Robert Fost: Poetic Qualities

With the publication of “A Boy’s Will” (1913) and “North to Boston” (1914) Frost became
the first American poet to be widely read.

Frost has been regarded as a “regional poet”. His region was New England of two best states
in U.S.A. He never felt the slightest desire to include all America within the scope of his
poetry. His regionalism resembles from Emily Dickinson’s. The New England provides him
with the stories, attitudes, characters, which are appropriate to his needs. He falls in love with
the New England tradition and it gives him strength. His work seems to capture the vanished
joys of apple picking, hay-making, the sleep of an old man alone in an old farmhouse, the
cleaning of the pasture spring. No American writer knows the subjects, people and places as
thoroughly as Frost does. Frost is certainly a realist. He never says too much. In stories, he
uses suggestion and understatement.

Frost is chiefly lyrical. The pomes are a spontaneous expression of the youthful heart. Frost
shows emotion, imagery and song. As regards imagery, they are full of beauties of the
darkness of late autumn, still depths of winter, and intensity of the swift summer. He has
written lyrics light-hearted and humorous and philosophical. Often the two extremes are
combines. He has written a few love lyrics too.

The form employed by Frost is dramatic. But in some of his most successful pieces he has
subordinated both drama and character to straightforward poetic narrative. In “The Code” a
farm hand tells how he killed the employer by burying him under a load of hay violating an
unwritten law of the fields because of made some trivial sign on his work. Here Frost has
sketched out, half-humorously a story showing peculiar local customs, the odd expressions of
personal pride which develop in a remote rural community. In the “Witch of Coos” a
humorously gruesome story of violence, brooding and hallucination appears what is probably
the most unusual ghost in American literature. At once realistic and fantastic, cynically
coarse and delicately beautiful, “Paul’s Wife” is an amazingly successful fusion of the most
disparate qualities.
Frost showed a philosophical bent of mind from the very beginning. He does not have any
philosophical system or set of beliefs. He inclines to the inquiring manner. Often he expresses
himself in a humorous or satirical vein and shows an epigrammatic gift.

Sometimes we have a blend of the familiar essays and the parable in Frost’s philosophical
poems with illustrative anecdotes. “Mending Walls” is a humorous portrayal through rural
anecdote of the liberal, inquiring man confronted with the man of inertia. Then there are two
poems of a different kind. “A Masque of Reason” and “A Masque of Mercy”, in which the
poet undertakes, if not Milton’s task of justifying God’s ways to men at least the more
modest task of speculating about them.

Many of Frost’s poems are capable of a symbolic interpretation. The surface meaning of
“Mending Wall” is ‘Good fences make good neighbours’ but symbolically the poem states
the serious problem of our times. Should national boundaries be made stronger for our
protection or should they be removed since they restrict our progress towards international
brotherhood? “The Mountain” symbolizes the un-inquisitive, the unadventurous and the un-
ambitious spirit. “The Road Not Taken” symbolically deals with the choice problem.

Frost is not a Nature poet in the tradition of Wordsworth. He insists upon the boundaries
between man and the forces of Nature. He sees no pervading spirit in the natural world and
regards it as impersonal and unfeeling. He treats nature both as comfort and menace.

Frost shows a strong disinclination towards city life. He has written no poems on friendship.
He has written love poems, but misunderstanding is a constant theme in them. His poetry has
curious anti-social quality. Almost every poem in “North of Boston” deals with the theme of
alienation. “Desert Places” describes a similar mood and situation. Many of his poems are
about the sense and the feeling of loneliness not a peculiarly American dilemma but as a
universal situation. Sometimes he approaches this problem in an optimistic manner as in “Our
Hold on the Planet”.

A critic has listed the typical qualities of Frost’s poetry like Frost’s tenderness, sadness and
humour; his seriousness and honesty; his sorrowful acceptance of things as they are without
exaggeration or explanation; his many poems with real people, real speech, real thoughts and
real emotions; subtlety and exactness and a classical under-statement and restraint.
In conclusion it may be pointed out that Frost has been described as a symbolist, a spiritual
drifter, a home-spun philosopher, a lyricist, a moralist, a preacher and a farmer who writes
verse.
Frost's theme of isolation
One of the most striking themes of Frost is man’s isolation in the universe or man’s sense of
alienation from his environment. There is in Frost’s poetry a curious anti-social quality, far
from Whitman’s dear love of comrades. He has a strong disinclination towards city life which
has gone beyond a dislike of the city life. For instance, he has written no poems of friendship.
He has written love-poems but misunderstandings are a constant theme in them, produced by
some deep solitariness, some unbreakable barrier between soul and soul.

A circumstance in Frost’s personal life too contributed to the theme of isolation. Frost’s
sister, Jeanie, had become totally alienated from the world, unable to accept the coarseness
and brutality of existence. Frost’s sadness in being unable to dissuade her from the view of
things is similar to the plight of the husband in “Home Burial”. The young woman in this
poem cannot reconcile herself to the death of her child and becomes totally alienated.

Frost in his poems isolates the individual. Poem after poem shows the speaker running off or
living the life alone. He who flees goes to confront the vast enigma of space and the night.

The memorable female figures in his poems all show some kind of singularity. If loneliness
may be stimulating for the male, for the female it is likely to be disastrous.

In “Acquainted with the Night”, the word “night” may be interpreted in several ways. But
one convincing interpretation is Nature. Throughout the poem there are people – seen, heard,
or known to be there – but there is no direct contact with Nature. Nature does not govern
man’s affairs but proclaims the time. The writer here shows his realization and understanding
of his predicament:

One luminary clock against the sky

Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right.
I have been one acquainted with the night.

This poem deserves comparison with “Desert Places” which too has loneliness or isolation as
its theme. All animals have taken shelter in their lairs. The poet is oppressed by a feeling of
loneliness:

And lonely as it is that loneliness

Will be more lonely ere it will be less.

The poet is not afraid of the empty spaces between the stars, stars on which there is no human
race. Why should they scare him with their empty spaces, when the poet has his own “desert
places” to scare him? The pathos of this poem is very touching:

I have it in me so much nearer home

To scare myself with my own desert places.

A poem called “The Fear” has the following concluding lines:

You understand that we have to be careful.

This is a very, very lonely place.
“Bereft”, too deals with this theme. “It portrays a bleak realization of absolute loneliness, a
sudden, despairing sense of loss”. In this poem there is absolutely no relief from the
loneliness. The poem moves in part of the same lines as “Desert Places”, from a scene of
threatening images and desolation to still greater loneliness. Loneliness could not have been
expressed more simply, more emphatically and more pathetically than in the concluding
lines:

World I was in the house alone

Somehow must have gotten abroad,
Word I was in my life alone,
Word I had no one left but God.

The feeling of isolation in this poem lends poignancy to the scene, while the identification of
hostility of Nature aggravates the feeling of isolation. The last line is not a cry of faith but an
agonized scene of absolute mourning. The emotional emphasis is on “no one”.

Through Frost discusses the theme of alienation yet he does not approve it. It is true that he
does not condemn it either. He portrays the barriers between man and man and to make
dramatic projection of the theme of isolation. He dislikes isolation, but he sees its
inevitability.

To the ordinary reader, such poems seem to imply a pessimistic view of human life. Frost
regards the sense of isolation, not as a peculiarly American dilemma but as a universal
situation. The poems having this theme are therefore truly realistic. Sometimes Frost
approaches the problem of isolation in an optimistic manner as in “Our Hold on the Planet”.
Frost's treatment of nature
Robert Frost depicts the bright and the dark aspects, the benevolent and the hostile forces of
Nature in his poems on realistic terms.

Critics have a difference of opinion over his designation of a poet of Nature. Alvarez says
that:

“Frost is not a Nature poet”.

One point of view on which almost all the critics agree is Frost’s minute observation and
accurate description of the different aspects of nature in his poems. Schneider says:

“The descriptive power of Mr. Frost is to me the most wonderful thing in his poetry. A
snowfall, a spring thaw, a bending tree, a valley mist, a brook, these are brought into
the experience of the reader”.

For illustration, these lines from “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” may be quoted:

“The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,

But I have promises to keep,”

These lines depict not only the beauty and the mystery of the snow filled woods which hold
the poet almost spell-bound but also describe the helplessness of the poet who has no time
because of his social commitments. Thus the beauty of Nature and obligations of human life
are treated by Frost as two aspects of poet’s one whole experience in these lines.
Frost is primarily a realist who abstruse the things around him and in nature as they are and
describes them as such. That is why nature changes its character from poem to poem in his
poetry.

In “Two Tramps in Mud Time”, if on the one hand, he shows New England poised between
cold and warmth, winter and spring, on the other hand, he does not miss to show the turmoil
and storm brewing under the apparently beautiful calm of nature. Therefore, he interrupts his
genial description of the April weather to warm:

“Be glad of water, but don’t forget

The lurking frost in the earth beneath
That will steal firth after the sun is set
And snow on the water its crystal teeth.”

Frost pastoral element is dominant in Frost’s poetry. That is why he is considered as a poet of
pastures and plains, mountains and rivers, woods and gardens, groves and bowers, fruits and
flowers, seeds and birds as he was a farmer. Hence, nature was his constant companion. But
what is noticeable in his poetry is that even in the poems such as “Pastures”, “Birches”,
“Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”, “West Running Brook”, “After Apple Picking”,
“An Old Man’s Winter Night” and “Mending Wall” it is the human factor which is
predominant and nature is an integral part of the themes of the poems. For worries and
disappointments in life make life miserable but the pet still clings to it because he loves the
earth.
Frost unlike Wordsworth is not a nature mystic. He does not see any affinity between nature
and man nor does he find any spirit or power pervading it. Nor does he find any healing
power in it which can cure the ills of society and man. For him nature is alien to man.

Frost’s attitude to nature reflects the spirit of the present age whose attitude to nature, like all
other things, is scientific and realistic. That is why he has not formulated any philosophy
about nature. Nor do his poems display the rare exalted moments which are displayed in the
poems of the romantic age, particularly in those if Wordsworth. Frost’s poems describe
simply his daily and common experience.

The imagery of Frost’s poems is also drawn upon the objects of nature.

“Loaded with ice a sunny winter morning” (Birches)

“And life is too much like a pathless wood” (Birches)

“The world of hoary grass” (After Apple Picking)

“A leaping tongue of bloom” (The Tuft of Flower)

“His long scythe whispering to the ground” (The Tuft of Flower)

These are some of the images which have locked his poem with beauty and sense. Though
Frost is philosophic and not didactic yet his poems usually convey the wisdom of his
experience which may be termed as a moral.

Thus, the panorama of nature presented in Frost’s poems not only offers a feast of beauty to
the view of the reader but also provides him awareness of life. His sarcastic qualities find full
expression in the description of the scenes of nature. In the light of these views Frost may
safely be considered as a poet who gave and entirely new concept of nature and is one of the
great poets of nature.
Frost sane realist not a pessimist
Frost is a great artist and essentially a poet but not a philosopher – he is a philosopher poet.
The writings of a poet are largely dictated by the rhythms of his moods. Expecting any
systematic exposition of philosophy from a poet is undesirable and totally unwarranted.
However, from repeated expression of certain views in poem after poem, one can extract
certain basic concepts and thoughts of the poet.

Frost’s views about God, Nature and Man can be deduced from his poetry which reveal a
large quantum of sanity and profundity. As Gibson puts that in Frost’s poetry, there is an
undercurrent of ‘the clear stream of rich and ripe philosophy’.

Frost showed a philosophical bent of mind from the very beginning. But a philosophical
anxiety, a social sadness becomes more obvious in his later poems. He does not have any
philosophical system or set of beliefs. It is impossible to reduce Frost’s thinking to a
diagrammatic accuracy. In this connection, Frost says:

We dance round in a ring and suppose

But the Secret sits in the middle and knows.

Frost does not manage to squeeze in among the ranks of great philosopher poets. Yet, the
philosophy within his poetry calls our attention and cannot be dismissed as negligible or
insignificant. He has clothed his philosophical thought in a naturally conventional style.

Frost’s ‘rich and ripe philosophy’ is obvious in everything he writes. The truths he seeks are
innate in the heart of man and in common objects. But people forget and poetry, according to
Frost, “makes you remember what you didn’t know you knew”. A poem provides an
immediate experience which “begins in delight and ends in wisdom”. However, his persistent
search for truths does not mean that Frost is a grim philosopher. His touch is always light.

With reference to any philosophical absolutes, Frost is a skeptic. He prefers the wisdom that
is nourished by understanding, tolerance and observation. His value as a philosopher lies in
the home-spun intelligence. There can be no better proof of Frost’s home-spun philosophy
than the following lines:

Home is the place where, when you have to go there,

They have to take you in, (The Death of the Hired Man)

Earth’s the right place for love

I do not know where it’s likely to go better. (Birches)

We love the things we love for what they are. (Hyla Brook)

His poems provide ample wisdom of a prudential kind which should serve as effective
guidelines to our everyday conduct. He is a classicist in his belief. He advocates self-reliance
and integrity. He looks upon integrity as operating through a variety of choice rather than
between evil and good.

Though there is no fixed line between wrong and right,

There are roughly zones whose laws must be obeyed.
Frost is basically a philosophic poet who often uses the pastoral mode as a vehicle for his
inquiries into the nature and meaning of life. His irony, didacticism and lyricism, all serve
this end. Yet, so completely are form and content united in his work that it is scarcely
possible to remove the philosophical element in any poem without completely dislocating it.

Frost’s poetry incorporates his philosophy. Frost’s poetry is full of thoughts, ideas and vision
of life. But he is not to be considered a philosopher. His philosophy is an integral part of his
poetry. But one must also keep at the back of one’s mind that his philosophy is not essential
for the appreciation of his poetry. Like Wordsworth and Yeats, Frost’s ideas have grown
along with his verse.

To conclude, it is best to quote Lawrence Thompson: ‘this primary artistic achievement,

which is an enviable one, in spite of shortcomings, rests on his blending of though and
emotion and symbolic imagery within the confines of the lyric’.
Robert Frost: A Modern Poet

In spite of the Pastoral element predominant in Frost’s poems, he is still a modern

poet because his poetry has been endowed with the awareness of the problems of man living
in the modern world dominated by Science and Technology.

Critics have a difference of opinion over considering him a modern poet. Frost is a pastoral
poet – poet of pastures and plains, mountains and rivers, woods and gardens, groves and
bowers, fruits and flowers, and seeds and birds. They do not treat such characteristically
modern subjects as ‘the boredom implicit in sensuality’, ‘the consciousness of
neuroses’ and ‘the feeling of damnation’. Cleanth Brooks says:

“Frost’s best poetry exhibits the structure of symbolist metaphysical poetry. Much more
clearly than does of many a modern poet.”

In fact, Frost’s poetry portrays the disintegration of values in modern life and
the disillusionment of the modern man in symbolical and metaphysical terms as much as the
poetry of great, modern poets does, because most of his poems deal with persons suffering
from loneliness and frustration, regrets and disillusionment which are known as modern
disease. In “An old Man’s Winter Night”, the old man is lonely, completely alienated from
the society, likeness, the tiredness of the farmer due to over work in “Apple-Picking” and as
a result of it his yielding to sleep:

“For I have too much

Of apple-picking: I am overtired
Of great harvest I myself desired.”

In his nature poems, Frost has also commented on the misery of the modern man which due
to his going away from nature.

His metaphysical treatment of the subject in some of his poems is also an evidence of his
modernity. In “Mending Walls”, Frost juxtaposes the two opposite aspects of the theme of
the poem and then leaves it to the reader to draw his own conclusion. The conservative
farmer says:

“Good fences make good neighbour”

and the modern radical farmer says:

“Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,”

According to J.F.Lynen the use of the pastoral technique by Frost in his poems, does not
mean that the poet seeks an escape from the harsh realities of modern life. He argues that it
provides him with a point of view.

Frost uses pastoral technique only to evaluate and comment on the modern lifestyle. His
pastoralism thus registers a protest against the disintegration of values in the modern society
and here he is one with great poets of the modern age like T.S.Eliot, Yeats and Hopkins.

Another poetic technique adopted by Frost which makes him a modern poet
is symbolism. “The Road Not Taken” symbolizes the universal problem of making a choice
of invisible barriers built up in the minds of the people which alienate them from one
another mentally and emotionally thought they live together or as neighbours in the society.
Similarly the Birch trees in “Birches” symbolize man’s desire to seek escape from the harsh
suffering man to undergo in this world.

Unlike Romantics he has taken notice of both the bright and dark aspects of nature as we see
in his poem “Two Tramps in Mud Time”. Beneath the apparently beautiful calm there is
lurking turmoil and storms:

“Be glad of water, but don’t forget

The lurking frost in the earth beneath.”

In fact the world of nature in Frost’s poetry is not a world of dream. It is much
more harsh, horrible and hostile than the modern urban world. Hence his experience of the
pastoral technique to comment on the human issue of modern world his realistic treatment of
Nature, his employment of symbolic and metaphysical techniques and the projection of the
awareness of human problems of the modern society in his poetry justly entitle him to be
looked up to as modern poet.
Robert Frost: Major Themes
Frost’s poems deal with man in relation with the universe. Man’s environment as seen by
frost is quite indifferent to man, neither hostile nor benevolent. Man is alone and frail as
compared to the vastness of the universe. Such a view of “man on earth confronting the
total universe” is inevitably linked with certain themes in frost’s poetry.

One of the most striking themes in Frost’s poetry is man’s isolation from his universe
or alienation from his environment. Frost writes in “Desert Places”, “The loneliness
includes me unawares”. Man is essentially alone, as is borne out in frost’s poetry. Frost is
not so much concerned with depicting the cultural ethos of New England people as with
presenting them “caught up in a struggle with the elementary problem of existence”. The
New England of Frost reflects his consciousness of “an agrarian society isolated within an
urbanized world”. Man is alone in the countryside or in the city in “Acquainted with the
Night”.

I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet

When far away an interrupted cry
---------------------------------------------------
But not to call me back or say good-by;

In “Home Burial”, the lady suffers from a terrible sense of self-alienation, as well as
alienation from her surroundings. And, more than the physical loneliness, man suffers from
the loneliness within.

I have it in me so much nearer home

To scare myself with my own desert places.

A concern with barrier is the predominant theme in Frost’s poetry. Man is always erecting
and trying to bring down barriers-- between man and environment, between man and man. To
Frost, these barriers seem favorable to mutual understanding and respect. Frost insists on
recognizing these barriers instead of trying to tear them down as in the modern trend. And he
even builds them wherever necessary.

Practically all of Frost’s poems depict the theme of human limitation. The universe seems
chaotic and horrific because man’s limited faculties cannot comprehend its meaning. Walls,
physical and real, mental and invisible, separate man from Nature. “Neither Out Far Nor In
Deep” shows man’s limitation concerning the mysterious universe. “Stopping by Woods on a
Snowy Evening” conveys the sense of an impenetrable and indefinite universe. Frost’s
human beings are aware of the gap between the ideal and the actual. The apple-picker had set
out on his work with great hopes, but faces disillusionment.

For I have too much

Of apple-picking: I am overtired
Of the great harvest I myself desired.

In some poems, however, Frost does indicate that man can exceed his limitations in his
thought as in “Sand Dunes”.

Theme of extinction or death also runs through the major themes of Frost. In many a poem
he writes of “sleep” which is associated with death. “Fire and Ice” is a noteworthy poem on
destruction by excess of desire or hatred. “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”, “After
Apple Picking”, “An Old Man’s Winter Night”, all these poems have a reference to
death. “Directive” is a poem in which three of Frost’s most obsessive
themes isolation, extinction and the final limitations of man are blended. Each life is shown
to be pathetic because it wears away into death. The poem dismays but it also consoles.

In most of Frost’s poems, the speaker undergoes a process of self-discovery. The wood-
chopper of “Two Tramps in Mud Time” realizes by the end of the poem that he chops wood
for love of work only but love and need should not be separated.

Theme of affirmation is also found in some of his poems. Frost ultimately presents the need
for man to make the most of his situation. Aware of man’s limitations, he yet desires man to
explore and seek knowledge and truth. Man should learn to accept things and his limitations
cheerfully. He suggests stoical will and effort in the face of adversity as in “West Running
Brook”. In the face of the mystery and riddle of life there is necessity for determined human
performance.

But I have promises to keep

And miles to go before I Sleep
And miles to go before I Sleep

Theme of love is central to Frost’s poems. If there is any force that can help man meet the
challenges of the universe, it is love. In several of Frost’s poems, the significance of love
between man and woman, or friendly love is brought out. It is when love breaks down or
fades off that life becomes unbearable especially for the women in Frost’s poetry.

The major themes as discussed above are expressed through various devices. The symbolic
significance invested in certain recurring objects like the stars, the snow, the woods serve to
bring home to the reader all the more vividly the position of Man in the Universe.
Robert Frost: Major Themes
Frost’s poems deal with man in relation with the universe. Man’s environment as seen by
frost is quite indifferent to man, neither hostile nor benevolent. Man is alone and frail as
compared to the vastness of the universe. Such a view of “man on earth confronting the
total universe” is inevitably linked with certain themes in frost’s poetry.

One of the most striking themes in Frost’s poetry is man’s isolation from his universe
or alienation from his environment. Frost writes in “Desert Places”, “The loneliness
includes me unawares”. Man is essentially alone, as is borne out in frost’s poetry. Frost is
not so much concerned with depicting the cultural ethos of New England people as with
presenting them “caught up in a struggle with the elementary problem of existence”. The
New England of Frost reflects his consciousness of “an agrarian society isolated within an
urbanized world”. Man is alone in the countryside or in the city in “Acquainted with the
Night”.

I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet

When far away an interrupted cry
---------------------------------------------------
But not to call me back or say good-by;

In “Home Burial”, the lady suffers from a terrible sense of self-alienation, as well as
alienation from her surroundings. And, more than the physical loneliness, man suffers from
the loneliness within.

I have it in me so much nearer home

To scare myself with my own desert places.

A concern with barrier is the predominant theme in Frost’s poetry. Man is always erecting
and trying to bring down barriers-- between man and environment, between man and man. To
Frost, these barriers seem favorable to mutual understanding and respect. Frost insists on
recognizing these barriers instead of trying to tear them down as in the modern trend. And he
even builds them wherever necessary.

Practically all of Frost’s poems depict the theme of human limitation. The universe seems
chaotic and horrific because man’s limited faculties cannot comprehend its meaning. Walls,
physical and real, mental and invisible, separate man from Nature. “Neither Out Far Nor In
Deep” shows man’s limitation concerning the mysterious universe. “Stopping by Woods on a
Snowy Evening” conveys the sense of an impenetrable and indefinite universe. Frost’s
human beings are aware of the gap between the ideal and the actual. The apple-picker had set
out on his work with great hopes, but faces disillusionment.

For I have too much

Of apple-picking: I am overtired
Of the great harvest I myself desired.

In some poems, however, Frost does indicate that man can exceed his limitations in his
thought as in “Sand Dunes”.

Theme of extinction or death also runs through the major themes of Frost. In many a poem
he writes of “sleep” which is associated with death. “Fire and Ice” is a noteworthy poem on
destruction by excess of desire or hatred. “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”, “After
Apple Picking”, “An Old Man’s Winter Night”, all these poems have a reference to
death. “Directive” is a poem in which three of Frost’s most obsessive
themes isolation, extinction and the final limitations of man are blended. Each life is shown
to be pathetic because it wears away into death. The poem dismays but it also consoles.

In most of Frost’s poems, the speaker undergoes a process of self-discovery. The wood-
chopper of “Two Tramps in Mud Time” realizes by the end of the poem that he chops wood
for love of work only but love and need should not be separated.

Theme of affirmation is also found in some of his poems. Frost ultimately presents the need
for man to make the most of his situation. Aware of man’s limitations, he yet desires man to
explore and seek knowledge and truth. Man should learn to accept things and his limitations
cheerfully. He suggests stoical will and effort in the face of adversity as in “West Running
Brook”. In the face of the mystery and riddle of life there is necessity for determined human
performance.

But I have promises to keep

And miles to go before I Sleep
And miles to go before I Sleep

Theme of love is central to Frost’s poems. If there is any force that can help man meet the
challenges of the universe, it is love. In several of Frost’s poems, the significance of love
between man and woman, or friendly love is brought out. It is when love breaks down or
fades off that life becomes unbearable especially for the women in Frost’s poetry.

The major themes as discussed above are expressed through various devices. The symbolic
significance invested in certain recurring objects like the stars, the snow, the woods serve to
bring home to the reader all the more vividly the position of Man in the Universe.