Nature in Robert Frost Poems
In many of his poems, Robert Frost uses images of and nature, especially trees and forests, to convey his thoughts and emotions. The turning of the seasons, a wooded area, and other things common in nature, were also common in Frosts poems. Many people attest this to his working as a farmer on an old New England farm for part of his life, operating a failing New Hampshire Chicken farm. His poems were also often in first person. It helps show a sense of knowledge, so the reader can think that the person may have lived the experience, and is thus more knowledgeable for it. In Frosts poem 'Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening' (Literature and Its Writers, 807), Frost writes about an experience in the first person, of a man on a journey, who stops by a some woods. He comments on how he knows the man who owns them, but how the person lives in the town, and wont see him. He also mentions that the woods are filling up with snow "To watch his woods, fill up with snow" (807). So far, there is woods, and snow. In the next stanza, he mentions a frozen lake, and that it is the darkest night of the year. Now we have a lake, and the dark night sky. The next stanza mentions sounds, and how the only two he hears are his horse
They both can change rapidly; have ups and downs, seasons in a sense. Frost uses nature to entrap the reader in his poem, so they may better understand what is going on, and the emotion involved. One image is of calm, peaceful evergreens, the other, of trees that have gone bare in the fall, dark, and foreboding. Frost might feel most comfortable using nature, because it is constantly changing, much like emotion and feelings constantly do. Although he is curious, and would like to know, like when he says: "The woods are lovely, dark, and deep. Frost remarks: "I have promises to keep, but miles to go before I sleep. He can what other people have done, and realizes that he can either go with the crowd, or be more of an individual at this, the first major crossroads he has been forced to face. His only clue as to what is in each path, is the number of people who have traveled on them. They can actually see the lush greenery and looming trees that the man in the poem does. In the first, we never get a sense of the man sees his woods, his afterlife, only that he does see them, and acknowledges that he will one day wind up in those very woods. "The only other sounds the sweep/ Of easy wind and downy flake" (807) And finally, he makes reference to how the woods look, inviting, and interesting. Frost never clarifies whether the man regrets not doing what so many others have done, possibly giving up friends and fun, or whether that sigh is a wish to go back and do it all again, to relive the good times he had on those un worn paths. In the second, we aren't told how the man feels about his life after taking the road less traveled, only that it made a profound difference on his life.
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