The Meaning of Life in Robert's Frosts "Birches" and Pablo Neruda's "Tonight I can Write"

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Pablo Neruda, who wrote Tonight I can Write… and Robert Frost’s Birches, talks about the meaning of life one way or another. Neruda expresses the loss of a loved love, in which, Frost talks about the loss of one’s own-self.

Each author uses nature as an element in his poems. Neruda uses the night, with a cold breeze to express his emotions. The night exemplifies the grief he faces, and reminisces about the time he had with his love. The same night comes again, but this time, she is not with him. He compares himself to the night, it being shattered, and “broken-hearted.” Everything after she is gone is different, the trees a lonely now, but in fact, that is just him. The wind comes and goes, realizing it is too late. He understands that he should not talk about her anymore, because that makes him feel more depressed.

On the other hand, Robert Frost, did not lose someone he loved, instead he lost himself. Nature to him was more of a get-away, learning that eventually, everything has to go on. The young boy in the poem decides to swing on the branches of the trees, which would more effectively represent the man, leaving his responsibilities. He reflects on the thought of the cold ice storms bending the birches to create an unhappy tone. In comparison with Tonight… nature starts off as something to be gloomy about. It becomes the sense of depression, where the cold is depicted as the frozen heart, which they have. However, towards the end, the narrator realizes that this is a step he must take to overcome this. Then, he describes the trees reaching out to heaven, being everything it can, to let go. Then, he reminisces about the time, which sets a lighter mood.

Pablo Neruda talks about how wonderful his love was, and all the ti...

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...heir message. Neruda uses imagery as an aching, lonely night, which is incomplete without her. Frost, on the other hand, uses nature, as imagery to life, where in the beginning had no purpose, but eventually leans that it is his heaven. Pablo Neruda uses repetition to directly display his message of what he feels as literary devices. However, Frost uses figurative language, like similes and metaphors. Neruda’s purpose seems to differentiate due to the fact that he seems indifferent to the idea of leaving and forgetting her, or even loving her. With Frost, it starts off him finding his purpose for life, and questioning whether what is right or wrong. Then, in the end, he realizes that countless people have it worse than he does. With these comparisons and contrasts, it shows that Robert Frost’s poem has a greater meaning for life, and picking up and starting over.

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