Robert Frost's Poems

[Raja Bahar]

«Desert Places» and «Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening»

Robert Frost takes our imaginations to a journey through wintertime with His two poems «Desert Places» and «Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening». Frost Comes from a New England background and these two poems reflect the beautiful Scenery that is present in that part of the country. Even though these poems Both have winter settings they contain very different tones. One has a feeling Of depressing loneliness and the other a feeling of welcome solitude. They show How the same setting can have totally different impacts on a person depending on Their mindset at the time. These poems are both made up of simple stanzas and Diction but they are not simple poems. In the poem «Desert Places» the speaker is a man who is traveling Through the countryside on a beautiful winter eventing. He is completely Surrounded with feelings of loneliness. The speaker views a snow covered field As a deserted place. «A blanker whiteness of benighted snow

With no expression, Nothing to express». Whiteness and blankness are two key ideas in this poem. The white sybolizes open and empty spaces. The snow is a white blanket that Covers up everything living. The blankness sybolizes the emptyness that the Speaker feels. To him there is nothing else around except for the unfeeling snow And his lonely thoughts. The speaker in this poem is jealous of the woods. «The woods around it Have it - it is theirs» The woods symbolizes people and society. They have Something that belongs to them, something to feel a part of. The woods has its Place in nature and it is also a part of a bigger picture. The speaker is so Alone inside that he feels that he is not a part of anything. Nature has a way Of bringing all of her parts together to act as one. Even the animals are a Part of this wintery scene. «All animals are smothered in their lairs,

I am Too absent-spirited to count». The snow throws its blanket of whiteness over Everything and to him it is a feeling of numbness. «The loneliness includes me unawares». The speaker has lost his Enthusiasm for life. He can not express his feelings easily because of this Feeling of numbness. The speaker is also in denial about feeling alone. He is At a stage where he just does not care about too much and he is feeling a bit Paranoid. «They cannot scare me with their empty space» He is saying who cares How I feel, I do not need anyone else. «I have in me so much nearer home

To Scare myself with my own desert places». The speaker was starting to realize That he had shut himself off to the world. He recognized that this winter place Was like his life. He had let depression and loneliness creep into his life and Totally take over like the snow had crept up on the plain and silently covered It. If he continues to let these feelings run his life, eventually everything Would be snuffed out much like the snow does to nature. «Stopping by Woods on a Snowny Evening» is a much happier and more Upbeat poem than «Desert Places». This poem is about stopping to enjoy life or As the cliche goes, stopping to smell the roses. «But I have promises to keep,

And miles to go before I sleep». The speaker in this poem was a very busy man Who always had obligations to fufill and places to go. A feeling of regret is Present. The man would like to stay and enjoy this private nature scene longer But he knows that he has other things to do. Again, Frost gives us a beautiful Nature scene but this time we enjoy welcome solitude. «The woods are lovely, Dark and deep». This poem expresses the joy of nature. The speaker seems concerned about what the rest of society would think About him just stopping in the middle of nowhere for no apparent reason. His Horse represents society. «My little horse must think it queer

To stop without A farmhouse near». He admits that just stopping does seem odd. He is also Somewhat concerned about the man who owns the woods. The man almost feels Guilty for looking so lovingly at this other man's woods. «He will not see me Stopping here

To watch his woods fill up with snow». I think that the speakers Life may be a little better off since he stopped to take a deep breath and enjoy All that really matters, the simple things. «Stopping by Woods an a Snowy Evening» is the opposite of «Desert Places». The settings were exactly the same; calm, dark wintery evenings, but They express totally different feelings. «Desert Places» is a very depressing Poem with a dark tone. The other is very happy and it makes you wish that Winter was already here. These two poems are very different but they are also the same in some Ways. They show two extremes of the same emotion. Being alone can be positive Or negative it just depends on the state of the mind. Loneliness can be very Depressing or it can be a time to collect your thoughts without the pressures of The outside world crashing down. Winter is the perfect season to reflect upon When expressing solitude. Winter can make everything seem dead. It can be a Very depressing time of year. Snow covers everything living and the cold seems To chill to the very soul at times. Winter can also be very uplifting. It can Wipe the slate clean with its pureness and it can be a time of starting over. Snow's whiteness can, in a way, blind you with its beauty and make you forget About your troubles. Winter for me is a time of silent reflection. I could sit For hours and gaze at the blowing snow. Robert Frost creates two winter scenes with different outcomes. The First, «Desert Places» is a sad poem about loneliness and lost enthusiasm. «Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening» is a rather uplifting poem about enjoying Simple things in life. Frost seems to draw upon his experiences from living in Rural New England and converts those experiences into beautiful poetry.

"the Road Not Taken" - 706 words

In the poem "The Road Not Taken", author Robert Frost uses the simple image of a road to represent a person's journey through life. A well-established poet, Frost does a proficient job of transforming a seemingly common road to one of great importance, which along the way helps one identify who they really are. This poem is one of self-discovery. Frost incorporates strong elements of poetry such as theme, symbolism, rhyme scheme, diction, imagery, and tone to help create one of his most well known pieces about the human experience. The main theme of the poem that Frost attempts to convey is how important the decisions that one makes can be, and how they affect one's future.

In lines 2-3, he expresses the emotions of doubt and confusion by saying, "And sorry I could not travel/ And be one traveler, long I stood", which explains how the speaker contemplated their decision of which road to take. In the closing, line 20 of the poem further reestablishes the theme when it states, "that has made all the difference", meaning that making the decision of which road to take for themselves is the important key for a successful future. Frost helps to express this theme by using symbolism to portray a road as one's journey of life. Using symbolism, Frost suggests that the speaker of this poem is taking the harder of the two roads presented before them, because the road the speaker chooses, "leaves no step had trodden black" (12). This scenario is one that is very common throughout one's life, whether or not to take the more common easy path, or the more challenging one

Another aspect of the poem that is well crafted, and helps it flow smoothly to the reader is its repetitive rhyme scheme that uses the same structure for each stanza. The poem is comprised of four stanzas, each consisting of five lines. Within the stanzas the first, third, and fourth lines rhyme, leaving the second and fifth with a rhyme of their own. The poem is also written as a first-person narrative, which makes it clearer for the reader to follow. This format and style shows an obvious scheme with organization done by Frost. Along with the order of the poem, Frost makes good use of diction to help express a feeling of seriousness by using more scholarly words.

Instead of simply stating that one of the roads was less worn, he specifies that it was not "trodden". Frost also gives a more vivid description of the road by describing how it "diverged", rather than saying that it split or separated. Through the choice of articulate diction, this element helps Frost better describe the images of the poem. Frost clearly uses these strong images to help portray the setting of the poem. The woods that surround the roads are described as "a yellow wood". The main path was "bent in the undergrowth" (5); while the path that the speaker chose was still "grassy" from not being traveled on.

At the end of the poem the speaker is looking back on the decision of which road they chose, and is said to be "telling this with a sigh" (16), to help make the ending more dramatic, while adding to it's tone. This also expresses how the speaker realizes their own limitations as a human, because there is no way that one can go back in time and see how life could be different had they chosen the other road. The serious tone of the poem helps to reinforce the theme of how important choices are, and that people make choices that affect their lives everyday. Frost creatively uses these elements of poetry to show how this simple scene in nature can symbolize so much to a person. These two paths that he presents can be anyone, at any point in their life, which helps to give the poem a personal quality the reader can identify with. Anyone can recognize a specific time in their life when they have been forced to make a decision that could change their life. Therefore, they can place themselves near the edge of the woods at the beginning of these "diverging" paths, and hopefully not regret the direction of their future.

After Apple Picking - 624 words

Set in the evening of a late autumn day at the end of harvest time, Robert Frost's "After Apple-Picking" can be interpreted in two ways. The first is that the poem is an insight into Frost's thoughts on the triviality of life, especially his own. The second is that it is a metaphor for the Bible story of Adam and Eve. Whatever the interpretation, there is a tension between feelings of regret and satisfaction that is created and sustained throughout the entire poem by the use of many contributing factors."After Apple-Picking" paints the picture of a chilly evening near the beginning of winter. The speaker has just finished picking apples for that year's harvest, his ladder still leaning against the tree.

There are very few apples left on the tree and one of his baskets isn't quite full. His feet hurt from standing on the ladder for too long and the smell of apples is everywhere. He is tired and starts to drift off into sleep. Frost takes this ordinary experience and turns it into a contemplation on life. The first sign of any kind of tension is in the first six lines

The ladder, which points "toward heaven," represents the speaker's climb through life toward death and heaven and the barrel and apples left on the tree represent things he regrets having or not having done during his lifetime. But in line six he says that he is "done with apple-picking now," which sounds as if he's saying that what's done is done and he must accept it. It is almost as if he is having a conflict within himself as to whether he should be content with his life or not. The "sleep" that the speaker mentions constantly throughout the poem represents death. When he says, "Essence of winter sleep is on the night," he is recognizing his own mortality.

In the last three lines he wonders whether his sleep will be a long sleep like that of the woodchuck or "just some human sleep." He is wondering if he is going to die soon. The more Biblical interpretation identifies with the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. The apples from the Tree of Knowledge were the fruit that Adam and Eve were forbidden to eat, yet they still did and this conveys a feeling of great tension and regret as in the first few lines. The apple tree is the Garden of Eden and the apples left on the tree and the barrel that isn't full represent the feeling of regret and remorse Adam and Eve feel after having eaten the apple. In line nine the speaker says that he "cannot rub the strangeness" from his sight.

This could represent the change in perception Adam and Eve underwent that was, no doubt, strange to them. There was no way they could go back to the way they had seen things before they took the apple from the Tree of Knowledge. In lines 27 - 29 also, the speaker says that he has "had too much" and is "overtired of the great harvest" he desired. Once Adam and Eve had eaten and gained all the knowledge they had wanted, they soon wished they hadn't. In line 33 the apples that "struck the earth" represent Adam and Eve's fall from grace.

Their banishment from the Garden is depicted in lines 35 and 36 in the apples that "Went surely to the cider-apple heap/As of no worth." Frost never reaches a conclusion nor does he resolve the tension. As he progresses through the poem, Frost keeps linking one feeling of tension to a new one, until the reader is left, having climbed to the top of a ladder of tension and gone nowhere.

[SyedaSanilaShahBukhari]

Themes of stoping by woodx on a snowy evening..
Isolation

"Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" is a lonely poem, for our speaker finds himself far away from any other human being. He kind of digs this aloneness, however, and is glad that no one is there to watch him. We get the feeling that he'd rather be all by his lonesome in the freezing cold than back in the village. Nature helps make things even lonelier, too, for it happens to be freezing cold, snowing, and dark out there.
Choices

The speaker in "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" makes several choices, many of which his dearly beloved horse does not agree with. The biggest choice that he wrestles with is whether to return to the warmth and safety of the village or to stay and watch the woods fill up with snow. Our speaker does seem to have a hard time making his decision. He ultimately decides to return home, but it seems to take all of his willpower.
Man and the Natural World

We're not going to lie, nature seems pretty darn scary in this poem. Not scary like it's going to throw thunderbolts at our speaker or let hungry tigers lose on him, but scary in that it is mysterious and even rather seductive. Our speaker is almost enticed into staying and watching the woods fill up with snow, but if he stays too long, we've got to believe that he might freeze to death, catch a really bad cold, or forget his way home. Nature is a beautiful siren in this poem, compelling our speaker to hang out in spite of the dangerous consequences.
Society and Class

We don't get much information about where our speaker comes from or about the nearby village in this poem, but we do know that he's far away from civilization. We also know that the man who owns the woods lives in town in a house. From this little information, we can deduce that if you own things (like the owner of the woods does), then you live in the midst of society. Our speaker is not so concerned with society. In fact, society to him is about as appetizing as cod liver oil. He'd rather be alone with nature. To us, the village sounds quaint, cute, and warm. To our speaker, the village represents his obligations, responsibilities, and promises.