Robert Frost Essay

Jonathan Almanza
ENC 1102
Professor Ewell
Monday/Wednesday (9:00am-9:50am)
February 19, 2015

Robert Frost is thought to be one of the foremost poets of the twentieth century. His work has been considered by countless people as “distinctive” and “unique”. Frost’s poems, for the most part, take place in nature. He uses vocabulary that appeals to the senses in order to engage the reader. The sentence structure that Frost uses is lengthy and complex. Many implications of his writing is not clear to the audience at first glance. Only after deep reflection can the reader truly understand the poem. The real themes in his poems are usually life lessons. Frost integrates symbolism into everyday life situations and uses symbolism of nature to convey these life lessons. The speaker in his poems differ from each other. In The Pasture, Frost appears to be openly involved in the poem. Meanwhile, in While in the Rose Pogonias, the speaker is a disconnected spectator who is observing and talking about the beauty in this world.
Robert Frost was a very famous American poet in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century. Frost used nature as the focus in the majority of his writings. Robert Frost was born in San Francisco on March 26, 1874. When he got older, he decided to move to Lawrence, Massachuschusetts after his father passed away. In Lawrence he would write on his free time. He was a humble man who was a teacher, mill worker, reporter, farmer, and, of course, a writer. From a young age he had an interest in literature. He went to Dartmouth for a while, but didn’t even last one whole semester. Between 1897 and 1899, Frost went to Harvard; He decided to quit before he obtained his degree. Later on he received honorary degrees from both schools. Frost sold his first poem to a New York journal in 1894. “My Butterfly: An Elegy” was the name of his first publication. About a year after being published, he married a woman named Elinor White. Frost sold his New Hampshire farm in 1912 and decided to move to England. Frost realized that this would allow him to work on his writings full time. He became successful in England instantly. A Boy’s Will and North of Boston were sold to a publisher in London which gave him recognition in the United States.
Robert Frost has accomplished a reputation as a poet of nature. Frost uses imagery of nature in his writing, but to say that he merely a “nature poet” is misleading. An aspect of his poems that is commonly disregarded is the main character’s internal conflict. In The Road Not Taken and Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening, characters are confronted with an inner conflict figuratively defined by nature. Frost uses nature in these two poems to hide the truth about how uncomfortable the main character really is. After studying Frost’s poetry, I am much more aware of different thoughts, feelings, and points of view. Each poem by Frost shows a different characteristic of life. Although, the message in a few of his poems were similar. Frost’s poems offer such a deep insight into life, nature, and reality. Frost’s writing connects with readers on essentially every level of consciousness. His writing also allows readers to understand that their feelings are uncommon. Everybody deals with the same emotions, and need to struggle with many similar situations in life. Frost became popular at the beginning of the nineteenth century, and although he died decades ago, his poems are still as renowned as they were before he passed away. Nature seems to be present in Frost’s poetry very often. He uses nature as an image that he wants the audience to see or even a metaphor that he wants the audience to relate to on a psychological level. Saying that he is a “nature poet” is actually inaccurate. Frost’s poetry is thought provoking and emphasizes on specific repetitive themes. A few of the themes Frost focuses on are death, spirituality, loneliness, darkness, and retreat. It may be hard for some to grasp that Frost was not necessarily a “nature poet”. Frost is renowned internationally for his so-called nature theme. Contrary to popular belief, nature is not the only central theme that Frost focuses on in his poetry. Frost mostly focuses on the distinction between man and nature and also on the conflicts between man and nature. Frost’s nature poetry links the natural world and the real world. These elements were his motivation in writing poetry. The unforgiving reality of nature and the insensitive expectations in the minds of humans hardly fit together with one another.
Works Cited
"The Biography of Robert Frost."Poemhunter.com. Poemhunter. Web. 18 Feb. 2015. <http://www.poemhunter.com/robert-frost/biography/>.
Lynen, John. ""Nature and Pastoralism""The Pastoral Art of Robert Frost. Yale University Press. Web. 18 Feb. 2015. <http://www.frostfriends.org/FFL/Nature and Pastoralism - Lynen/lynenessay1.html>.
"Robert Frost." Robert Frost: The Poetry Foundation. Poetryfoundation.org. Web. 18 Feb. 2015. <http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/robert-frost>.