Modern Frost

The Modern Frost

Robert Frost once said "In order to know who we are, we must know opposites." Few of his poems demonstrate this sentiment as well as "Directive" and "Desert Places". On the surface, the poem "Directive" details a person returning to an old rural town to find it deserted and in the process of being reclaimed by nature. The poem is told by someone who is either omniscient or very close to the main figure of the poem. The narrator of the poem can be seen as some sort of guru, priest, or spiritual guide. In "Desert Places," the poem is told by someone who is passing by a field on their way somewhere and reflecting on loneliness and their isolation. In both of these poems, the speakers takes the subject of the poem on a journey that details the conflicting relations of man's natural world and instinct and his modern constructed world and civilizations. According to "Directive," in order for the subject to be whole, he must recognize that man cannot change the natural world or the true nature of himself just as the people in the now deserted town could only change the natural condition of the land temporarily. Reconciling this fact, like when the man sips from the man-made but naturally altered cup, is the only way in which one may accept the true nature of themselves and receive salvation. "Desert Places," the earlier of these two poems, does not supply as definite of a resolution as "Directive" does, but it does imply that isolation and self-exploration are necessary for one's psychological survival. Both of these poems relay survival techniques for the individual living in the modern, industrialized world using natural imagery and symbolism.

People around the world were greatly disillusioned and confli...

... middle of paper ...

...n himself (13-14, 16). Perhaps, as this is the earlier of the two poems, Frost had not yet worked out the conditions and paths one must meet in order to find an inner peace.

Frost is far more than the simple agrarian writer some claim him to be. He is deceptively simple at first glance, writing poetry that is easy to understand on an immediate, superficial level. Closer examination of his texts, however, reveal his thoughts on deeply troubling psychological states of living in a modern world. As bombs exploded and bodies piled up in the World Wars, people were forced to consider not only death, but the aspects of human nature that could allow such atrocities to occur. By using natural themes and images to present modernist concerns, Frost creates poetry that both soothes his readers and asks them to consider the true nature of the world and themselves.