Neither Out Far Nor in Deep by Robert Frost

1018 Words3 Pages

Neither Out Far Nor in Deep by Robert Frost

"Neither Out Far Nor In Deep," by Robert Frost, is a poem in which Frost is stating that when people visit the beach of an ocean, they always stare out towards the waters but never look back towards the land. Even if they can't see anything, it doesn't stop them from staring out at the sea. Frost is actually using this poem to symbolize the fact that people try to turn their backs from and ignore their problems or fears by leaving them for a while; but eventually they have to return and face those problems or fears.

The title itself suggests that nothing is ever very far or out of reach whether it is something good or bad, such as fears, worries, or troubles. The title is also foreshadowing the end of the poem. The first two lines of the poem are creating the image of people at a beach all standing in the same direction. Line two says they "All turn and look one way." They could all have the same type of look on their faces, or they could be looking in the same direction. Both ways, however, constitutes the reader to believe that all of them must have something in common. Frost does not distinguish anyone from the group. Instead he considers them as a whole; all of them seem sad or worried.

A little more of the meaning is revealed in line three. All of them turning their backs towards the land shows that there's something about the land that they don't want to be thinking about. Frost could have said that they were faced towards the sea and not have mentioned the land, but he didn't; so that shows the land having significance.

The next line could have been joined with the third line, but it makes more impact in this way. By putting it as its own senten...

... middle of paper ...

...ave to confront their problems and fears. It is human nature to try to forget about problems and be happy. Until those problems are confronted, the people won't truly be peaceful and happy.

"Neither Out Far Nor in Deep"

-Robert Frost

The people along the sand

All turn and look one way.

They turn their back on the land.

They look at the sea all day.

As long as it takes to pass

Aship keeps raising its hull;

The wetter ground like glass

Reflects a standing gull.

The land may vary more;

But wherever the truth may be---

The water comes ashore,

And the people look at the sea.

They cannot look out far.

They cannot look in deep.

But when was that ever a bar

To any watch they keep?

[1936]

Works Cited

Literature book 5th Edition Hoeper and Pickering

Page 996 "Neither Out Far Nor in Deep" by Robert Frost

Show More
Related

  • Robert Frost: Annotated Bibliography

    1062 Words  | 3 Pages

    The poem states that everything eventually comes to an end and that not even gold can remain unchanged. The poem explains this theme with many metaphors about everything that’s coming to an end. Freeman explains that “Even the poem's rhymes contribute to this sense of inevitability: Nature's gold we (or She) cannot hold; the flower lasts only an hour; the post flower leaf is like Eden's grief; the coming of day means that dawn's gold cannot stay”(2). The poem explains that everything has a natural cycle and that nothing lasts forever. When the poem states “nothing can stay gold”, Frost looks back at the flower and the time of day and implies that it all comes to an end.

    Read More

  • The Tragic Impermanence of Youth in Robert Frost's Nothing Gold Can Stay

    902 Words  | 2 Pages

    Frost's poem addresses the tragic transitory nature of living things; from the moment of conception, we are ever-striding towards death. Frost offers no remedy for the universal illness of aging; no solution to the fact that the glory of youth lasts only a moment. He merely commits to writing a deliberation of what he understands to be a reality, however tragic. The affliction of dissatisfaction that Frost suffers from cannot be treated in any tangible way. Frost's response is to refuse to silently buckle to the seemingly sadistic ways of the world. He attacks the culprit of aging the only way one can attack the enigmatic forces of the universe, by naming it as the tragedy that it is.

    Read More

  • Analysis of Out, Out by Robert Frost

    918 Words  | 2 Pages

    Frost begins the poem by describing a young boy cutting some wood using a "buzz-saw." The setting is Vermont and the time is late afternoon. The sun is setting and the boy's sister calls he and the other workers to come for "Supper." As the boy hears its dinnertime, he gets excited and cuts his hand on accident. Immediately realizing that the doctor might amputate his hand, he asks his sister to make sure that it does not happen. By the time the doctor arrives, it is too late and the boy's hand is already lost. When the doctor gives him anaesthetic, he falls asleep and never wakes up again. The last sentence of the poem, "since they (the boys family and the doctor) were not the one dead, turned to their affairs" shows how although the boys death is tragic, people move on with their life in a way conveying the idea that people only care for themselves.

    Read More

  • Robert Frost’s Poem, Out, Out

    988 Words  | 2 Pages

    Robert Frost’s poem “Out, Out” is narrated in a way that readers can learn the story of a boy who does as a result of accidentally cutting off his own hand with a buzz saw. This poem is set apart from others because Frost makes the entire thirty-nine-line poem into a one verse paragraph containing no stanzas. On the other hand, Linkin Park’s song “Waiting for the End” is a pop rock song, performed by an American rock band, which seems very unlike when compared to Frost’s poem. Although the creations of these pieces of art are created at different periods of time, they are similar in many ways. Robert Frost’s poem “Out, Out” and “Waiting for the End” by the band Linkin Park are similar in terms of theme, title, and imagery – yet these similarities can also set the differences between the two pieces.

    Read More

  • Song of the Open Road by Walt Whitman

    1669 Words  | 4 Pages

    Classic journalist and poet, Walt Whitman was born on May 31, 1819 in West Hills, New York. His family financial background was of a meek proportion in comparison to its large size. Whitman’s commitment to the family catapulted him into employment at a very young age depriving him of a formal education in his adolescent years. The absence of a formal education was not a hindrance for the young Whitman; his self-education through reading and exploration of the written word eventually led him to his first teaching post at the very young age of seventeen, an unacceptable happening in todays 21st century. A career of journalism soon was on the horizon for this young educator that of which he explored after his fifth year of teaching. Whitman conveyed robust ideas based on primary matters social and political in nature such as women’s rights and slavery. (Walt) The volatility shown in his journalistic style on city and political matters is often hard to relate as the same poetic songwriter found in melodic notes of one such as Whitman as what is found in the poem, “Song of the Open Road”. If education could have been afforded him it is likely that his opportunities would have been expanded in musicality, learning the ways of writing music to as yet another way to present his arty works in the poetry of words.

    Read More

  • Tension and Conflict in Mending Wall

    2528 Words  | 6 Pages

    Clearly, he is a casual sort. He broaches no difficult subjects, nor does he insist on talking about himself; yet Frost is at his best in a sentence like this. Through the language and rhythm of the lines we gain a faint but unmistakable sense of the poem's conflict. Like the "frozen-ground-swell," it gathers strength while lying buried beneath the denotative surface of the poem. From the start, we suspect that the speaker has more sympathy than he admits for whatever it is "that doesn't love a wall."

    Read More

  • The Road Not Taken, by Robert Frost

    959 Words  | 2 Pages

    The persona begins to think about how he cannot take both paths and be the same “traveler”

    Read More

  • Making Decisions In The Road Not Taken by Frost

    464 Words  | 1 Pages

    In “The Road Not Taken” Frost emphasizes that every person is a traveler choosing the roads to follow on the map of their continuous journey-life. There is never a straight path that leads a person one sole direction in which to head. Regardless of the original message that Robert Frost had intended to convey, “The Road Not Taken” has left me with many different interpretations. Throughout this poem, it is obvious that decisions are not easy to make and each decision will lead you down a different path.

    Read More

  • Robert Frost's Poem Out, Out

    822 Words  | 2 Pages

    “No more to build …” Robert Frost’s poem, “`Out, Out—',” tells of a young boy’s life, quickly, taken away in a gruesome matter. As the poem is delivered in first person, the speaker refers to the characters in third person—reminiscing this tragedy as a personal viewed memory—describing the boy’s loss of his hand with cruel diction: illuminating to his pain, despite his, “first outcry was a rueful laugh” (19). Frost conveys the readers into the scene by engaging the senses: to see all as, “the life [spilled]/[and] they listened at his heart” (22-31) as an interruption for personal reactions. This emotional poem centers the conflict on the fragility of life, and the theme of the poem, the inescapable presence of death, with graphic content,

    Read More

  • Metaphors In Robert Frost's The Road Not Taken

    1157 Words  | 3 Pages

    The first metaphor Frost uses in this poem can actually be found in the first line: “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood.” The two roads splitting in the woods is a metaphor for a choice you must make when presented with two different options. Wherever the speaker’s life has taken him so far, he has come to the point where he must make an important decision to go any further (Schmoop). The second metaphor Frost uses can be found in lines four and five: “And looked down one as far as I could / To where it bent in the undergrowth.” Looking down the road is a metaphor for the future; when making a decision, we can only predict so much. Just like how the speaker can only see the path in the woods for so far we can only see the consequences of our decision in the near future. A third metaphor can be found in lines 13 through 15: “ Oh, I kept the first for another day! / Yet knowing how way leads on to way, / I doubted if I should ever come back.” Here, it’s clear the speaker wanted to take both roads; however, he realizes that he will probably never be able to come back to this crossroads. This is a metaphor for a decision that changes everything; a decision you have made where you have reached a point of no

    Read More

  • Literary Analysis Of Robert Frost

    2023 Words  | 5 Pages

    The poem is showing how many people are questioning the way Frost conducts himself and his happiness. Everything in Frost’s poem up until the last stanza is dark and depressing. An example of this is, “Between the woods and frozen lake The darkest evening of the year.” (Frost, Lines 7 and 8). Frost is so consumed in the sadness, that its very dark around him. The last stanza is where Frost’s hopefulness is presented. The happiness is hinted towards, “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.” (Frost, Lines 13 to 16). He has promised himself to always keep moving forward and focusing on the goodness that life has to offer. Frost knows that he isn’t quite there yet, but he will not give up. He emphasizes his perseverance by reaping himself twice when he says “And miles to go before I sleep,” (Frost, Line 15). He had a break through and knows that he cannot give up. He is taking the little bit of happiness he knows to transform his life completely too where he is happy with every aspect of it. He is taking the hope that he does have and running with it, not looking back at the despair he feels that surrounds

    Read More

  • Life Choices as Represented in Robert Frost's Road Not Taken

    896 Words  | 2 Pages

    Choices are never easy, facing hundreds upon thousands of them in our lifetime, man has to make decisions based upon these choices. Some decisions are clear while others are sometimes not clear and more difficult to make. The poem "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost is a prime example of these choices in life. This poem is a first person narrative that is seen by most people as being told by Frost. The poem opens up with the narrator encountering a point in the woods that has a trail diverge into two separate paths. In the poem Frost presents the idea of man facing the difficult predilection of a moment and a lifetime. I believe this idea in the poem is embodied in the fork in the road, the decision between the two paths, and the decision to select the road not taken.

    Read More

  • Stopping By The Woods On A Snowy Evening - Symbolic Setting

    477 Words  | 1 Pages

    The speaker knows he can not stay in this "paradise".(14) The speaker does not want to leave this spot, but he has made other promises that he has to keep. (14) I believe Frost uses repetition of the last two lines of this poem (and miles to go before I sleep) to emphasize the importance of this promise he has made, and to support the speakers reasons for having to leave. (15-16)I am not a big fan of poetry, but this poem caught my eye because I am a fan of nature. Frost and I would have had a lot in common, his poetry reflects many of my own personal views of nature.

    Read More

  • Imagery And Symbolism In Robert Frost's Poetry

    579 Words  | 2 Pages

    When frost says “darkness to appall”, he addresses that he is terrified of all the white creatures that are on the flower. Maybe everything is white to show innocence in all the creatures, or maybe even show evil in disguise. The speaker may be terrified of all the white creatures because he doesn’t know whether it represents bad or good, like God or the devil. And why does this poem leave us with questions?

    Read More

  • Reflection on The Road Not Taken, by Robert Frost

    1485 Words  | 3 Pages

    Perhaps one of the most well-known poems in modern America is a work by Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken. This poem consists of four stanzas that depict the story of the narrator traveling through the woods early in the morning and coming upon a fork in the path, where he milled about for a while before deciding upon one of the two paths, wishing he could take both, but knowing otherwise, seeing himself telling of this experience in the future.

    Read More

More about Neither Out Far Nor in Deep by Robert Frost

Open Document