Good and Evil in Robert Frost's Poetry

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Our world is founded on good and evil. Humans have grabbed hold of these abstract principles, interpreted them into foundations of government and religion. But there is still a powerful need to understand good and evil, to know whether our world is controlled by gods and goddess, animals, the sun, every single human on earth or nothing at all. With so many ways to interpret our existence, there are billions of ideas, ranging from the inanely simple to the thoroughly convoluted. But Robert Frost’s theory, published in the early 1900s, remains one of the most compelling. In his poem Design, Frost illustrates the contrast between evil the good in nature, and offers his own commentary as to who is truly in control.

In the first stanza, the speaker portrays contrasting forces of good and evil within nature to argue that the spider is in control. In the first line, “I found a dimpled spider, fat and white”, contrasting meanings are already evident (1). The adjective “dimpled” is used most often to describe a smile, which is universally accepted as a sign of happiness. Continuing...

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