not really exist today. It goes “The land was ours before we were the land’s / She was our land more than a hundred years / Before we were here people. She was ours” (1-3). There is a sense of mutual respect and ownership between the two. It is man’s duty to take care of the world because the world takes care of man. This is a very true
Later, it also talks about the people were struggling because of themselves; they made themselves weak and they were not giving back to the land, therefore, they could not find their salvation unless they let go of their worldly possessions. Lines eight through eleven are the ones that show this as they read, “Something we were withholding made us weak / Until we found out that it was ourselves / We were withholding from our land of living, / And forthwith found salvation in surrender.” (8-11). Perhaps this is why I relate this poem to the Native Americans, they did not believe in worldly possessions. They simply believed that the Earth watched over them as they watched over it, and that they had to understand that the only way to give back to the environment was to leave behind worldly belongings as they did not help with giving back to the
The first case of this is seen when Frost talks about England and a couple of the first few states, “In Massachusetts, in Virginia, / But we were England’s, still colonials,” (4-5). It is possible that this poem is focused on the first Americans and their quest of exploration which lead to the growth of an independent nation that they built from the ground up. That also brings to question of the last line talking about what made the people weak. If looking in on it from a colonial’s perspective, “Something we were withholding made us weak” could be England itself. Since the people had gone so long without dealing with England and they decide to take control all at once they saw that they could not truly grow because they were being controlled. Maybe that is why Frost also used the lines talking about war, “(The deed of gift was many deeds of war)” (13). Perhaps the “deed of gift” was the freedom the people won during the Revolutionary War. If this is the case Frost was a genius at putting this in. the last few lines after that seem to ponder the future of the new great country and how new civilization would spread as far west as it could. “To the land vaguely realizing westward, / But still unstoried, artless, unenhanced, / Such as she was, such as she would become.” (14-16). This could be Frost