Robert Frost, an American poet, was one of the most popular poets of his time. Having been born in 1874 and dying in 1963, Frost lived a long life. He and his wife Elinor experienced many hardships, especially with their children. “Frost’s firstborn son, Elliot, died of cholera in 1900. After his death, Elinor gave birth to four more children,” (“Robert Frost Biography”). Not only did their firstborn die, but the rest of their children died before he and his wife. Their son Carol committed suicide, Irma developed mental illness, Marjorie died in her late 20s after child birth, and Elinor died just weeks after she was born. The deaths of all of his children perhaps caused Frost to have doubts about the love of God. This is seen in his poem “Design,” written in 1922. It may look like …show more content…
This type of sonnet, “[I]s composed of two parts, octave and sestet” (Stageberg 133). This means that the first stanza consists of eight lines, and the second stanza contains six lines. The first eight lines of “Design” present a problem and explain a scene, and the last six are usually answers, but Frost leaves with none. According to Richard Grey, “Frost uses the rigidity of the sonnet form to present a formal philosophical problem.” The speaker witnesses a scene from nature and sees it to be a philosophical problem. Frost uses the rhyme scheme ABBAABBA, which forms the octave and presents the problem. In the sestet of this poem, one would normally expect there to be a resolution at the end. Oddly, Frost takes a different route. Instead of a resolution, he ends with a question and no answers. This could be caused by his personal beliefs. The speaker does not give confirmation that the design of the poem reflects that there is no design in the world. The dash used in line 13 of “Design” leave suspense and make the reader think there will be an answer, but there is none. Frost uses the form of a Petrarchan sonnet to mimic the theme of
Instructor Mendoza English 1B 22 July 2015. Robert Frost: Annotated Bibliography. Research Question: What are the common themes in Robert Frost's work? Robert Frost is a very successful poet from the 20th century, as well as a four time Pulitzer Prize winner.
Robert Lee Frost was born on March 26, 1874 in San Francisco. When his father died, he moved to Massachusetts with his family to be closer to his grandparents. He loved to stay active through sports and activities such as trapping animals and climbing trees. He married his co- valedictorian, Elinor Miriam White, in 1895. He dropped out of both Dartmouth and Harvard in his lifetime. Robert and Elinor settled on a farm in Massachusetts, which his grandfather bought him. It was one of the many farms on which he would live in throughout his lifetime. Frost spent the next 9 years writing poetry while poultry farming. When poultry farming did not work out, he went back to teaching English. He moved to England in 1912 and became friends with many people who were also in the writing business. After moving back to America in 1915, Frost bought a farm in New Hampshire and began reading his poems aloud at public gatherings. Out of the blue, he suddenly had many family disasters. Frost’s youngest daughter and wife died and his son committed suicide, soon after which another daughter institutionalized. Darker poetry, su...
Robert Frost is undoubtedly gifted when it comes to his poetry, but not all aspects of his life were so easy. One of the most troubling areas in Frost’s life was his family. He held a long term engagement to his wife Elinor, whom he pleaded to marry. Also, his children were plagued with birth defects, terminal illness, and emotional instability. The Frosts lost four of their children at an early age, including daughter Elinor Bettina who died three days after birth. In 1938, after months of deteriorating health, Frost’s wife Elinor died of heart failure. Frost was so shaken that he collapsed and could not attend the memorial services. Later, in 1940, Frost was utterly disturbed by his son Carol’s suicide.
By using these two literary devices and more Frost has achieved many awards for his work. Rhyme Scheme The poem Fire and Ice is nine line long and is an example of a briefly ironic literary style of Frosts work. Fire and Ice ranges between two meter lengths. The poem uses interwoven rhymes founded on “ire,” “ice,” and “ate.”
Robert Frost wrote a poem – twice. The early version of the poem, “In White,” created a simple scene filled with anomalies. For some reason, years later the work beckoned for further attention. The poet complied and skillfully enhanced the work, rendering a finished poem that exceeds the scope of the original. Both versions of the Frost’s poem send a nuanced message to the thoughtful reader. While vague and open to interpretation, that message invites debate, an introspective feast. The poem “Design” demonstrates polished superiority through Frost’s mastery of imagery, amplified by devices, and unburdened language.
Robert Frost wrote poetry about nature and it is that nature that he used as symbols for life lessons. Many critics have been fascinated by the way that Frost could get so many meanings of life out of nature itself. Frost‘s poetry appeals to almost everyone because of his uncanny ability to tie in with many things that one is too familiar with and for many, that is life in itself. “Perhaps that is what keeps Robert Frost so alive today, even people who have never set foot in Vermont, in writing about New England, Frost is writing about everywhere” (294).
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.
...ert Frost 's poems, I now see his poems in a different perspective. I once thought as many do, that Frost 's poems where about nature but now I know that Frost 's true intention was of “taking life by the throat” (Frost Interview). While others consider him as a nature poet, Frost doesn’t believe himself as one and we can see his perspective in his poems but especially in “Mowing,” “After Apple-Picking,” and “The Road Not Taken.” Frost actually uses nature as an analogy to human life experiences or the troubles that people go through. He reflects these poems back to his personal life and the struggles he has been through also. After researching and reading about Robert Frost I have became very fond his work and enjoy looking deeper into his work trying to picture what he truly meant. While Frost uses a simple idea like nature, he relates it back to human nature.
Frost uses the style of a sonnet in "Design" to present a philosophical problem - who controls our destiny. The octave is a single, smooth flowing sentence full of description. We are introduced to three things the narrator happened upon one day. There is a scene of contradictory pictures. The color of the white heal--all, the white spider, and the white moth all suggest purity and innocence. These are the, as the speaker describes them, "characters of death and blight." The octave has a lighter tone than the sextet. Even thought the tone is lighter there still seems to be a tension and seriousness that flows evenly to the sextet, which seems to bring chills to the reader's spine.
“I took the one less traveled by, / And that has made all the difference” (Frost 19-20). Many famous lines like these have been written at different periods of Robert Frost’s life. Most of his poems can tie back to a specific time and place in Frost’s lifetime. Different poems convey various emotions as Frost writes about many personal struggles and successes that he encountered in his lifetime. Robert Frost portrays his childhood, marriage, and adulthood through his various poems, like “A Peck of Gold,” “Birches,” ”The Thatch,” and “The Birds Do Thus.”
Lynen also states that “the struggle between the human imagination and the meaningless void man confronts is the subject of poem after poem” (6). On speaking of Frost’s nature poetry, Gerber says, “with equanimity Frost investigates the basic themes of man’s life: the individual’s relationships to himself, to his fellow man, to his world, and to his God” (117). All of these...
Frost, unfortunately, died from complications with prostate surgery on January 29, 1963 (7). However, the impact that he had in the world is still seen today. High school student read and analyze his poetry and learn a little about what it was like in this time period by going through and looking at the details of his work. It just goes to show that you can learn a lot about a person by the way they write and what they write about.
Robert Frost was born to an editor for a father, and a member of the Swedenborgian church. His father started as a teacher, and then became the editor of the San Francisco Evening Bulletin. Isabelle Moodie, his mother, baptized him with the Swedenborgian church. Later on in Frost’s life, he left this church. Frost was born in San Francisco (“Biography of Robert Frost”, poemhunter.com). In 1994, be published his first poem, “The Butterfly: An Elegy,” on November 8, 1894 at age 20. He published this work in the New York newspaper Frost was a unique poet in the way that he stood in between the nineteenth-century poetry, and modern poetry. James M. Cox said that, “Though his career fully spans the modern period and though it is impossible to speak of him as anything other than a modern poet, it is difficult to place him in the main tradition of modern poetry,” (“Robert Frost”, poetryfoundation.org).
Robert Frost is known for his poems about nature, he writes about trees, flowers, and animals. This is a common misconception, Robert Frost is more than someone who writes a happy poem about nature. The elements of nature he uses are symbolic of something more, something darker, and something that needs close attention to be discovered. Flowers might not always represent beauty in Robert Frost’s poetry. Symbolism is present in every line of the nature’s poet’s poems.
Robert Frost is an amazing poet that many admire today. He is an inspiration to many poets today. His themes and ideas are wonderful and are valued by many. His themes are plentiful however a main one used is the theme of nature. Frost uses nature to express his views as well as to make his poetry interesting and easy to imagine in your mind through the detail he supplies.