The poems of Robert Frost are unique in a number of ways. Characteristics of FrostÆs poetry include a lyric or narrative form, figurative language, the personification of nature, and a focus on unmitigated sensory perceptions. Likewise, FrostÆs poems embody a focus on nature, including manÆs separation from his own nature as well as manÆs relationship with nature. A number of FrostÆs poems focus on manÆs mortality, including a search for meaning. While many of FrostÆs poems expose the dark and depressing aspects of life, FrostÆs speakers generally embrace living. This analysis will explore a number of FrostÆs poems to illustrate the above forms, themes, and techniques used by the poet who is considered the quintessential New Englander poet. A conclusion will address Robert FrostÆs contribution to poetry and literature as a whole.
Living on a rural New England farm with his wife and three surviving children (two died in childbirth), Robert FrostÆs works are filled with images of nature in the traditional and concise form of the lyric or narrative. FrostÆs focus on nature is meant to demonstrate the simplicity and beauty of nature in contrast to manÆs industrial-centered life, as well as it is used by the poet to show how often man is separated from man as well as from his relationship with nature. ManÆs isolation from man and a degree of loneliness are also encompassed in FrostÆs works. FrostÆs poems often encompass a picture of nature and its processes as reflective of what happens to the individual. In many, nature is used as a mirror for reflection in which the meaning of human existence in an often indifferent and silent universe is questioned. As Straumann (p. 162) notes of such images and themes in FrostÆs works, they are ôconnected with an element of inevitabilityàand with the unanswerable question of the poetÆs place in the metaphysical world.ö
One of FrostÆs poems that best demonstrate...