Robert Frost?s poetic images and topics changed as a result of the depression. Reflected in Robert Frost?s poetry lie the feelings and concerns of Americans, expressed through different poetic images and topics. As compared to Robert Frost?s earlier work, which focused on man and nature, Frost?s poems during the Great Depression, shift poetic images and topics to the relationship between man and man. Later in Frost?s life, after the depression, Robert Frost?s themes changed another time to man and God. Robert Lee Frost was born on March 26, 1874 to Isabelle and William Prescott Frost. In 1885, at age 11, Frost?s father died. As a result Robert moved with his mother and sister Jeanie to Lawrence, Massachusetts. In 1895 Robert married Elanor White, his high school sweetheart, and began a teaching job at a local school. His first son Elliot was born on September 25, 1896 followed by his daughter Leslie on April 28, 1899. In 1899 Frost?s mother Isabelle, his first son Elliot, passed away. In 1902, Elanor gave birth to Frost?s second son, Carol. Frost then decided to move with his wife and daughter to a small farm outside Derry, New Hampshire. In 1905, Elanor had another daughter, Majorie.
Following Majorie?s birth in 1907, Elinor Betina was born, but quickly passed away. The death of Frost?s children hit him hard; he tried to be the best father he knew how, spending every moment with his children. As said by Alan Shucard, ?He remained bound up in their lives and deaths.? Trying to get away from his life in America, Frost traveled to England in 1912, where he settled on a small farm in Buckinghamshire. After the outbreak of WWI in 1914, Robert and his family moved to Gloucestershire. A year later Robert moved again, and returned to Franconia, New Hampshire. After his move, Henry Holt and Company published A Boys Will and North of Boston. However, in 1938, tragedy overshadowed the news of his publication when after an operation to remove cancer, Elanor, passed away. From that point on, Robert Frost never stopped blaming himself for Elanor?s death. He thought that God was punishing him; and putting him on trial like Jobe, to show the devil that through all of this treatment, humans could still be thankful. This view was reflected in his poem [Forgive, O Lord ?] ?Forgive, O Lord, my little jokes on thee / and I?ll forgive thy great big one on me.? The ?great big one (joke) on me? is a illusion to the treatment that Robert Frost believes he is receiving from God.
The Essay on Analysis of Robert Frost’s “An Old Man’s Winter Night”
What is the goal in a poem? Why do writers write? Most poems are an attempt to pass on a message, to give a moral, or in any case, to communicate in one way or another. An example of a writer doing this in a poem may be seen in An Old Man’s Winter Night, by Robert Frost. Robert Frost (1874-1963) wrote An Old Man’s Winter Night, perhaps his most well conceived work and published it in ...
1940, just two years after his wife?s death, Robert?s son, Carol, committed suicide. After the death of Carol, Robert moved to his final home in Cambridge, MA. January 29, 1963 Robert Frost died at the venerable age of 88. He saw all of his children either die or suffer from mental instability. Robert Pack, a University of Massachusetts professor, compares Robert Frost?s work to life, ??simple immediate surface, but when you look deeper the poem reveals itself to you.? Pack continues to elaborate on Frost?s poetic mysteries; he speaks of humor and trickery that Robert Frost includes in his poems that only a seasoned reader can pick up on. It is these ?dark sayings? and mysteries that maintain Frost?s distinctive ?enigmatical reserve.? Robert Frost is considered by Pack as one of the greatest American poets to ever live. Compared to the revered Walt Whitman, or Longfellow. Frost wanted to be considered a ?poet-teacher?, to make nature speak with a human voice to readers, and a ?poet-preacher? to dramatize for the reader the divinity in the face of which belief must be given shape. Frost said that his main objective in poetry was to say one thing and to mean another, the definition of a metaphor.
Robert Frost?s poems are predominantly written in blank verse, poems without a rhyme scheme typically written in iambic pentameter. Literary Critic Amy Lowell compares Robert Frost?s work to that of a rock, ?(his work) suggests the hardness and roughness of New England granite?. unyielding in substance and broken in effect.? Wild Grapes illustrates Robert Frosts child hood memories in grape orchards, his use of blank verse is definitely evident as no rhyme scheme is used, the poem is written in iambic pentameter, and with a definite flow: What tree may not the fig be gathered from? The grape may not be gathered from the Birch? It?s all you know the grape, or know the birch. As a girl gathered from the birch myself Equally with my weight in grapes, one autumn, I ought to know what tree the grape is fruit of.. When viewing the surface of Robert Frost?s poems, the settings are predominantly New England. Robert Frost spent most of his life living in New England, and in North of Boston, his main objective is to, ?reveal the disease which is eating into New England life or at least rural areas.? After understanding the basis and framework of Robert Frost?s style, we must now focus on the Great Depression to explain the correlation between this world-changing event and the subjects in Frost?s poems.
The Essay on Confusion and Anxiety in Robert Frost’s Poems
During his lifetime, Robert Frost wrote poems that relate the confusion, anxiety, and struggles of the human mind. In his poems, he depicts how people’s minds may be imbued by confusion and anxiety as they experience pain and explore life’s possibilities. Particularly, in “The Road Not Taken” and “Acquainted with the Night,” the poet illustrates how thee two themes can lead a person to attempt to ...
In the early 1900?s roughly 60% of the country?s population was dispersed out in the country, whether it be farms or towns with a population less than 2,500 people. This 60% or so of the country?s population was hit extremely hard by agricultural depression beginning in 1920. For some years the cost of seeds, living, and equipment had gone up, while the meager income of farmer?s stayed about the same. Farmers were forced to operate at a net loss of capital. As their debts increased, crop prices decreased, along with the cost of shipping their crops to the east for trade by the railroad. Going unchecked for some time, a large majority of the population was in debt. They asked the Federal Reserve to increase money production, to increase inflation and, consequently crop prices. Doing so would have decreased the value of their debts and increased their incomes with higher crop prices, giving them a much-needed boost. Instead, no action was taken, and the country eventually collapsed with them. Another aspect attributed to the cause of the depression is the failure of financial institutions. There were a growing number of private and public financial institutions, yet none were regulated by the government.
The Essay on Frost And Death
There are many reoccurring themes throughout poetry. In Robert Frosts poetry, he uses symbols found in nature to express the meaning of his poems. Robert Frost was not like other poets in his time; he wrote about nature like the Romantics. He did not use free verse like the other poets of his time either. Robert Frost dwelt upon death in a lot of his poetry. He believed that people should make the ...
Prices at the stock market were at all time highs, while people were buying stock on margin. Industrial stocks were selling at an unheard of 16:1 price to earnings ratio. A 10:1 price to earnings ratio is considered safe. Then in October 29, 1929 the inevitable hit, and the stock market had the largest sell off in history. By the end of the year, a net amount of $15 billion was lost. The withdrawal of American dollars from foreign markets eventually caught up with the rest of the world, as Europe fell victim to the decrease in revenue. Author Arthur S. Link explains, ?The unstable worlds economy plus Europe?s economic dependence on America proved fatal once American credit dried up.? ?The years between the onset of the Great Depression and 1940 were a time of regression and despair such as the American people have rarely known in their history.? The agricultural depression that started in 1920 resulted in decreased income, personal values, and purchasing in farms and caused the failure of thousands of country banks and the loss of billions in savings. By the last quarter of 1930 production was down 26%, and by midsummer of 1932, production had experienced an unheard of 51% reduction since 1929.
Unemployment around the country had reached more than one fourth of the workforce. People roamed the streets aimlessly in search of work with ragged clothing and no shoes. Health centers experienced a 60% increase in malnutrition cases, as there was little starvation, but widespread malnutrition, because bread lines were forced to feed millions. In Robert Frost?s earlier works, published before 1929, nearly all of Frost?s poems contain references to nature. The poem To The Thawing Wind has several of these references: Come with rain, O loud Soouthwester! Frost discusses flowers, the snow bank, wind, and earth, just to name a few. In the first line ?O loud Southwester? refers to the winds from the south west, or the jetstream that picks up the warmth from the Gulf of Mexico to come and melt the snow and expose the earth beneath the snow, so that the flower can grow. The Mountain is another of the examples of Robert Frost?s natural themes: The mountain held the town in a shadow. I saw so much before I slept there once: I noticed that I missed the stars in the west, Where it?s black body cut into the sky. Frost puts emphasis in this poem on the size of the mountain and how it blocks his sight of the western stars in the night sky. From Frost?s subject of the mountain, and his use of stars and sky, natural references again are predominant in the poem. Just the titles of the poems in New Hampshire, published in 1923, reveal the allusions to nature: A Star in a Stoneboat, Dust of Snow, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening. Robert Frost?s poem Spring Pools in West Running Brook is one of the best examples of the use of natural references: These pools that, though in forests, still reflect The total sky almost without defect, And like the flowers beside them, chill and shiver, Will like the flowers beside them soon be gone, And yet not out by any brook or river, But up by roots to bring dark foliage on.
The Essay on Robert Frost
As poets go, Frost (1874-1963) was no longer young when he published his first book of poems, A Boy's Will, in 1913. Though born in San Francisco, he came of a New England family which returned to New England when he was ten. Like many other writers, he had a brief brush with college and then supported himself by various means, ranging from shoe-making to editing a country newspaper. However, he ...
By all these references to nature one can see that without a doubt nature was a main theme used in the poetry written by Robert Frost before the year 1929.
After the onset of the depression Robert Frost enters another phase of his poetry, in which he shifts his topics from man and nature, to man and man. Dr. James L. Potter, professor of literature and criticism ant Trinity College, has a coinciding view on the themes of Robert Frost?s poetry, ?There are also many poems reflecting an interest in humanity independent of nature.? Two Tramps in Mud Time is an example of this man and man relationship, in which the subjects confront each other: And caught me splitting wood in the yard. By hailing cheerily ?Hit them Hard!? I knew pretty well why he dropped behind I knew pretty well what he had in mind: The use of imagery from a confrontation is unavoidable, but in no place in this excerpt is a natural reference made. This poem was published in 1936, a mid-point of The Great Depression which America had been in for more than 6 years. It is quiet obvious that the Depression was a time of great change for him mentally as shown in his writing. The switch of his general images and main topics witch is unarguably due to the depression.
Bibliography:
Works Cited Frost, Robert. A boy?s will. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1915. Collins, Mike. Robert Frost. Chicago: Hartsfield, 1979. Frost, Robert. North of Boston. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1915. Frost, Robert. Mountain Interval. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1920. Atlantic Unbound. 5 Sep. 2000. Poetry Pages. 15 Nov 2000. Ketzle, Jeff. 8 Aug 2000. Home Page. 15 Nov 2000 < http://www.ketzle.com>
The Essay on Robert Frost A Man Of Many Faces
Many individuals have a direct vision on life. Robert Frost, an American poet, was born in San Francisco, California, on March 26, 1874. During his youth he attended respectively, the Universities of Dartmouth and Harvard, but never obtained a degree. In 1912, Frost moved his family to England because of lack of luck in publishing his poetry. It was in England that Frost gained the reputation of ...
