Robert Frost, an American poet of the late 19th century was dubbed as one of America’s finest poets. Literally, his poems reflect the serene appreciation of quiet living in the countryside, the simple appreciation over small things and the values of life (Fagan, 33). In this paper, I would like to argue that Robert Frost’s poems reflect individuality, despite the gentle poetic words of his poems. Normally, a reader might perceive Frost as an ‘effeminate; due to the quality of his chosen words. Most poets at the time of war use a much stronger voice in order to express their feelings. However, Frost was different and he broke the traditional ‘flowery phrases’ by using simple words that can be understood by any class of people. Nevertheless, he is the poet of the people (Fagan, 36).
Frost was born in 1874 at San Francisco, California but his family migrated to New England after the death of his father when he was just 11 years old (Baym and Loeffelholz, 230). After getting acquainted with the place, Frost attended the local grammar school in Lawrence, Massachusetts and graduated there. Afterwards, he studied at Dartmouth and Harvard for just a short period of time. Later, he ended up living with his family in the quaint, charming state of New Hampshire, the place that made him famous in his poetry career. The North of Boston was his first book and was published in 1914 (Baym and Loeffelholz, 231). Experts in literature stated the author’s love for rhyme and rhythm in his own poems. Robert Frost saw the ground-breaking chapters in the history of mankind. Being born at the late Victorian era, he became one of the pioneers of the Modernist poets in America. These group of poets consider themselves as a simple people who can understand simple views of the common people of their kin (Richardson, 121). In a 1931 interview Frost argued that his poems is different compared to the traditional poets of the American literature. He stated that: “They do not care whether their communication is intelligible to others. Likewise, the meaning of their poems can only be understood by its own creator but neither by the readers” (Monteiro, 85). Quite an interesting fellow, Frost became the subject of fancy amongst Modernists and scrutiny amongst the traditional pioneers of American poetry. However, he disregarded all of their criticisms when he successfully published his first book, The North of Boston, a collection of poems written by Robert Frost himself. Modernists believed that every story had already been told, but that those stories could be told in new, experimental ways, and they strove to find those ways that had not yet been discovered. Frost, in this way, is both Modernist and not—he made no relevant departure from the poetic practices of the late nineteenth century; but he used his talents and experiences to create beautiful poems that reflect wisdom and contentment. His simple choice of words made his poems understandable by the common people, which in a way, a good method of expressing his inner thoughts and feelings without directly telling the readers. He borrowed bits and pieces from traditional Shakespearean and Petrarchan sonnet forms, and used meter as a way to liberate meaning, instead of restricting it. Basic structure gave a poet, Frost argued, a basis in which to fill with mood and meaning. One characteristic of Frost’s poetry was his imitation of the spoken word in order to enhance meaning. Frost often used the diction and accent of a New Englander, striving to find the simplest way of asserting something profound. He eschewed an expansive vocabulary and brought prestige to simple labor and farm work. Eventually, Frost’s poetry came to embody the American set of ideals: they were simple, yet stoic; realistic, but still beautiful. They told simple truths and discussed the truce between man and nature.
“I'm going out to clean the pasture spring;
I'll only stop to rake the leaves away” (Robert Frost’s Poems, 106).
In this poem “The Pasture,” Robert Frost uses both sound devices and metaphor to deliver his message. The poem is from the point of view of a speaker who is going out to clean the spring of leaves, and on second thought, invites the object of his words to come with him through the lines: “I sha'n't be gone long.—You come too” (Frost and Lathem, 16). One might presume that perhaps he is inviting a close friend or probably his wife because of the tonal quality of the words. Quite affectionate as the experts say, but in this line, Frost allows his readers to guess the gender as well as the character of the person he is talking to. Readers who have read Frost’s poem might argue of the gentle tone he used in the poem. The following lines suggest the feelings of empathy he must have felt and which “bespeaks an unabashed appeal to emotion” (Kilcup, 30). “I’m going out to fetch the little calf that is standing by the mother. It’s so young; it totters when she lick it with her tongue” (Robert Frost’s Poems, 106). The portrayal of the cow and its calf is the representation of a mother caring for her own child, an appealing scene of love among the readers of the late 20th century. Aside from the intense appeal of the mother, is the charming use of nature as the safe haven for both the mother and her child (cow and calf). Although seemingly unrecognizable in characterization, The Pasture inhabits the image of Mother Nature as a caring person capable of nurturing her child (Kilcup, 30). There are many instances in this poem of internal rhyme. There are many instances in this poem of internal rhyme. For instance, in the refrain, Frost writes: “I shan’t be gone long. – You come too.” The basic rhyme scheme of ABBC is consistent throughout the poem, and recalls a sing-songy, lullaby-esque rhythm. This rhyme is like one for a child, with basic language that would appeal to a child. Frost wrote this poem after taking a walk with his wife and daughter, and we can assume that he is writing to his baby girl. The assonance in “The Pasture” is seen very egregiously in line 3: “And wait to watch the water clear, I may,” another indicator of a poem written for a child’s delight. The metaphors that Frost uses are in the pasture, the spring, and the water. The word “pasture” evokes a feeling of retirement, a time to enjoy and connect. The word “spring,” along with the action of physically cleaning out a spring to clear the water (an action only performed in the spring-time), is a symbol of renewal and hope. Water provides a purifying feeling to the poem, and when juxtaposed with these two words evokes a sense of renewal of relationship, a time to devote to loved ones. The baby calf that “totters” brings to the poem a subject that is vulnerable and innocent, perhaps a metaphor for his little daughter. The refrain ending in “you come too” brings a sense of comfort, for the speaker is not leaving the subject, he is asking her to come along. Here, using these metaphors and sound devices, Frost communicates the beauty of being with loved ones in nature, and how something as simple as little chore in the pasture can bring about an appreciation of renewal and vulnerability. This poem follows the characteristics of Frost’s poetry, as it is a very literal, realistic scene, but is actually about loved ones and the compromise of man and nature.
“There was never a sound beside the wood but one,
And that was my long scythe whispering to the ground.
What was it whispered? I knew not well myself;
Perhaps it was something about the heat of the sun,” (Poetry Foundation, n.p.)
The first four lines began the first stanza of Frost’s poem, “Mowing”. The poet uses personification to depict the depict the scythe, probably as an extension of his being since in this writing, Frost assumes the character of a farmer or gardener tending his fields with the use of the scythe. Written in 1913, this poem best represents the simple, but hard rural life in the countryside. Most literary experts do not consider this to fit either the Shakespearean or Petrarchan sonnet but still, this is considered as a sonnet; just a free versed sonnet to be exact. This sound signifies the scythe, and with this device Frost allows us to hear its sound too. The poem, although it appears to be a sonnet, is neither Petrarchan or Shakespearean: Frost borrows bits from both of these forms to compound his own meaning—a very Modernist choice (Kilcup, 30). In the octet, Frost ponders the possibility of the supernatural speaking to him through the scythe. However, in the sextet, he decides an alternative: that a scythe is just a scythe, but what he learns is that labor is the truth, and to get to the truth, one must work. The internal rhyme in line 9, “Anything more than the truth would have seemed too weak,” (Poetry Foundation, n.p.) brings attention to the meaning of its words. Here Frost punctuates that truth is more important than any “dream of the gift of idle hours,” that any idle superfluous musings would actually fail the true message of the scythe. There are a few metaphors in this poem as well. The extended metaphor of the scythe can be seen in its symbolic nature as an object; a scythe can symbolize the passing of time, death, and harvest. However, it can also be just a scythe. Frost rejects the supernatural explanations of its sound. “Not without feeble-pointed spikes of flowers, (Pale orchises), and scared a bright green snake.” (Poetry Foundation, n.p.). The true things that exist are the “flowers,” “feeble pointed spikes” (buds), the “orchises,” the “bright green snake”—these things, while being metaphors for birth, sex, life, and love, are also beautiful in just what they are and not what they could be supposed to be (Fagan, 66). Here the common voice is best, what is real is best. In his final two lines Frost writes, “fact is the sweetest dream,” and stresses that “labor” is the only way to know that truth.
“There is a singer eveyone has heard,Loud, a mid-summer and a mid-wood bird,Who makes the solid tree trunks sound again.He says that leaves are old and that for flowers” (Poetry Foundation, n.p.)
This is both in actual sound and in meaning. The rhyme is simple and plaintive, much like the bird’s fairly unattractive call, and skips every other line. The use of repeated compound words evokes very strong images of fall and its hues. The “mid-summer,” “mid-wood,” “petal-fall,” and “cherry-bloom” make the reader feel as though they stand in the middle of this fall with Frost’s speaker. “And comes that other fall we name the fall” (Poetry Foundation, n.p.). Frost here also plays on the word “fall”—he is speaking about the season, but also about the natural fall of beings; as expressed by the line: “The bird would cease and be as other birds (Poetry Foundation, n.p.). It is that “other fall” that is the actual season, but the importance of fall in this poem is the “moment overcast” when things die or slip. Frost constructs a metaphor in the bird, whose other name is “teacher bird,” and the nature of this poem is to ask us a question we may not know the answer to. The bird becomes a fable, a beacon of autumn. Things become diminished, so what do we do when that happens? Frost suggests that we take nothing for granted, because all things must end. He is teaching us a lesson through his fabled bird. This poem repeats blunt sounds, using blunt words, and puts the echo of truth in the bird’s call. It is a lesson not only about man’s interaction with nature, but also what man can learn from nature. The nature of Frost’s poems, as it becomes clear, is nature itself. He writes to imitate life, not to deconstruct past traditions or create a statement. It is simplicity, and not academic complications, that truly teach us what we need to know. Though he may have taken some notes from the Modernist movement, Frost is an individual of his own, adhering to no standard. He stubbornly promotes the virtues of truth and stoicism, doing so through his many sound and literary techniques as well as his extensive use of metaphor. He provides us with deep meaning that is as accessible as it is uncomplicated. And in its simplicity it is beautiful.
Works Cited
Baym. Nina, and Mary Loeffelholz. “Robert Frost” Norton Anthology of American Literature. Vol.D. New York: W.W. Norton, 2007. 230-31. Print.
Fagan, Deirdre J. Critical Companion to Robert Frost. New York: Facts on File Inc., 2009. Print.
Frost, Robert, and Edward Connery Lathem. The Poetry of Robert Frost. New York: Holt,
Rinehart and Winston, 1975. Print.
Kilcup, Karen L. Robert Frost and Feminine Literary Tradition. Ann Arbor: University of
Michigan Press, 1998. Print.
Monteiro, George. Robert Frost & the New England Renaissance. Kentucky: The University
Press of Kentucky, 1988. Print.
Richardson, Mark. The Ordeal of Robert Frost. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1997. Print.
"Robert Frost." Poetry Foundation. Poetry Foundation, n.d. Web. 23 Nov. 2014.
Robert Frost’s Poems. 1st Ed. Poem Hunter, 2004. Web. 27 Nov. 2014.
