Preview

Nature as a Common Theme in Frost's Poems Essay Example

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1360 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Nature as a Common Theme in Frost's Poems Essay Example
Robert Frost
The Woods are Lovely, Dark and Deep

In the poems I have analyzed that were written by Robert Frost, the common theme is always nature. The theme nature encompasses so many areas but can be narrowed even more specifically to Robert Frost's fascination with woods and trees. There must be a reason why Robert Frost is compelled to use this as an almost constant theme. By looking at his poems with biographical criticism it may be easier to see what motivated his fascination with woods and trees. He uses woods and trees as a medium to express his thoughts about change and other views on life. Robert Frost's imagery of woods and trees is also extraordinary. He portrays the woods as a lovely but dark place. Robert Frost is known as one of the finest rural New England's 20th century pastoral poets. After studying at Harvard but not receiving a degree, Robert Frost moved to Derry, New Hampshire and worked there as a cobbler, farmer and teacher. In 1915, Robert Frost bought a farm near Franconia, New Hampshire. In 1920 he bought another farm in South Shaftsbury, Vermont. This serves as a reason for his love of nature and his constant use of woods and trees as images in his poems. Because he lived on farms a good portion of his life, Frost's images of woods and trees were probably taken from his everyday life. The images he provides us of in these poems are extremely vivid and realistic. In "Birches" we get an excellent sense of Robert Frost's image of woods and trees. In the beginning of the poem, Robert Frost describes the setting as a darkly wooded landscape, "When I see birches bend to left and right, Across the straighter darker trees" (Frost 77). He describes with admiration the ice coating on the birch trees and describes the melting of it as that, "You'd think the inner dome of heaven had fallen" (Frost 77). He further describes the bending and malleable quality of the birch tree being due to natural force, not human activity (as would be the

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Robert Frost was born in San Francisco, California on March 26, 1874. Two years after his father would be diagnosed with pulmonary tuberculosis and would later die in 1885, his mother would also die at a young age in 1901. In 1885 Frost would attend Dartmouth College but would later drop out and take a number of jobs including: working in a factory and delivering papers. Then in the early 1890’s he would work in New England as a farmer, editor, and…

    • 607 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Birch and Frost

    • 1187 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The poem, "Birches," by Robert Frost evokes all of the senses. Whether it is the rhythmic flow of the poem or the mere need to recite the words for a clearer understanding, the images that flood the mind are phenomenal. Imagery is an essential part of poetry. It creates a visual understanding of the overall meaning of the poem and gives a glimpse into the unsaid mind of Robert Frost. The imagery also paints a scene of cold wintry days and warmth of summer nights. Robert Frost, while knowing the realistic causes behind the bent birch trees, prefers to add an imaginative interpretation behind the bending of the birches. He also uses the entire poem to say something profound about life. The message that Frost could be implying is that life can be hard and people can lose there way, but there will always be innocence, love and beauty in the world if people look for it. Frost uses imagery to convey this meaning throughout the poem.…

    • 1187 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Frost establishes the birch tree’s beauty through the use of symbols in the colour white. The colour white symbolizes beauty and purity. Frost compares the birch’s beauty to the sun’s ability to be bright. “Soon entirely white / To double day and cut in half the dark” (ll 4-5) The speaker comments on the birch’s ability, being beautiful, to make the days twice as bright, establishing the blinding beauty of the birch tree. The colour white symbolizes not only beauty, but death. Frost uses this symbolism to establish the inevitability of death. “…crack it’s outer sheath / Of baby green and show the white beneath” (ll 1-2) Frost uses the speaker’s comment on the growth of the birch tree to establish the beauty that was always within the tree, but also death, which is apart of every natural living being. Frost establishes the birch tree’s beauty, but also the inevitable death in his use of symbolism in the colour white.…

    • 810 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Eulogy -Robert Frost

    • 1760 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Though his work is predominantly associated with the life and scenery of New England, and though he was a poet of traditional verse forms and metrics who remained unfalteringly detached from the poetic movements and fashions of his time, Frost is anything but a merely regional or minor poet. The author of searching and often dark meditations on universal themes he is essentially a modern poet who spoke truthfully in all that encompasses, his work inspired…

    • 1760 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Robert Frost

    • 512 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In the poem ‘The Wood – Pile’ Robert Frost uses a very tight structure, it is a sum of one stanza which he has used in other poems such as “Out Out -”. This poem is first person narration, which is another thing that a lot of Frost poems share in common, the setting of the poem is introduced in the first line of the poem ‘the frozen swap’ this releases visual imagery straight away. The last two words of the first line of the poem ‘gray day’ Frost uses internal rhyme the theme of the poem is nature it is set outside and it also it involves tree’s and birds Frost tells the story using this as the stake and the prop is natural resources and the wood-pile is society and because we are using nature up, it is soon going to collapse.…

    • 512 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Robert Frost, who died in 1963 at the age of 88, is one of the most cherished American poets. Over the course of his long career he achieved a level of fame and popularity that few poets other have seen and his works continue to have an impact on readers today. He loved the New England countryside and lived there for many years. The New England countryside is his primary subject, there are many different things to be heard and seen and experienced in this region.…

    • 725 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Robert Lee Frost was an American born poet, winner of four Pulitzer Price in poetry. Robert Frost’s career took off after moving to England in 1912 where his first book as a poet was published “A boy’s will.” Upon his return to the United States Mr. Frost’s reputation had been acknowledged and accepted, and thus he became a teacher while he continued to write poetry. In 1961…

    • 1600 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Robert Frost's story began on march 26 1874 and ended on january 29, 1963. Frost was born in san francisco, California. Frost lived there for 11 years until his father died of tuberculous. Frost, his mother, and his sisters moved to lawrence, massachusetts. In massachusetts frost met his wife in high school, Elinor White was frosts co-valedictorian throughout high school. They had 5 children 4 of the 5 died from all different causes, and the one who remains has a mental issue. Their oldest Elliot died of cholera, their son Carol killed himself, Marjorie died giving birth, and the youngest Elinor died shortly after birth. To sum it up his life was difficult and one would say these traumatic experiences affected his writing. (“bio.com”)…

    • 124 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Robert Frost Outline

    • 1015 Words
    • 5 Pages

    B. Scope and Sequence-Robert Frost often wrote about his own life experiences those were many of his inspirations for poetry. He wrote about experiences in Massachusetts and New England. After moving to Massachusetts that’s were his poetry career started to build up and expand. Later on in his adulthood he worked as a teacher and continued to write more poems. He didn’t have much luck with his poetry in America so he moved…

    • 1015 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    In the first stanza, the man driving the horse describes stopping near another man 's woods whose house is in the village. The man is watching the woods fill up with snow. In the first line he first mentions the wood which immediately gives the reader an outdoor and a rural feeling. This is followed in the next line by the narrator saying he knows the man who lives in the village that owns these woods. This mention of the village leads the reader away from the peacefulness of the woods filling up with snow and back into the village. I think that the purpose of frost mentioning that the man who owns the woods is to illustrate the irony of how something so peaceful and natural can be owned by someone who lives away in a bustling city. Line three, "He will not see me stopping here," implies that the narrator knows that…

    • 1539 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    We start off the poem with Frost imagining a forest of bent birch trees. He wishes that the trees were bent by children playing on them, a nostalgic, childhood merriment that Frost once engaged in when he was a child, but we’ll get more into that later. Despite his lofty indulgence, he knows what really causes the birches to bend, and that is the “ice-storms”. Using this fact, he goes on to elaborate on the beauty of birch trees; such as comparing the falling ice from the trees as “crystal shells”, or as “the inner dome of heaven had fallen” and even going on to say the trailing leaves were “like girls on hands and knees that throw their hair before them over their heads to dry in the sun”. He tends to lose himself in this embellished fabrication…

    • 218 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Robert Frost Quick Bio.

    • 353 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Born in March 26, 1874 Frost grew up in San Francisco, California with a younger brother and his two parents. Stricken with tragedy, Frost’s younger brother died of tuberculosis when Robert was only the age of eleven. His mother, not being able to take the tragic scene fled back to their hometown where he enrolled in high school. During his high school years, Robert became fond of writing and joined the high school newspapers. While writing, Frost ended up publishing his first poem ever in the high school newspaper which definitely got his mind started.…

    • 353 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    During his life, Robert Frost, the icon of American literature, wrote many poems that limned the picturesque American Landscape. His mostly explicated poems “Birches” and “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” reflect his young manhood in the rural New England. Both of these poems are seemingly straightforward but in reality, they deal with a higher level of complexity and philosophy. Despite the difference in style and message, “Birches” and “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” are loaded with vivid imagery and symbolism that metaphorically depict the return to the nature and childhood, the struggle between reality and imagination, and also freedom and captivation.…

    • 732 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Robert Frost Essay

    • 763 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Robert Frost portrayed his love for nature and separation from society in his poem, The Vantage Point. In the octave when the narrator goes back to “mankind” he just looks at the houses and graves. For Frost being part of the world was just observing society from the outskirts. His separation from society may have been a result of continuously being rejected. In the sestet when Frost is in the world of nature he seems to be more connected with it. He sees the details and is involved in them. These descriptions imply not only observation but a relationship (Maxson, 32). Robert Frost was influenced by Henry Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson, which explains his high regard for nature (Fagan, 346). Since Frost saw nature as an equal not below him he was able to find comfort in its many gorgeous aspects.…

    • 763 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “The ambiguity Frost finds in nature becomes a metaphor for the ambiguity he finds in the Human experience” (1). This exposes us to one of Frosts my ideas on nature. He believes that nature is uncertain, unclear, and spontaneous. He makes a direct connection with this to humans, we, like nature, are unpredictable. In his poem Birches he uses the little boy playing in the trees to show the human experience and how it correlates with nature, in his poem Stopping by the Woods he uses the narrator just the same. Birches exposes us to a child who wishes to ‘capture’ the trees, “Frost may be suggesting that the boys need to subdue and conquer the trees points to the destructive side of human nature”(1). In Stopping by Woods something similar is shown; “My little horse must think it queer. To stop without a farmhouse near. Between the woods and frozen lake. The darkest evening of the year……. The woods are lovely dark and deep…” This is a direct quote from Frosts poem, in these stanzas (this is an excerpt from stanza 2 and 4) one can draw many…

    • 1283 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays