Todd Jernigan

The Simplicity of Frost

Todd Jernigan
January 9, 2006
En340 Critical Analysis

Who is Robert Frost? This is a question that was probably on the minds of many Americans who were somehow involved in the literature community of the early to mid 20th century. He came from a wealthy family who promptly disowned him when he became a poet. He was not successful in America until after he traveled abroad in England and was published. He is now a well known name in not just he literature community. He has become a very popular author and is studies in many American anthologies. His writing technique is something that was never really classified. He is something of a hybrid of imagist poetry and naturalistic poetry. Frost’s most famous poems include the “Mending Wall”, “Fire and Ice”, “Stopped at the Woods on a Snowy Night”, and “The Road not Taken”. These poems are widely studied in American high school English classes because of their simplicity. This simplicity however is what makes him so brilliant. His work is not boring to adults or intellectuals because of its simplicity. His language and themes are just easily relatable.

Possibly the most widely popular of his poems is “The road not taken”.

THE ROAD NOT TAKEN
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

This poem is a fairly easy poem to relate too. How often is the road we take the easy road. Most people in life never take a chance and only look at what might have been instead of what could be. In this poem Frost is very imagistic. He paints a picture for his reader of a road that splits into two. The road is located in the woods and it is quiet with no one else around. The traveler must make a decision. Does he want to take the road that looks as if it is well traveled? Or, does he want to go on an adventure and explore what few people have seen. This is the theme of the story. It is a monologue of a traveler who is walking on the path of life and decides to take the “road less traveled” and that decision to take a chance has made all of the difference to his life. Other then his imagistic abilities this poem also demonstrates incorporations of life philosophies which are found so frequently in his poems. This is one of the main reasons he is not considered a imagist poet.

The poem “Fire and Ice” is my favorite poem and a little bit different then the “Road not taken”.

Fire and Ice
Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favour fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.

This poem is a wonderful piece about the Armageddon. There are two scientific theories about the end of the world. The first theory is that the sun will explode engulfing the world in fire. The second is that the sun will simply burn out and the earth will become a ball of ice. In actuality a professor of astronomy at Harvard University discussed these beliefs with Frost a few years before the poem was written. He believes that his conversation with Frost is the reason for the poem. (Nelson, “On ‘Fire and Ice’”) Like most scientists, however, he is not very good at taking a deeper meaning of words. The poem is obviously saying that death will come because of intense desire, fire, or intense hate, cold. This symbolism is proved in his lines “From what I’ve tasted of desire” and “I think I know enough of hate”. These lines tell the reader that those are the sins which will cause death. This concept, again like the “road not taken”, is not overly difficult to see. This simplicity of meaning and of language is another distinguishing characteristic of Frost. He does not dumb down the language to make it juvenile but he does use the language to easily display his ideas.
“Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening” is another widely read Robert Frost poem.

Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

This poem is one of Frost’s more imagistic poems. The using language such as “downy flake”, “frozen lake”, and “watching the woods fill up with snow” really gives the reader a picture of someone riding a horse through or along the woods on a snowy and dark evening. It also gives another good sensory image when he describes the sounds of the surroundings. The lines read, “he gives his harness bells a shake/to ask if there is some mistake/the only other sound’s the sweep/of easy wind and downy flake.” This line is very beautiful and allows readers to delve into their own experiences of witnessing the awesome silence of freshly fallen snow in a deserted surround. What the author is trying to tell the reader is that there should always be some time for reflection and for “stopping and smelling the roses”. Stopping, however, should not cause you to neglect your responsibilities. This is easily seen with in the lines that read, “and miles to go before I sleep.” In this poem Frost demonstrates his ability to create an image for the reader. Also, he displays his theme or philosophical life lesson with out much complication. These traits are seen consistently throughout the poems.

Robert Frost was a fantastic poet who was not taken seriously by the American publicists until he had made a name for him self in England. His abilities were unique to himself. He was not an imagist as were most of his peers. He was not a naturalist or a post modernist. His style was his own. He had the ability to use the simplest forms of language to describe in-depth philosophical life lessons. Ezra Pound, an imagist poet who was also ostracized by America was a very arrogant individual who did not think much of young writers. He, however, really like the way that Frost wrote. He said, “Mr. Frost is an honest writer, writing from himself, from his own knowledge and emotion; not simply picking up the manner which magazines are accepting at the moment, and applying it to topics in vogue.” In this quote Pound is describing the symbolism in frosts poetry which is not found in everyday occurrences. Frost was truly in a league of his own. He was not the imagist though he created images. He was not the naturalist though he used nature. He was in many ways a man without peers.

Works Cited:

Pound, Ezra. "Modern Georgics." Critical Essays on Robert Frost. Comp. Philip L. Gerber. Boston: G.K. Hall & Co., 1982. 17-18

Pound, Ezra. "A Boy's Will." Critical Essays on Robert Frost. Comp. Philip L. Gerber. Boston: G.K. Hall & Co., 1982. 19-21.

Nelson, Cary, and Edward Brunner, comps. "Robert Frost (1874-1963)." Modern American Poetry. UIUC. 6 Jan. 2006 <http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/a_f/frost/frost.htm>.