FREE ESSAY ON FROST, ROBERT

FROST, ROBERT

Robert Frost, perhaps the greatest American poet of the twentieth century, has brought
himself great recognition. Many critics have tried to find a faulty side to his writing,
but they have had a difficult time because his writing romanticizes the rural simplicity
that he loved while probing into the mysteries of the universe (Estep 2). Three areas of
criticism covered are: a speaker's decision in choosing, a poem broken down into three
sections, and Frost's use of metaphors and style in his writing. 
Born in San Francisco, but raised in New England, many of Robert Frost's poems are
representations of his experiences in the northeastern parts of America. He was
unsuccessful in college never earning his degree, and for several years he supported his
family by tending to a farm his grandfather bought for him. In his spare time, Frost
would read and write anything and everything. Discouraged by his unsuccessful life as a
poet, he packed up his bags and moved to England. He continued writing and published his
first two books of poetry, which would gain him the recognition in America he had been in
search of (ExpLit 1).
One of Frost's most famous poems is The Road Not Taken. This poem is about someone who
comes to a fork in a path. One path is well beaten and treaded, while the other is less
traveled and more difficult. Is the traveler happy with the decision he has made to take
the road less traveled? Many critics think he may have had second thoughts.
Magill's Survey of American Literature states that there are many contradictions
throughout the poem, ...He seems to contradict his own judgment. The poet appears to
imply that the decision is based on evidence that is, or comes close to being an allusion
(Magill 64).The tone of the stanza and the title of the poem suggest that the traveler
may be regretting his choice because by making a choice to do one thing you have to give
up the opportunity to do another (Magill 74). I kept the first for another day! I shall
be telling this with a sigh.
Discovering Authors Modules agrees with other critics. Is he truly happy with his choice?
The traveler doesn't ever directly say he was happy with his choice, so is he satisfied?
In the poem it states, ...and that has made all the difference, but has it made all the
difference in a positive way (DAM 2). Frost also probes one of the great mysteries of
life: the ability to choose and the consequences of choosing (DAM 2).
The Literary Cafe also has similar ideas on the poem. After the traveler has chosen which
path to follow, he still yearns to travel both paths, saying that he'll keep the first
for another day. But, then he realizes that there is no return to the other path and that
the final decision has been made. At the end of the poem the traveler sighs, but is he
sighing because he is satisfied with his decision or because he may regret something
about choosing the path that he did (LitCaf 1).
Another famous poem by Robert Frost is Birches. It is a poem about the way the branches
on a birch tree bend in the winter. Many critics think the poem is divided into three
basic parts.
An Interpretation of Frost's Birches thinks the three parts are the scientific
explanation of the appearance of the birches, Frost's boyhood fantasy about their
appearance, and his present day interpretation of their appearance. The first section is
of the natural ways a branch would bend and crack because of weather. Loaded with ice a
sunny winter morning after a rain. The second is more of how the branches would bend
because of a little boy swinging on them. By riding them down over and over again until
he took the stiffness out of them. Then in the third section Frost expresses how the tree
reaches toward heaven and brings back memories of his childhood. And climb back branches
up a snow-white trunk Toward heaven.
Magill has also noticed the three sections but in a slightly different format, saying, It
can be separated into three almost equal parts: the observation and description of trees
bent by winter storms, the recollection of techniques of birch swinging, and the grown
man's dream, energized by his awareness of claims of both earth and heaven (Magill 69).
Magill also notices the many comparisons in Birches. There is that of childhood and
manhood, black and white colors of the branches, and maturity and early experience.
Discovering Authors Modules wasn't quite as direct as other sources, but they have the
same idea. The speaker in 'Birches' wonders whether a bent birch branch was cause by a
child at play or by natural elements and metaphorically links tree-climbing with
aspirations or heaven (Magill 72). This poem is broken down easily into the three
sections and Frost uses a creative approach to compare the branches on a birch tree to a
man remembering his boyhood experiences (Magill 74).
Frost's poems have been criticized as a whole because they are all so similar in his
style of writing. His use of imagery and metaphors along with stanza and meters is what
makes his writing so unique and remarkable. His writing is able to represent things so
much larger that the actual words can represent that sometimes critics don't even see the
purpose. His poem The Road Not Taken isn't but just four stanzas long, but what it
represents is enough to make someone rethink the kind of lifestyle they are leading and
to take the road less traveled by.
Lawrence Thompson, Frost's biographer, states ...No themes are more universal and
attractive than those which try to offer affirmative resolutions for the conflicts
dramatized in his life and his poetry. In Frost's poem Departmental he writes of how
people treat death and the dead by comparing us to something so small as ants carrying
off one of their dead. This comparison shows the reader how that even if death is so
common, it should still be treated with respect and dignity (Turpin and McCann 317).
Frost's poetic technique derives from the most basic factors in literature, the factors
that characterize the first great literary age of European culture, drama, and metaphor,
and beyond that, it has shown remarkable results in practice (APMRF 2).
One poem by Robert Frost, Fire and Ice, compares how fire and ice both have the ability
to destroy the world and should therefore be treated as equals. This comparison can
relate to so many everyday events it is unimaginable.
Discovering Authors Modules noticed Frost's use of metaphor in Birches. The speaker
metaphorically links tree-climbing with aspirations for heaven (DAM 2). And climb black
branches up a snow-white trunk Toward heaven.
Frost is without a doubt one of the greatest poets of the twentieth century. His goal in
life he once said was to write a few poems it will be hard to get rid of (Winnick 1). It
can be said that he probably surpassed his goal. Robert Frost's life has affected his
poetry and his poetry has also affected his life and the lives of many others who have
come to enjoy his fine writing. 
Bibliography
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