Illuminating the Obscure




Essay by ELLA RUE

Robert Frost is one of America's most honored poets. He was a four time Pulitzer Prize winner, recipient of the highly coveted Bollingen Prize for Poetry, ("Considered one of the nation's most prestigious literary honors, the Bollingen Prize was established at the Yale University Library in 1949 and is awarded every two years to one or more living American poets for the best collection published in the previous two years, or for lifetime achievement in poetry" (Columbia University Record).) unofficial poet laureate of the United States under John Kennedy's presidential term, and the recipient of more than three dozen honorary degrees from various colleges and universities. In 1939 he was awarded the Gold Medal of the National Academy of Arts and Letters. He achieved in a lifetime what many artists and writers do not achieve until after they have died, and some not at all. Frost's own personal ambition was to "write a few poems that it would be hard to get rid of." This is one goal he attained and surpassed.
Frost's poetry attempts to explain the enigmatic. A perfect example of this is his two-lined poem "The Secret Sits". "We dance round in a ring and suppose, / But the secret sits in the middle and knows." This poem sums up the intentions of all that analyze and scrutinize Mr. Frost's poems. The lyrical, descriptive images that he writes of draws the reader in, but we can only attempt to discern his intentions. "Something there is that doesn't love a wall". Frost was one who was skillful at the removal of walls. His poems were explanations of the ambiguous. In the poem "Mending Walls" explaining how his neighbor "moves in darkness" he suggests the ignorance of the neighbor in his appraisal of how "Good fences make good neighbors." Each poem that Frost carefully constructed was a removal of some kind of wall, an explanation of the uncertain, an attempt to clarify the enigmatic. Frosts states, " A poem begins with a lump in the throat; a home-sickness or love-sickness. It is a reaching out towards expression; an effort to find fulfillment. A complete poem is one where an emotion has found it's thought and the thought has found the words … My definition of poetry (if I were forced to give one) would be this: words that have become deeds." Based on this definition and his continual 'removal of walls' Frost's words have become deeds.
Frost wrote poems of rural scenes that involved introspection. He frequently wrote of an internal hunger to withdraw from this world and then find the ability to return with flair and excitement. In "Birches" he states " I'd like to get away from Earth awhile. / And then come back and begin over. / May no fate willfully misunderstand me / And half grant what I wish and snatch me away / Not to return. Earth's the right place for love: I don't know where it's likely to go better. /And climb black branches up a snow-white trunk / Toward heaven, till the tree could bear no more, / But dipped it's top and set me down again. / That would be good both going and coming back." Similarly in "Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening" he seems to revel in the moment of solitude that he found in the woods that he had stumbled upon, and he is all the better because of this experience when he moves on to fulfill his "promises to keep".
Many of his poems contain very simple words, often monosyllabic or bisyllabic. His choice of written words are much like spoken English which lends itself to the conversational feel that his poems have. In "Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening" which might be his cleanest and most nearly perfect poem, it is as if he is simply retelling of a moment in his life where he took time to reflect on his surrounding beauty. This poem's meter and rhyme scheme are so carefully constructed, he is able to deceive the average reader in thinking it might have been put together with very little time or thought. He used eight syllables in each line and continued all through with a rhyme scheme of the last word of the first second and fourth lines in each stanza. (A, A, B, A.) He then takes the last word from the third line and rhymes it to the following stanza's lines one, two and four. These perfect rhymes and rhythm lend itself to the light restful feel of the poem. His major meaning seemed to be that one should take time to stop and notice the beauty around us but not to dawdle and dwell too long, as there is much to do in this lifetime. He successfully employs symbolism by relating time to miles in the lines "And miles to go before I sleep." One might also assume that "promises" represent the traveler's life commitments and "sleep" is referring to the final commitment of death. He also uses similar symbolism in his poem "The Road Not Taken". In this poem he is symbolizing the path of a life with the choices of a roadway to take.
Frost's colloquial phrasing and straightforward manner always seem to have a basic although not always simple underlying meaning that can often be read more than one way. In "The Road Not Taken" one might see his intended meaning has a suggestion to follow one's heart and stay with one's dreams. In actuality based on some of his own writings he wrote this poem about an English poet-friend named Edward Thomas. Thomas was killed early in World War I. Frost's intent was to express that whatever choices we make in our lifetime we will always have consequences resulting from our decisions. Despite the seriousness of the subject and inspiration of the poem he is able to combine philosophical thoughts in lyrics that conjure up the most serene images.
Frost was a master of the metaphor. Milton Bracker says this of Frost in an article for The New York Times Magazine; "Frost himself is perhaps the biggest metaphor of all. He even looks like a symbol. His hair is really white and really silky; a mass of it tends to sift down to the left side of his forehead like snow to one corner of the window. His eyes are pale blue, cragged by heavy brows and white curls wintering them. In the over all he is massive, often understandably likened to roughhewn granite. He had an 'altercation with a surgeon'-there is a virtually imperceptible scar on his right cheek. But the real scar is the scar of the living, and no man ever wore it more proudly or with more stunning effect." His poems are peppered with metaphorical content. In "Birches" he likens the ice that has formed on the branches to shattered glass. In "Mending Wall" he likens the rocks that he and his neighbor are carefully re-stacking and re-balancing to loaves and balls. In "The Silken Tent" he is likening the movement of a woman to the sinuous shifting of a silken tent in a summer breeze. This is a common occurrence that seems to flavor many of his poems.
Although content and topic vary widely from one poem to the next, the similarities of style, word choice, colloquial diction and feeling of being spoken directly to by the poet all seem to carry through in his poetry. The tone, although deadly serious as in "Out, Out", still has the feel of a story being recounted by the poet as if he was speaking directly to the reader himself. They all have the common thread of clear imagery. In "Birches' one can readily picture Mr. Frost as a young boy riding those birch trees as if he were taming wild horses. In "The Road Not Taken" it is quite easy to imagine ourselves standing at the fork of a road, pondering over what each road had to offer, where each might eventually lead. In "Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening" one can almost hear the horse as "He gives his harness bells a shake." "Out, Out" makes the reader cringe at the mental image of the poor child who has lost his hand and ultimately his young life along with the apathetic attitudes of the onlookers.
Frost was born at the turn of the century and he lived a rich full life until 1963, but his poems still have a modern sound making them easily understood and readily accessible. He is not only able to take the reader to the place where he wants to depict, but he is also able, by his clear use of imagery to help the reader recall similar times or situations. He has become one of America's most beloved poets because of his ability to clarify and make plain the inscrutable common occurrences of human every day life. In "Nothing Gold Can Stay", is the poet alluding to the fact that time passes and as it does it ages and changes everything? If this is the case, Robert Frost's poems are the exception. They are both ageless and timeless. His poetry has weathered the test of time. They have been enjoyed by readers for decades and will continue to delight readers to come.


"One could do worse than be a swinger of branches." ~ Robert Frost

Essay posted on this site at the request of the author.