Last Minute Notes on - Frost

Emu McEmuerson

(hope these help a few people stuggling)

Robert Frost [1874-1963]
Relevant Background
• Robert Frost was born in San Francisco. He lived most of his life on farms in the state of New England, on the eastern side of America. His rich grandfather bought him a farm.
• He went to university at Dartmouth College in 1892, and later Harvard, but never gained a formal degree.
• Difficult childhood and a lot of personal loss and grief in his adult life. At times he suffered chronic depression.
• He was one of America's leading 20th-century poets and a four-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize.
• His poetry is the story of a man who escaped to the country, because he felt his vocation was to be alone. By his own admission he was ‘unwilling to explain’ his life choice, but his poetry is a symbolic record of his reflections and realizations.
• Frost is often called a pastoral poet, a poet who portrays the benevolent/good side of country life. This is true in the sense that he expressed the beauty of the landscape of New England in his poetry. But there was usually a dark or troubled spirit at work in his poems. Nature is not always benevolent in Frost’s poems.
• Referred to as a nature poet → disliked this label because he usually included people in his poetry. Frost’s poetry is known for its country philosophy and wisdom, yet there is an edgy and critical commentary on human life in many of his poems.
• Poet of deep thoughts. Behind his descriptions of nature and everyday activities → deeper meaning. When he described events, he usually had a moral point or strange observation to make. Clear and easy to understand manner, unlike many of the twentieth century poets. He was a poet of ironic insight.
• Frost was a poet of searching and often dark meditations on universal themes.
• Some poems → strict line rhyming pattern. Many of his poems are written in blank verse [un-rhyming lines]
• Frost disliked the modern free verse. Its lack of regular pattern didn’t appeal to him.
• Frost liked to write poetry in the language he heard spoken everyday. The many everyday phrases in his poetry show this aspect of his style. This trait makes his poetry modern.
• Rhythm is based on the way the human voice groups or assembles words and sounds in spoken English → colloquial rhythm of the everyday speaking voice in Frost’s poems.
• Blend of the traditional and modern poet → regular lines of ten syllables.

Themes
1. Frost explored the relationship between humanity and nature. Frost’s pastoral scenes are often sources of philosophical insights:

‘Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-
I took the one less travelled by,
And that has made all the difference’
[The Road not taken]

‘He is all pine and I am apple orchard.
My apple trees will never get across
And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him’
[Mending Wall]

‘And from there those that lifted eyes could count
Five mountain ranges one behind the other’
[Out, Out]

‘The butterfly and I had lit upon,
Nevertheless, a message from the dawn’
[The Tuft of flowers]

2. Frost believed that human beings live isolated lives, despite being in close proximity to each other:

‘We keep the wall between us as we go’
[Mending Wall]

‘Good fences make good neighbours’
[Mending Wall]

‘Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-
I took the one less travelled by’
[The Road not Taken]

‘And they, since they
Were not the one dead, turned to their affairs’ [Out, Out]

‘And I must be, as he had been— alone,
“As all must be,” I said within my heart,
“Whether they work together or apart”.'
[The Tuft of Flowers]

‘Nor yet to draw one thought of ours to him’ [The Tuft of Flowers]

‘When far away an interrupted cry
Came over houses from another street, But not to call me back or say good-bye’
[Acquainted with the night]

‘No memory of having starred
Atones for later disregard’ [Provide Provide]






3. While Frost often emphasised human loneliness and alienation, he sometimes believed that human solidarity really existed. In some poems, Frost believed that despite our separation as individuals, humans are social beings. At times he felt the exhilaration of spiritual bonds with people; at other times he felt the need to even purchase friendship.

‘And feel a spirit kindred to my own;
So that henceforth I worked no more alone’[Tuft of Flowers]

“Men work together,” I told him from the heart,
“Whether they work together or apart”[Tuft of Flowers]

‘I let my neighbour know beyond the hill;
And on a day we meet to walk the line’ [Mending Wall]

‘Better to go down dignified
With boughten friendship at your side
Than none at all’ [Provide Provide]

4. Frost attempted to get at the heart of the mystery of living:
‘And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth’ [Road not Taken]

‘Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it’ ;
‘The gaps I mean,
No one has seen them made or heard them made,
But at spring mending-time we find them there’ [Mending Wall]

‘He must have given the hand. However it was,
Neither refused the meeting’ [Out,Out]

‘I thought of questions that have no reply’ [Tuft of Flowers]

‘I have passed by the watchman on his beat
And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain’ [Acquainted with the Night]

5. Frost explored the relationship between nature and human beings. Nature has emotional, spiritual or sensual effects:

‘Sheer morning gladness at the brim’
[Tuft]

‘A message from the dawn
That made me hear the wakening birds around’
[Tuft]

‘Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That wants it down." I could say "Elves" to him,
But it's not elves exactly, and I'd rather
He said it for himself’
[Mending Wall]

‘Sweet-scented stuff when the breeze drew across it.
And from there those that lifted eyes could count
Five mountain ranges one behind the other
Under the sunset far into Vermont.’
[Out,Out]

6. Frost shows an awareness that all life is brief and that it either fades or ends abruptly. He recognises that he will die. His poetry shows that he, has a desire to fill his days with as much productive living as possible before that time comes.

‘The witch that came (the withered hag)
To wash the steps with pail and rag
Was once the beauty Abishag’
[Provide Provide]

‘I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence’
[Road not Taken]

‘Half in appeal, but half as if to keep
The life from spilling. Then the boy saw all’
[Out, Out]

‘Little — less — nothing! — and that ended it.
No more to build on there. And they, since they
Were not the one dead, turned to their affairs’
[Out, Out]

‘No memory of having starred
Atones for later disregard
Or keeps the end from being hard’
[Provide Provide]



Poetic Techniques
Frost used literary techniques such as dialogue, first and third person narrative, personal reflection, figurative imagery and language, symbols and personification in his poems. He is a poet with immense variety of tone. He moves from exhilaration to black moods. There is an ironic voice in most of his poems.

Sound Effects
The colour coding for sound repetition is as follows:
Alliteration is the repetition of first letters
Assonance is repetition of vowel sounds.
Consonance is repetition of consonant sounds. Sibilance is repetition of ‘s’ sounds

Note the effective sibilance in this line from ‘Out, Out’ →
‘Sweet-scented stuff when the breeze drew across it’.
This sibilance emphasises the spreading of the scent in the breeze. It creates a musical effect.

Note how verbal music enhances the aural imagery of the following rhyming couplet from ‘A Tuft of Flowers’:
‘That made me hear the wakening birds around,
And hear his long scythe whispering to the ground’.

Rhyme
Some of Frost’ poems are in blank verse. Some of his poems have a strict rhyming pattern. Some of his poems have variable rhyming without any pattern.
In ‘Out, Out’ there isn’t a regular rhyming scheme. There is a small amount of rhyming. The third and third last lines rhyme with ‘it’. The word ‘other’ in line four half rhymes with ‘ether’ in line twenty-eight. Lines eighteen and twenty end in the same word ‘hand’. This is an example where rhyming emphasises the word that is central to the narrative of the poem.
Otherwise ‘Out, Out’ is a blank verse paragraph.
Many of the longer narrative poems are written in blank verse paragraphs.

‘The Tuft of Flowers’ is written in rhyming couplets. This is typical of his early poems when he had a profound respect for traditional poetic practices.
The shorter lyric poems and sonnets on the course have a definite rhyming pattern.

Tone
Many of Frost's poems include an element of melancholy or regret. They contain feelings or sadness or longing that reflects the darker side of the poet. Considering the difficult childhood and life that he experienced, it is logical to conclude that poems with these attitudes were an outlet for his darker emotions - mostly of loneliness and loss.
‘Acquainted With the Night’ is a clear example of this tendency. In other poems Frost experiences the exhilaration of epiphany: a moment of deep spiritual insight as in ‘The Tuft of Flowers’.

Imagery
→ Descriptive or real images. This image refers to a process known in your biology textbooks as transpiration. It is a real image from nature.
Some descriptive or real objects from nature may have a symbolic meaning. Thus, the wall in ‘Mending Wall’, the butterfly and flowers in ‘The Tuft of Flowers’ are all real images, but on a deeper level, they represent or symbolise abstract or spiritual ideas.
In ‘The Tuft of Flowers’, the butterfly is a symbol of the poet’s inquisitive and longing soul. The flowers represent natural beauty and human tenderness. The poem has a phrase that acts as a pointer to the deeper level of interpretation: ‘a message from the dawn’.
In ‘Mending Wall’, the yelping dogs and the hunters are real. But the wall exists in two dimensions of meaning. It is a real boundary between two farms, as real as the yelping canines. But the words ‘elves’ and ‘something’ both suggest there may be a mysterious hidden meaning to the wall. The wall, which is restored annually, may signify the artificial codes, superstitions and traditions by which people separate and isolate themselves.

Simile:
‘like an old-stone savage armed’ [Mending Wall]
Personification:
‘Stay where you are until our backs are turned!’ [Mending Wall]
‘The buzz-saw snarled and rattled in the yard’ [Out, Out]
‘As if to prove saws knew what supper meant’ [Out, Out]
Paradox [apparent contradiction]
‘Alone…as all must be whether they work together or apart’ [Tuft]
‘ “Men work together,” I told him from the heart,
“Whether they work together or apart”.' [Tuft]

Logic (argument)
In Frost’s poetry he persuades us rather than argues. Frost uses imagery, symbols and analogy to convey his views. Frost is a narrative poet, and thus his many ideas are conveyed indirectly in most of his poetry. Some lines are argumentative and these help us to decode his images and symbols.
‘And that has made all the difference’ [Road]
‘Why do they make good neighbours? Isn't it
Where there are cows? But here there are no cows’ [Mending Wall]
‘Call it a day, I wish they might have said’ [Out, Out]
'Men work together,' I told him from the heart,
'Whether they work together or apart.' [Tuft]

In addition to various techniques of sound, tone and imagery, there are many examples of different language techniques found in Frost’s poetry.

curious girl

thanx emu mc E thanx for taking the time to do this as a matter of interest what poets do u think are likely? regards curious girl

Emu McEmuerson

well im HOPING Frost/Plath/Kavanagh come up..

they seem to be the ones people are predicting