‘The Chalk Pit’ by Edward Thomas and ‘The Woodpile’ by Robert Frost are both about being transported to a specific place and these places have an effect on the speaker(s).
The setting of ‘The Chalk Pit’ is most likely at the foot of Wheatham Hill in Hampshire and nearby is an abandoned chalk mine. ‘The Woodpile’ is set in a frozen swamp/wood in wintertime. Both of the poems have similar settings and this verifies the fact that Frost and Thomas were both very similar people, both in poetry and in real life.
Both poems are arranged in one large stanza. This is to keep the conversational nature of ‘The Chalk Pit’ flowing and realistic. Although ‘The Chalk Pit’ is essentially one large conversation, there is evidence of this speech or thought in ‘The Woodpile’, i.e. in lines 2-3 when the speaker is deliberating over whether he should turn away or continue home. “I will turn back from here. No, I will go on farther – and we shall see.” The idea of a conversational nature being used is furthermore implied when the speaker says “and we shall see”. This draws the reader into the poem, and makes them feel more included in what’s happening. The dash being used as a pause also emphasises the length of time if takes the speaker to think about what he’s going to do, and makes the poem seem personal and accessible to the reader.
‘The Woodpile’ is written in the first person narrative and is similar to many of Frost’s other poems. However ‘The Chalk Pit’ is written from the point of view of two speakers. One speaker comes across as very down to earth and aware of what is around him, while the second speaker is more pensive, reflective and imaginative. The fact the poem is from two people’s perspective makes it stand out from other poems, ...
... middle of paper ...
...f the poem is very melancholy (“With the smokeless burning of decay”) and seems like a surprising way to end such a mellow and peaceful poem. ‘The Chalk Pit’ is similar in tone because the reader can imagine the speakers, speaker B in particular, using a soft voice so as not to metaphorically disturb the chalk pit. This adds to the ideas of two peaceful and undisturbed settings, in which nature and animals are at peace.
The most striking similarity between the poems is that they are both set in a similar landscape. This is possibly down to the fact that Frost and Thomas had similar writing styles and ideas; due to the fact they were lifelong friends. I believe that ‘The Chalk Pit’ and ‘The Woodpile’ are two very simplistic, accessible and vivid poems, which capture and hold the reader’s attention through the use of imagery and appealing to the reader’s senses.
In “Frost at midnight,” the narrator, in isolation and in his own thoughts gets to understand nature. The views of Coleridge are different from those of his friends, in that, he believes that nature acts as the physical presence of the word of God. Both poems, “Frost at Midnight” and “This Lime-Tree Bower, My Prison”, present a similar understanding when it comes to nature. In “Frost at midnight”, the kind of feeling that the quietness impacts on Coleridge is similar as compared to the effect that Wordsworth feels when he is out there in nature sitting on a rock. The quietness then can be likened to a therapeutic device just as the same as nature. In the poem, is Coleridge holding his infant son. The narrator wishes for an upbringing for his son that is similar to that one of his friend Wordsworth, which has a touch with nature. This brings out the thought that nature can also teach a person. In order for his infant son to acquire important lessons regarding life, Coleridge gives him off to nature, which is the greatest teacher. Coleridge did not have a good experience as child, he results to nature to offe...
Robert Frost is considered by many to be one of the greatest poets of the twentieth century. Frost’s work has been regarded by many as unique. Frost’s poems mainly take place in nature, and it is through nature that he uses sense appealing-vocabulary to immerse the reader into the poem. In the poem, “Hardwood Groves”, Frost uses a Hardwood Tree that is losing its leaves as a symbol of life’s vicissitudes. “Frost recognizes that before things in life are raised up, they must fall down” (Bloom 22).
During the 18th century, two great companions, William Wordsworth, collaborated together to create Lyrical Ballad, one of the greatest works of the Romantic period. The two major poems of Lyrical Ballad are Wordsworth’s “Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey” and Coleridge’s “Frost at Midnight.” Even though these two poems contain different experiences of the two speakers, upon close reading of these poems, the similarities are found in their use of language, the tone, the use of illustrative imagery to fascinate the reader’s visual sense and the message to their loved ones. The speaker of “Lines Composed of a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey” is Wordsworth himself. He represents Romanticism’s spiritual view of nature.
In Frosts poem two themes are isolation and choices. Isolation because the man is alone and wants to be alone, and the weather gives it alone feels because people don’t go out while it’s snowing alone most of the time. The other them in this poem is choices because the man has to choice wither to go home to the village or watch the snow which his horse disagrees with. But, in the end he choices to go home where it warm and where he can keep all his promise. In Poes poem the two themes are madness and love. Madness because the man in this poem is basically insane, he talks to a bird if the bird is even really there. Also love is a theme because he truly loved his wife and all he wants is to be with her. In both the poems there is a man and the real world theme in Frosts poem it’s snowing which kind of entices the man to stay and watch but he stays he could die from the cold. In Poes poem its night time and windy and there are spirits outside and they come in as the form of the raven.
Robert Frost uses metaphor and symbolism extensively in ‘Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening’, developing deeper and more complex meanings from a superficially simple poem. Frost’s own analysis contributes greatly to our appreciation of the importance of metaphor, claiming that “metaphor [is] the whole of thinking,” inviting the reader to interpret the beautiful scene in a more profound way. However, the multitude of possible interpretations sees it being read as either carefully crafted lyric, a “suicide poem, [or] as recording a single autobiographical incident” . Judith Oster argues, therefore, that the social conditions individual to each reader tangibly alter our understanding of metaphor. Despite the simplicity of language, Frost uses conventional metaphors to explore complex ideas about life, death and nature. The uncertainty, even in the concluding stanza, that encompasses the poem only adds to the depth of possible readings.
Robert Frost's view of childhood is much different than that of William Blake, as expressed in their respective poems, "Birches" and "The Chimney Sweeper". Living in the late seventeenth century, Blake saw some hard times; and as such, paints a very non-romantic picture of childhood. Frost, however, sees things differently. The result is two glaringly different poems that goes to prove how very different people are.
Robert Frost and his wife decided in 1912 to sell their farm house in New Hampshire and move to England, where Frost wrote his first two books of poems. Frost was originally from San Francisco where he grew up and spent most of his childhood. Although a lot of his writing have natural parts in them, Frost doesn’t consider himself as a nature poet. “I’ve only written two poems without people in ‘em. Does that make me a nature poet? Well, I don 't think so” (Frost Interview). This shows Frost 's opinion about him being considered a nature poet. Most people consider Frost as a nature poet, but looking deeper into his work then just reading it, one can argue that he is not. When looking at Frost 's work we see that although a lot of it involves nature in it, it also involves a person, a person that is admiring, working, or using nature. When analyzing his writing, Frost uses nature to show deeper in depth lesson...
The setting takes place in the daylight of the woods. I felt that Frost set the poem in the woods because it helps reader imagine trees, leaves, and bushes. Therefore readers know that the speaker is alone without any road signs or knowledge of any direction on which road to take. The “yellow wood”(1) means that its somewhere in the fall when the leaves are changing colors. The “yellow” brings out a beautiful image of the autumn to readers. The “yellow wood” means there is a continuous decision one makes in li...
Frost’s nature poetry interconnects the world of the natural and the world of human beings – Both key elements of his motivation in writing poetry. The harsh reality of nature and the thoughtless expectations in the minds of man scarcely cohere to one another. Frost usually starts with an observation in nature, contemplates it and then connects it to some psychological concern (quoted in Thompson). According to Thompson, “His poetic impulse starts with some psychological concern and finds its way to a material embodiment which usually includes a natural scene” (quoted in Thompson).
These aspects help the speaker escape from reality. The snow symbolizes the purity and peacefulness the speaker feels while stopping in the woods. (4) The darkness can symbolize many different things. Some times darkness would be considered evil or dangerous, but I do not think this is the case in this poem. I believe the darkness symbolizes the undisturbed atmosphere of the woods.
par. 1). With clever poetic purpose, Frost‘s poems meld the ebb and flow of nature to convey
The Great In and Out Doors: An Analysis of Robert Frost’s Use of Natural and Rural Depictions in his Poetry. Edward Abbey once stated: “Water, water, water.. There is no shortage of water in the desert but exactly the right amount, a perfect ratio of water to rock, water to sand, insuring that wide free open, generous spacing among plants and animals, homes and towns and cities, which makes the arid West so different from any other part of the nation. There is no lack of water here unless you try to establish a city where no city should be.” Through poems such as Birches, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, Mending Wall, Out, Out--, Acquainted with the Night, and The Gift Outright Frost uses an amazing capacity of human intellect to personify the areas of living.
First, in the poem “Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening” there is a lot of nature expressed. Frost’s very first sentence already talks about the woods. Whose woods these are we don’t know. Also, in the poem he states that the narrator likes to sit and watch the snow. He is also a nature lover. In the second stanza Frost refers back to the woods. He must also like ice, because he brings ice and cold up a lot in his poems. Once again Frost brings ice up when he mentions flake and cold wind.
Frost uses nature as a reflection of human experiences; just like humanity it can have seasons and life cycles. He uses different scenes to depict a certain mood for readers to step into the psychological happening of a man. The idea of how seasons change, Frost compares it through the life cycles that humans encounter. Contrary to popular opinion, I believe that nature is not Frost’s central theme in his poetry; it is about the relationship that man has with nature in which can be seen from “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”, “The Road Not Taken”, and “An Old Man’s Winter Night.”
Frost was a rural Yankee whose writings reflect everyday experiences-his own experiences, but was one who saw metaphorical dimensions in the everyday things he encountered. These everyday encounters held ground as his subject manner, combined with the rural setting of New England nature, seasons, weather and times of day. Frost’s goal was to write his poetry in such a way that it would cover familiar ground, but in an unfamiliar way or uncommon in expression.