[WARNING: This contains MAJOR spoilers]
Hello Friend, today’s post is
going to focus on my favourite poet, the one and only Robert Frost. As seen in
my previous posts, I am a die-hard fan of Frost’s literary style, mainly
because it was quite unconventional, and way ahead of those times. At a time
when poets focused on letting their emotions pour into their poems, and stuck
to relatively “conventional” topics, Frost was seen striking out on his own,
dealing with heavy topics, and often composing poems which contained a lot of
dark humour. His poems were often very simply worded, but they were extremely
eloquent; he did not believe in using unnecessarily over-complicated words.
However, his themes were very
complex, mind you. One would read the
poem from start to finish and think, “Oh, what’s so great about this? It’s just
another simple poem, it doesn’t take a genius to figure this out”; but that’s
exactly what I’m trying to say here; his poems are deceptive. On the surface, they seem to be so nondescript, but if
you read them thoroughly, you’ll be able to get at the underlying message [I
will explain in detail in a short while.] Poets often tend to follow one
particular pattern—either their poems are lyrical, or they’re written in free
verse, without a rhyming scheme. But Frost? Oh no, he wasn’t going to follow a
set pattern. Most of his poems are lyrical, it’s true, but some of his longer,
lesser-known, and darker poems are written in free verse [they’re less famous
because it has taken everyone pretty long to figure out just what he was trying
to say. Also, I think that they don’t appeal to a large audience, because
they’re really long, really sad, and really complicated.] Besides, his poems are always closely
entwined, like strands of fine, multi-coloured silk. Once you enter Frost’s
world—trust me on this one, because I know—it’s difficult to extricate
yourself. He may have passed away, but his emotions and intellect live on, in
his works and in the hearts of people who look up to him, like me.
Several acclaimed critics have
claimed that Frost’s poetic style is very “spiritual”. I agree, because his
poems are so mystical, and they always seem to be set in a higher realm of his
own, where earthly responsibilities and obstacles cannot intrude. One of his
most famous poems, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, deals with contrasting
themes [this is often seen in other poems of his as well]: it contains themes
of responsibility, temptation, cold and deadly beauty, death, distraction, darkness
and deception. For Frost, Winter symbolised everything that was beautiful as
well as fatal; it must’ve been one of his favourite seasons, because Winter
shows up in a lot of his poems. Frost wrote Stopping by Woods on a Snowy
Evening when he was feeling extremely depressed and suicidal, and the poem
reflects this. The poem talks about how the speaker just wants to drink in the
beauty of the “snowy woods”; it’s the Winter Solstice, the darkest evening of
the year [this helps to enhance the beauty of the woods, as it nicely contrasts
the whiteness of the snow.] He has several responsibilities to fulfil, but
can’t bring himself to leave the woods; they’re simply too lovely. He does
realise that, as it’s bitterly cold, he will freeze to death if he stays there
much longer; he is aware that the beauty is just a façade. He is brought back
to his senses by the sound of his horse’s harness bells. Jolted out of his impractical thoughts, he
thanks his horse for saving him, and determines to take care of his earthly responsibilities
before he can even think of death [the last lines, “I have promises to keep,
and miles to go before I sleep, and miles to go before I sleep” have two
meanings.] First off, we can assume that the speaker is simply stating that he
has a lot to do before he lays himself down to rest; there’s another darker
interpretation—he has much to do before he dies,
and cannot afford to allow depressing thoughts into his head. I’m so glad Frost
understood this; he was a gem of a person, and his poems are works of art.
[Sorry, went a bit off track there.] Catharsis is good. Or so I’ve heard. The Road Not Taken, another extremely famous
poem, also deals with responsibility; the tone and the entire structure,
though, is far lighter than Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening; in The Road
Not Taken, the speaker is talking about the major decisions everyone has to
take when they reach a certain stage in their lives. He’s kinda regretting the
decision he took when he came to the cross-road; the title is The Road Not
Taken. At the end of the poem he states, “Two roads diverged in a yellow
wood, and I—I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the
difference.” According to me, when one takes a major, life-changing decision,
one must tread very carefully; the speaker was not very careful, and look at
him now—he’d like to turn the clock back and take the other path. He wonders
where he’d be, had he taken the other path. So yeah, I think that’s what Frost
is trying to say here. His poems always seem inter-connected, don’t they?
After Apple-Picking is another
poem that looks oh-so-simple, but it’s far from “simple”. Stopping by Woods on
a Snowy Evening and The Road Not Taken are not difficult to understand, but
After Apple-Picking is very, very…
tricky! Throughout the poem, the speaker simply says that he’s picking
apples and storing them, but if this poem is read twice or thrice, you’ll begin
to see that it’s one of Frost’s most deceptive poems. The speaker is so
over-worked and exhausted that he’s fallen asleep. Those stupid apples just
won’t leave his head—he’s dreaming about
them. Dreaming. About apples. In spite of having worked so hard through the day
[it’s implied, not explicitly stated, that it’s Winter.] Can you believe just
how messed up that is? Also, we’re not even sure if he’s dying or just
dreaming, because at the end of the poem he states that a “longer, deeper, not
human” sleep is creeping up on him. As
Winter symbolises Death, he is most likely going to die soon; the most notable
fact is that he is aware, to a great extent, that he won’t live much longer,
but he accepts it with quiet, dignified resignation. He’s been soldiering on until now, but his
body just can’t take it anymore. After Winter is the time when things die, and
Spring is a season of joy and renewal. Frost was a devout Christian, and I
can’t help but feel that the apples are some sort of reference to the Biblical
story of Adam and Eve. In the Bible, apples symbolise temptation and sin; it
could very well be the same in After Apple-Picking [it is a very dark poem.] But it’s also a very beautiful poem!
As for poetic devices, Frost
generally used imagery [in literally every poem], onomatopoeia [the most
notable example of this is Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening— “The only
other sound’s the sweep of easy wind and downy flake”], personification [in
several poems—such as The Wood-Pile, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, Home
Burial, Death of the Hired Man, Birches etc.], and metaphors and similes.
Some of Frost’s poems were… controversial,
because they were extremely morbid
and uninhibited. Home Burial, for example, gave me chills. I love that poem
because it’s very well written, and I felt everything the poet felt when he
penned it, but yes, I understand why people didn’t really like it when it was
published. The title itself is enough to turn the milk sour—it’s such an
unpleasant title. Home Burial? Really? The poem is about a man and a woman who
have just lost their baby. Both of them are grieved, but the man prefers to
deal with his grief by losing himself in his work and digging his child’s grave
with his own hands, while the woman, Amy, prefers to deal with her grief by
dwelling on it. She accuses her husband of being insensitive, when he’s not;
she is unable to understand his method of dealing with his sadness. This poem
is indescribably sad as it depicts a rift between two people torn apart by the
untimely loss of their child; grief usually brings people closer as they seek
solace in each other’s company, but in this case, they’re being driven apart,
because they don’t get the other’s method of coping with the gaping vacuum in
their dreary lives.
There are a lot of poems that I
want to mention: The Black Cottage, There Are Roughly Zones, Two Look At Two, A
Soldier, An Unstamped Letter in our Rural Letterbox, An Encounter—these are
some of my favourites. They are all very articulate, and they’re close to my
heart, because Frost’s poems have given me a lot of strength; at times when I
didn’t believe in myself or didn’t want to do anything, his poems would seep
into my heart and fill me with energy. My journey with Frost has been very
fulfilling and enriching.
That’s all for now. See you next
time!
Thank you! I hope you liked my
article.
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