Robert Frost Not Just a Nature Poet Essay Example

did not leave them for others such as himself or that they were left as a mark of the mower’s earlier presence. It was the ‘sheer morning gladness’ that inspired the mower to spare this solitary tuft of flowers. Frost metaphorically compares the work of the mower and his scythe which left the tuft of flowers to that of his pen which creates poems such as this one.

This forms a close tie between the speaker and the mower. Frosts last line is ‘men work together.. whether they work together or apart’. This is Frost’s realisation of shared experience. That all men are connected through work and shared experience whether they are together or apart. In this poem the tuft of flowers acted as a catalyst which speeds up the sense of comraderie and shared experience and also the reconciliation of mankind. Similarly the poem ‘Birches’ also contains the element of nature yet the stronger message which is conveyed in this poem is the poets sense of nostalgia and childhood.

Frost sees a group of birches which all seem to be bent. He would like to think that ‘some boy’s been swinging them’. Swinging birches was a pastime of Frost’s. However he is aware that a boy is not responsible as they would have regain their upright shape, instead the frost and ice has left them permanently bent. He compares them to ‘girls on hands and knees that throw their hair before them over their heads to dry in the sun’. A sense of deep sadness comes over Frost when he realises that the birches will remain limp. He would prefer to have some boy bend them,

a boy like himself, too far from town ‘to learn baseball’.

Frost was this little boy, ‘so was I once myself a swinger of birches’. Frost is taken back to his childhood as a little boy who swung birches. He wishes he could go back to this stage in his life, ‘I’d like to get away from earth for awhile’. Just as the boy had escaped chores to swing birches , he too wishes he could escape the difficulties and stresses in life. The title ‘Birches’ is deceiving as it depicts and image of nature, yet the poem has more to do with self reflection and nostalgia than nature itself. The poem ‘OO’ also tells the story of a young boy, except this time the boy doesn’t depict a young Frost.

This poem tells the tragic story of a boy who died in an accident while working with a saw on his family’s farm. The buzz saw is depicted as the villain in this poem. It is personified as a wild beast who ‘snarled and rattled’ in the yard. Frost expresses his wish that the people might have let the boy off work early so that he could enjoy an extra half an hour that a young boy would away from his duties. By calling it a day early, the tragic accident would have been avoided. The boys sister enters to tell him ‘Supper’. At that very moment the saw strikes the boy’s hand ‘as if to prove saws knew what supper meant’.

Bizarrely the boy gives an outcry of a ‘rueful laugh’ as if to indicate his shock and disbelief. He holds his hand to limit the

blood from gushing out and to keep the ‘life from spilling’. However reality dawns for the boy as he is a ‘big boy’ doing a ‘mans work’. He knows that he needs his hand to be able to do his labour on the farm. Without his hand he believes he will be incapable of doing anything. He pleads with the doctor to save his hand, ‘but the hand was already gone’. Soon after the boy dies and nothing anyone can do, ‘no more to build on there’.

Life has to go on and ‘they’ since ‘they’ were not dead ‘turned to their affairs’. The boys family continue with their work and continue with their lives as if nothing had happen. This is the grim reality of death, those you leave behind continue with their lives as they are not the ones dead. The poem expresses the fragility of life as the boy’s death was a complete accident. The poem is a reminder that in the middle of even the most ordinary day, life can be snatched away from us. The poem ‘ the road not taken’ discusses the contemplation of life decisions.

The poem was inspired by Frost’s friend who said ‘no matter which road you take, you’ll always sigh and wish you’d taken another’. In the poem Frosts comes to a fork in the road. Two new roads present themselves. One road was ‘grassy and wanted wear’ suggesting that it had not been used as much as the other. However Frost makes that crucial life decision and chooses a road, ‘I kept the first for another day’. He says he will come back to that road

later on in life but he knows only too well that he will not get the opportunity to come back and choose again.

In the poems last two lines Frost says, ‘I took the road less travelled by, And that has made all the difference’. This suggests that he is unaware if the decision to choose this road was good or bad but he knows that it has made all the difference. It has changed his life and made him a better person. It is clear this is not a poem about nature but the universal theme of life choices. Everyone can relate to this theme as we all have to make choices on a daily basis. Many options present themselves and it is in human nature to want to be able to have them all but we can only choose one.

No matter what decision we choose we will inevitably sigh one day and wish that we had taken another. Finally ‘AWTN’ is perhaps Frost’s most darkest poem as he writes during a time when he was what in modern day is called clinically depressed. Not much happens in the poem as it depicts Frost walking city streets alone , yet it is the atmosphere created in this poem that is most noticeable. Frost creates an atmosphere of sheer despair. The opening line, ‘I have been one acquainted with the night’ suggests that due to his state of mind he now has a relationship with all that is full of darkness and despair.

The line ‘I have walked in and out of rain’ suggest that he is unable to relax, unable to sleep due to his state

of mind. In the poem he meets a policeman yet he feels disconnected from the world, society and people. He is unable to communicate, ‘and dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain’. This poem provides a moving portrayal of a mind at the end of its tether. The poem deals with the theme of urban isolation as this is how Frost felt at the time despite being in a city surrounded by millions of people. It shows that people can feel lost, and it clearly shows Frost’s difficulty to integrate and develop personal connections.

From reading Frost’s poetry it is clear there is the element of nature, yet Frost undeniably is not just a nature poet. When one delves into his poetry one can find universal themes and issues along with great philosophical contemplation about life and death, nostalgia, life decisions, the fragility of life and also despair and isolation. From my essay I have concluded that the statement, ‘I am not just a nature poet’ is undeniably true as it is clear that Frost’s poetry has much more to offer readers than just the theme of nature alone.