There have been many American poets throughout the centuries, but none compared to Robert Frost and Jane Kenyon. Jane Kenyon and Robert Frost can make the simplest thing such as picking a pear into something darker. Often Jane Kenyon and Robert Frost compose themes of nature, loneliness and death into their poetry. Both poets evoke feelings and stimulate the reader’s sensory reactions. Jane Kenyon’s Poem Let Evening Comes (1990) and Robert Frost’s Poem Desert Places (1936) may have been written in different eras, but both poets collaborate nature, spirituality and emotional solitariness in their poems. Robert Frost’s poem Desert Places (1936) begins to stimulate the reader’s visual senses in the first stanza. The poem begins, “Snow falling
654, line 1&2). The sunlight motion suggesting a “balance of upward and downward, rising and falling” (Harris, J. 2004), resplendent in nature and indirectly influences the reader spiritually and emotionally. Jane Kenyon’s Let Evening Come (1990), uses sunlight to project an image of a slow moving late afternoon sun, which will soon slip into the darkness of night. The light through the “chinks in the barn” (Kenyon, 1990, pg. 654, line 2), gives me the sense of an aging body and soul fading into the darkness.
In the second stanza Kenyon compares the crickets as they begin their nightly regiments to “women take up her needles.” (Kenyon. 1990. Pg. 656, line 5). Crickets abraded as the women scuff their needles on the yarn. The poet is transalpine by the nightly task completed as darkness falls. Kenyon suggests in darkness a transformation and natural progression of life and takes a path toward closure as we fall into our
656, line 11), Kenyon brings in life’s rhythms with essential movements. “Let the evening come” (Kenyon, 1990; pg. 656, lines 6, 12, 15 &18), is repeated multiple times; the speaker appears unafraid of loneliness or death. When the body is full by the soul, but the soul is forsaken by the body. When one is emptied, the other is present. “Wether God exists or not, the need for comfort in approaching death makes God necessary.” (Harris, J. 2004). The speaker believes God will comfort you and will not leave you alone in the universe. The consistent use of the word “let” brings on the meaning that everything is coming or leaving naturally. Kenyon has the irrepressible ability to give hope from a promise that we are not alone, “God has not left us comfortless” (Kenyon, 1990; pg. 656 line 17 & 18). Many people have the tendency to hold on until they are able to say good-bye to their loved ones; which make it seem they have some control over mortality. Could this be God providing comfort to those individuals, enabling their souls to find peace before moving
In the stanzas of Elizabeth Bishop’s poem, the speaker very honestly observes the scenes from outside her apartment. From her point of view, she sees a both a bird and a dog in the process of sleeping. The speaker views these animals as having simple lives unbothered by endless questions or worries. Instead, the two live peaceful, uninterrupted existences, rising every morning knowing that “everything is answered” (ln. 22). However, the speaker lives in contrast to this statement instead anxiously awaiting the next day where uncertainty is a likely possibility. Unlike the dog and the bird, the speaker cannot sit passively by as the world continues in its cycle and she carries a variety of emotions, such as a sense of shame. It is evident here that the speaker has gone through or is currently undergoing some sort of struggle. When she states that “Yesterday brought to today so lightly!” she does so in longing for the world to recognize her for her issues by viewing the earth’s graces as so light of actions, and in doing so, she fails to recognize that she can no longer comprehend the beauty of nature that it offers her. In viewing the light hitting the trees as “gray light streaking each bare branch” (ln. 11), she only sees the monotony of the morning and condescends it to merely “another tree” (ln. 13.) To her, the morning is something
The sun has been an endless source of inspiration, both physical and spiritual, throughout the ages. For its light, warmth, and the essential role it has played in the maintenance of the fragile balance of life on earth, the sun has been honored and celebrated in most of the world's religions. While the regeneration of light is constant, the relative length of time between the rising and setting of the sun is affected by the changing of the seasons. Hippocrates postulated centuries ago that these changing patterns of light and dark might cause mood changes (9). Seasonal downward mood changes of late fall and winter have been the subject of many sorrowful turn-of-the-century poems of lost love and empty souls. For some, however, “the relationship between darkness and despair is more than metaphoric (6).
In the poem Desert Places by Robert Frost, the author describes the scenery in which he came across with. It was on a winter day, and the day was turning into a night. As he went across a field, he saw that the ground was almost all covered in snow. But then he noticed a few weeds and stubble on the ground.
Wordsworth’s famous and simple poem, “I wandered lonely as a cloud,” expresses the Romantic Age’s appreciation for the beauty and truth that can be found in a setting as ordinary as a field of daffodils. With this final stanza, Wordsworth writes of the mind’s ability to carry those memories of nature’s beauty into any setting, whether city or country. His belief in the power of the imagination and the effect it can have on nature, and vice a versa, is evident in most of his work. This small portion of his writing helps to illuminate a major theme of the Romantic poets, and can even be seen in contemporary writings of today. One such work is Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier. This story follows two characters, Inman and Ada, who barely know each other and are forced apart by the Civil War. As Ada waits in North Carolina Appalachia for Inman to return home from three years of battle, Inman decides to abandon the war effort and journey across the Southern states to reach his beloved.
The French 1884 oil on canvas painting The Song of the Lark by Jules-Adolphe Breton draws grasps a viewer’s attention. It draws an observer in by its intense but subtle subject matter and by the luminous sun in the background. Without the incandescent sun and the thoughtful look of the young woman, it would just be a bland earth-toned farm landscape. However, Breton understood what to add to his painting in order to give it drama that would instantly grab an onlooker’s interest.
Robert Frost once said "In order to know who we are, we must know opposites." Few of his poems demonstrate this sentiment as well as "Directive" and "Desert Places". On the surface, the poem "Directive" details a person returning to an old rural town to find it deserted and in the process of being reclaimed by nature. The poem is told by someone who is either omniscient or very close to the main figure of the poem. The narrator of the poem can be seen as some sort of guru, priest, or spiritual guide. In "Desert Places," the poem is told by someone who is passing by a field on their way somewhere and reflecting on loneliness and their isolation. In both of these poems, the speakers takes the subject of the poem on a journey that details the conflicting relations of man's natural world and instinct and his modern constructed world and civilizations. According to "Directive," in order for the subject to be whole, he must recognize that man cannot change the natural world or the true nature of himself just as the people in the now deserted town could only change the natural condition of the land temporarily. Reconciling this fact, like when the man sips from the man-made but naturally altered cup, is the only way in which one may accept the true nature of themselves and receive salvation. "Desert Places," the earlier of these two poems, does not supply as definite of a resolution as "Directive" does, but it does imply that isolation and self-exploration are necessary for one's psychological survival. Both of these poems relay survival techniques for the individual living in the modern, industrialized world using natural imagery and symbolism.
A consistent imagery in “Notes” that has a political implication is the sun. Universally, the sun represents warmth and the energy that gives life; however in this poem, the sun represents Mao Zedong. According to McDougall, the sun was commonly used to “signify Mao Zedon...
Life and death are two things that we as humans must all face. The road from one to the other, from life to death, is a long and at times, both joyous and painful one. Robert Frost’s poems are a prime example of these times and trials. The poems I chose for this paper highlight them, and with Frost’s allegory, they present a sort of silver lining to the string of dark and dreary words he’s pieced together for these poems. The depressing tone to the poems “Acquainted with the Night”, “Nothing Gold Can Stay”, and “Stopping by the Woods on a Snowing Evening” could be attributed to the death of many of Frost’s family members, and how despite this he overcame it all, and at the end of his life, was a successful writer. These poems to not go into great explanation of the details of Frost’s life, however, I believe that they are representations of the things path that he’s walked, and how he viewed his actions and death in general.
Robert Frost was described as one of the greatest poets in the 20th century and became a sensation for poetry. It is not just his poems that interest the reader, but also his quotes can fulfill your compassion. This quote for example, “No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader” (Frost), shows that Frost will not feel a connection with the reader if the reader does not connect with his poetry. Frost presented a poem called “The Gift Outright” at John F. Kennedy’s Inauguration. In order for the audience to relate to what Frost was saying, Frost had to succeed at his connection with the audience. This The farmer poet, Robert Frost was introspective by his surroundings and connected to his readers.
Frost's poem, "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening", seems to be a simple story of a man and his horse. It portrays beautiful imagery with an enjoyable rhythm and rhyming scheme. Taking a second look at this poem may bring a more complex curiosity about what Frost is exactly trying to achieve through his words. It is apparent in the breakdown of the poem that new meanings and revelations are to be found. This is seen by relating almost all of his statements to each stanza and line. Robert Frost's aesthetic philosophy about "Stopping by Woods" gives a more penetrating view into his work.
Patricia Glinton-Meicholas shows the sun symbolizing the theme of family because the sun never changes but the light can shift for example, your family is always there for you even when you don?t need them. Another example is when Cally stops talking to her family but in the end when she needed them the family was there to support her. The author writes that the family never goes away just like the sun, it is always there. But even though the light is there you can always turn/shift away from it, but in the end you have the choice to continue to ignore the light or turned back and face the light. The light in this novel represents the importance of family and support.
“Frost, Robert.” Gale Contextual Encyclopedia of American Literature. Vol 2. Detroit: Gale, 2009. 569-573. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 9 March 2014.
Robert Frost, known for being a Modernist American poet was said to have hidden the pain of his private life through his writing career. He shared many ideas and was barely given credit for any of it during his lifetime. However, the nation mourned when “the most beloved poet of the century” passed away. (Greiner 94-95). After his death, the nation was then able to study and understand Frost’s life and the reasoning behind his poetry. Frost was set on making a difference in poetry as he once expressed, “I expect to do something to the present state of literature in America” (Greiner 95). The poem, “Putting in the Seed” written by Frost himself, expresses one of his common themes in his poems, nature. Being recognized as an American poet till after death, Frost has impacted poetry in a way that may not exist if it was not for him. Throughout his life he overcame many hardships through writing, which he used as therapy. This astounding author left the impression of creativity at its finest.
In his poem, "The Sun Rising," Donne immerses the reader into his transmuted reality with an apostrophe to the "busy old fool, unruly sun" that "through curtains" calls upon him, seizing him from the bliss which "no season knows." This bliss, a passionate love, stimulates him to reinvent reality within the confines of his own mind, a wishful thinking from which he does not readily depart, much like a sleepy child clings to the consequences of a dream.
Oglivie, John T. “From Woods to Stars: A Pattern of Imagery in Robert Frost’s Poetry.” Contemporary Literary Criticism. Ed. Jean Stine. Vol. 26. Detroit: Gale Research, 1983. Print.