Hardships in Birches by Robert Frost

People say, “Why don’t you say what you mean?” We never do that, do we, being all of us too much poets. We like to talk in parables and in hints and in indirections- whether from diffidence or some other instinct. He holds true to this in Birches, using the figure of a tree to symbolize life, an ice storm to represent the hardships and obstacles that the speaker has encountered throughout this life, and the word “heaven” (Line 56) to mean happiness. Frost’s choices of words relay emotions and feelings to the reader. Birches arouses the senses of sight, sound, and touch.

With his wild imagination, Emerson wrote a number of fantastic poems that are full of imagery and screamed transcendentalism. The quote, “According to Emerson, the poet can shape, order, and ultimately enhance nature for those who are willing to look at its constants flux with an integrative eye,” (Perkins 205) is exactly what Emerson’s poems portray. To some, “The Snow-Storm”, is just a pretty poem about snow-fall and the outdoors, but to those who are willing to dig deep into the scenery and appreciate the words in the poem it is a call to nature, a compliment to God and a new and fascinating way of seeing the world. “…The whited air hides hill and woods, the river, and the heaven, and veils the farm-house at the garden’s end,”(Emerson and Thompson) is an example of a type of way Emerson tended to write. This excerpt from the poem demonstrates personification through the air and displays how smoothly Emerson draws in the scenery, one word at a time, while describing something different.

The imagery also paints a scene I have witnessed many winter days, growing up in the mountains. Robert Frost, while knowing the realistic cause behind the bent birch trees, prefers to add an imaginative interpretation behind the bending of the birches. He also uses the entire poem to say something profound about life. I feel it is indeed a message that, yes life may get hard, and we may lose our way, but there is still innocence and beauty in our world. We just need to remember.

Hopkins’ ‘Binsey Poplars’. Of course, to say that the poems are simply about trees is akin to saying that poems are full of words that rhyme. This may be true but it is a description that falls short of the real truth – they are about trees but they are also about life and death, despair and hope. While Philip Larkin’s ‘The Trees’ seems on first reading a very straightforward Ode to the life cycles of trees all around us, Hopkins’ ‘Binsey Poplars’ is a much more complicated and dense narrative that conveys a message that goes far beyond the loss of his beloved poplars. I will explore the themes presented to us by the poets and the techniques, including language and form, employed by both to convey these to the reader.

"Birches" is a memorable poem that is rich and interesting enough to repay more than one reading. Robert Frost provides vivid images of birches in order to oppose life's harsh realities with the human actions of the imagination. "Birches" has a profound theme and its sounds, rhythm, form, tone, and figures of speech emphasize this meaning. Theme "Birches" provides an interesting aspect of imagination to oppose reality. Initially, reality is pictured as birches bending and cracking from the load of ice after a freezing rain.

Nature imagery, like “the foliage of the woods” (25) and a white dove’s caring wing are likened to winter. In the poem, the foliage covering the bare trees is the snow, as is the white dove’s wing gently covering everything. “The Winter’s Spring” also uses words that create a heavenly image, like the “Christmas rose” (also known as the Lenten rose), “white”, “piercing light”, “dazzled”, and “white dove” (7,16, 17,22). This contrasts with the audience’s initials views of a lonely and hostile winter, instead suggesting winter emulates the look of heaven. Likewise, the poem “Winter” starts with a violent mood, filled with negative connotations: “Clouded with snow/ The cold winds blow,/ and shrill on leafless bough/ The robin with its burning breast/ Alone sings now” (1-5).

Nature is beautiful and can stand for many things. Birches are beautiful, tall, thin trees that can not hold that much stress and weight. “But swinging doesn’t bend them down to stay. Ice-storms do that.”, Robert Frost explains how the weather takes part, comparing the the ice-storms to stress. Robert Frost also explains the life cycle through nature when he says “As the breeze rises, and turn many-coloured as the stir cracks and crazes their enamel” and also when he says “And climb black branches up a snow-white trunk toward heaven, till the tree could bear no more.

Robert Frost has been labeled as one of America 's greatest poets. He is known for his use of rural settings, his command of everyday diction, and his ability to give poetry a rhyme and meter similar to that of normal speech; he is also known to explore fundamental aspects of the human experience with his works. Frost combines these two characteristics in “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” giving the outwardly simple poem a breadth and depth that allows readers to interpret it in different ways on different levels. This complexity creates some difficultly in coming to a conclusion regarding the piece, but the reader may also use it to form a holistic opinion about the meaning behind the work. This can be done by analyzing each layer of the work symbolically and stylistically, both as a separate entity and as a lens to a deeper interpretation.

The Psychology of Robert Frost’s Nature Poetry Robert Frost’s nature poetry occupies a significant place in the poetic arts; however, it is likely Frost’s use of nature is the most misunderstood aspect of his poetry. While nature is always present in Frost’s writing, it is primarily used in a “pastoral sense” (Lynen 1). This makes sense as Frost did consider himself to be a shepherd. Frost uses nature as an image that he wants us to see or a metaphor that he wants us to relate to on a psychological level. To say that Frost is a nature poet is inaccurate.

William Wordsworth and Robert Frost - Views on nature. To many people Nature is something of little thought, but when we take time to "stand back" and acknowledge it we can actually see its beauty. Until now a meadow or a tree in a forest to me, was little more than something of everyday life. Now having come to realise the power and force it has upon mans emotions and actions, I realised the thoughts of other people when studying the work of William Wordsworth and Robert Frost. Both poets see Nature in different ways although there are some aspects of the subject which are clearly the same.