Frost, Nature and the Human Spirit
A pristine emerald pasture sits gently nestled in a high valley between the jagged snow covered mountains which dutifully stand guard over it. Overhead, the aqua-blue sky sheds beams of warm, golden sunlight as light wispy clouds gently float by. A gentle breeze wafts through the valley, carrying with it the sweet smell of lilac, honeysuckle and the fresh, sharp scent of pine trees. The high pitched screech of lone hawk riding the wind in search of prey can be heard in the distance. A babbling brook trickles and bubbles nearby as an elderly gentleman sits comfortably on a fallen birch tree looking out at the scene. The man sits like a statue, never moving, lost in some sort of dream induced paralysis. The man is drinking in the splendor in order to quench his never-ending thirst for nature. He realizes that life can be no better than at that precise moment. The scene is purely fictional, but one could very well imagine Robert Frost being this gentleman, at one with nature, contemplating life 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
After seeing the doe they say to one another "[t]his, then, is all, [w]hat more is there to ask?" (25). Nature does not see a reason for men to have walls between them and it tries to damage the wall to get the men together. The idea of trees being bent by ice and snow is much less romantic than the idea of a young boy enjoying himself, teaching himself some lessons about nature and life. Robert Frost has strange ways of illustrating nature and the bounds of the human spirit to his readers. One by one he subdued his father's trees By riding them down over and over again Until he took the stiffness out of them, And not one but hung limp, not one was left For him to conquer (25-32). 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. Nature serves the purpose of tearing the wall down so that the men can mend it back (Lynen 70). In Frost's poem "Two Look at Two" this question is answered. Frost shows in "Mending Wall" that it doesn't matter whether nature is trying to destroy the wall or just damage it enough to bring the men together; nature is trying to join the two: I let my neighbor know beyond the hill; And on a day we meet to walk the line And set the wall between us once again. (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). Others see Frost as an "extreme lover of nature, because he involves nature in every aspect of his writing" (Barry 12). If critics only look at the harshness of Frost's poetry, they will never see the gentle, teaching side of it. We keep the wall between us as we go. 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). Thus, Frost is not attempting to flee nature, but he is trying to use it as a tool to free his weary spirit.
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