Frost's Symbolism
As we dig into the brain of one of life's greatest poets, we have to find the symbolism he uses in his stanzas. Frost has written many different symbolistic poems, but we will look at just four: "Nothing Gold Can Stay," "The Oven Bird," "Fire and Ice," and "The Road Not Taken." Symbolism is the use of a concrete object to represent the abstract. Frost uses symbolism in many different ways such as to show you something about nature, or how nature relates to every day life, or to give you a hint at what he is trying to say. When we look for the symbols in Frost's poems, we can understand his work much better and take advice from the stanzas. Frost takes the lines in his stanzas and puts them into the minds of his readers by the symbolistic ways in which he writes them and forces readers to think out what he is trying to get across to them. Frost's unique way of taking everyday symbols, based mostly in nature, helps us to understand the poem. In the following paragraphs, we will see through four of Frost's works, how symbolism was used, and why it was used in the way it was. We will also see the significance of symbols to help us understand the poem's true meaning. In "Nothing Gold Can Stay," Frost uses
You can also say that anything in life worth caring about is to be cherished now because nothing lasts forever. (George #230) The entire poem itself can be looked at as a symbol of the choices we all must make in life and the eternal battle to choose what path to go down. When we read the poem from start to finish we get Frosts pattern of starting in the spring, going right through summer, and ending up back in the fall. The advice Frost tries to give us in all of these poems is to never look past the life we have, and to choose our paths carefully. #64) Maybe Frost is saying that the bird was not like other birds when it was singing, but we also know that when the bird is singing, he could be like the other birds at any time. The element "Ice," in this poem symbolizes a cold cruel way to destroy the earth and coldness of heart. This symbolism shows the changing of the seasons through natures own handiwork. The poets advice seems to be to cherish the things in life you hold dear, and never let a day go by without taking time to reflect on the things you care for (Perrine #38). " Frost tells us of looking down a long pathway, and then he stands there pondering which way to go, this symbolizes the battle going on inside of him; of whether to go down one path, or the other, and the torment this decision can bring him. William Doxey says in Notes on Contemporary Literature that Frost is also giving us a lesson on human limitation, meaning that when we choose a path to take, then we can also choose the amount of time we want to take using the path we have chosen and also determine how far to go down the path. Take the symbols we are given in life and use them to go down the right path. As noted in Tom Hansen's "Fire and Ice," Harlow Shapely claimed that it was he that inspired Frost to write "Fire and Ice," while the two men talked at Harvard University. symbols to show that when you are young, everything is brand new, but when you become older, things begin to fade away and become less enticing. Maybe this takes away all of the repetition of the bird's everyday activities, while showing that if he truly wanted, he could be like the others.
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