Frost, Nature and the Human Spirit

Was Robert Frost a lover of nature? This question has been one that has been argued for many years. Many critics like James Cox, argue that Frost actually “hated nature and that he has just been misunderstood

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This fantasy also allows the speaker, to escape from the reality of the destruction of the earth. Frost also retreats to nature to obtain the replenishment that he so desperately needs when he is “weary of considerations and his energies are lacking” (Meyers 127).

To each the boulders that have fallen to each. He does have poems that seem to be more nature hating than loving, but if you look deeper into the poem, you can see the nature loving side in all of his poetry.

In Frost’s view, “a simple communication with nature can lead us to the many answers of life’s questions” (Meyers 132). Nature serves the purpose of tearing the wall down so that the men can mend it back (Lynen 70). (12-16)

Elaine Barry states in “Frost” that “the building of the wall joins the two men to work together as one and the neighbor does not care what tears the wall down, he just knows that it has to be repaired to keep their properties separate” (Barry 95).

After seeing the doe they say to one another “[t]his, then, is all, [w]hat more is there to ask?” (25).

This idea of nature's self-destruction is one that isn't often addressed in our time, since most destruction to nature is blamed on humans and pollution. For these reasons, this poem illustrates the battle of the speaker between the youthful thoughts of fantasy and the older, more plausible, facts of reality. The tree has a gentle, mystical way of taking small children above the earth and then placing them gently back onto the ground with no harm:

Some boy too far from town to learn baseball,

Whose only play was what he found himself,

Summer or winter, and could play alone. Frost also believes that “humans have an undying question of whether or not nature loves and needs them as much as they love and need nature” (qtd. Frost is indeed a lover of nature, both student and teacher who’s subject is human nature. Others see Frost as an “extreme lover of nature, because he involves nature in every aspect of his writing” (Barry 12). The poem illustrates that when the couple discovers the deer looking back at them, they fully understand all of nature’s intent (Lynen 33).

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Approximate Word count = 1615
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)

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