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Analysis of robert frost poems
Essay on Robert Frost poems and their interpretations
Significance and nature of Robert Frost's poetry
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The Regrets of a Time Gone By
Poetry is a language of understanding. The reader must be able to comprehend the various known connotations for words as well as be able to pick up on the uncommon and unknown meanings of words. Poets are masters of language. They constantly manipulate words to make a specific connotation fit the ideas and scenarios that they choose to describe. Therefore, poetry is a language that requires a reader to closely read and pay attention to certain aspects in order for he or she to understand the poet’s message. The poet, Robert Frost, takes the idea of a harvest and uses it as a metaphor to expound upon different aspects of life. In the poem, “After Apple-Picking,” Frost uses imagery, figurative language, and a reminiscent tone to demonstrate to the reader the various emotions and complications of life.
What at first glance from the title seems to be a poem about picking apples is really a metaphor about retirement. The first idea the poem illustrates is that the speaker has no true desire to depart from his work. His “long two-pointed” ladder that still rest upon the same tree “toward heaven still” is a metaphor symbolizing his reluctance to leave and accept that the day is coming to an end (line 1)(line 2). He becomes unable to fulfill his last day’s work as though the completion of the task would make the finalization too real. He mentions the “barrel the [he] didn’t fill” and refers to “some apples that [he] didn’t pick” that still hang from “some bough” as though he is leaving something behind that he truly cares about or some matter of unfinished business (line 5). The speaker struggles between feelings of regret and feelings of satisfaction as he ponders his accomplishments and the opportunities that he let pass him by in life. His emotions run the gamut from lament to fulfillment as he slightly regrets the fact that he is “done with apple-picking now (line 6).” He mentions an “essence of winter sleep” present in the air which is easily interpreted as a sense of hibernation or a long restful and peaceful slumber that is sure to come very soon (line 7). Grounding this poem in reality reassures the fact that it is after a long day, or era, and the speaker is reflecting on all that has passed him by in that time.
Poetry is something that is to be read delicately and cautiously if one wanted to find meaning through the words. Readers have to be gentle and patiently ponder about what they are reading in order to find any significance in the poem. If someone is not patient with reading, they will not feel impacted by poetry and will not want to read it. In Billy Collins’, “Introduction to Poetry,” he uses figurative language to help readers see that the way to enjoy and understand poetry is by reading between the lines and being patient with how each individual relates to the readings.
In "Wild Grapes," Robert Frost demonstrates the complex thoughts and struggles of a woman who lives her life, wishing that she had gained a knowledge that would have made her life different. At the same time, she hopes to preserve the exhilarating way she lives her life. Through the use of character portrayal, metaphor, symbolism, and diction, Robert Frost suggests to the reader that although people know that they should prepare themselves to walk through life, they still listen to their hearts, which causes them to be unprepared for what lies ahead of them. The poem starts with the woman telling a story from her youth, which is engraved traumatically in her mind.
At the beginning of the poem, the speaker starts by telling the reader the place, time and activity he is doing, stating that he saw something that he will always remember. His description of his view is explained through simile for example “Ripe apples were caught like red fish in the nets of their branches” (Updike), captivating the reader’s attention
In Galway Kinnell’s poem, “Blackberry Eating,” assonance, alliteration, and refrain are used in reinforcing the poem’s meaning that just like the speaker’s interest for “ripest” blackberries as described throughout the poem, words are also rich and intense, thus one is eating straight from the tree of knowledge.
Robert Frost’s intricate meanings are stated in such a way that the reader must dwell so much deeper into the poem than one does when one just reads the poem. The poet has a major theme in all of his poems and that theme is nature. Nature is something that Frost could always relate to. In nature Frost sees life, people, and situations in life. In the poem “After Apple-Picking”, he uses the situation of a man picking an apple as another lesson on life. Picking apples is tedious work where one must observe and pick the ripest apples...
Frost uses a religious allusion to further enforce the objective of the poem. Whether Frost's argument is proven in a religious or scientific forum, it is nonetheless true. In directly citing these natural occurrences from inanimate, organic things such as plants, he also indirectly addresses the phenomena of aging in humans, in both physical and spiritual respects. Literally, this is a poem describing the seasons. Frosts interpretation of the seasons is original in the fact that it is not only autumn that causes him grief, but summer.
In the poem Birches by Robert Frost, Frost portrays the images of a child growing to adulthood through the symbolism of aging birch trees. Through these images readers are able to see the reality of the real world compared to their carefree childhood. The image of life through tribulation is the main focal point of the poem and the second point of the poem is if one could revert back to the simpler times of childhood. The language of the poem is entirely arranged through images, although it contains some diction it lacks sound devices, metaphors, and similes compared to other published works by Frost.
He depicts a world of beauty. Frost introduces nature as his theme which he personifies using the pronoun “her.” In other words, nature is a female who cannot keep hold of anything because nature changes continually. During springtime, nature is compared to gold because it is glowing, attractive and beautiful. Gold is a symbol of great value and radiant beauty. New leaves grow yellow as gold blossoms before they get their green color. They start as flower buds. This visual image assures that the golden moment is the most precious because it is transitory. These golden flower buds don't last for a long time as they turn into green and become leaves. Metaphorically speaking, the color green represents childhood which is the golden age. So, youth is a treasure. Alliteration is used to make the poem sounds more musical and such a thing enhances the beauty of nature and childhood. However, it is hard to remain youthful. “Early leaf” shows the outcome of youth and “flower” shows its beauty. The image of the golden flower and the leaf are signs of spring. The color symbolizes everything that is glowing and pure. In the first half of the poem, Frost presents a visual image depicting how new leaves come out as yellow or golden blossoms before they grow into green leaves. This beautiful time is very short and precise because the beauty of the flowers will fade away and the
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.
There have been many interesting and appealing poems written throughout history. One of the most interesting and appealing poems is Robert Frost’s “Out, Out”. The poem has the ability to make the reader visualize an event in vivid detail without making it into a short story. The poem depicts a very dramatic scene and makes it seem as if the reader is really there. Poems are generally thought to be about love and feelings, but some poems can actually be like a short story; these are called narrative poems, which means that they tell a story. The poem “Out, Out” is a great example of a narrative poem, telling the story of a young boy cutting a tree.
This paper is about “After Apple Picking,” by Robert Frost, from the perspectives of Carl Phillips and Priscilla Paton. I would like to focus more on Carl Phillips discussion of “After Apple Picking” as his article has more focus on an actual argument on what “After Apple Picking” is about compared to Paton’s article which is more about how Frost went about writing his poems though his usage of metaphors and vague colloquialisms . Neither article was solely about “After Apple Picking,” but both had a few good observations and comments about the poem. Phillips main observation, and argument, was that “After Apple Picking” was about restlessness and ambition. “It’s a poem of restlessness, the restlessness of an ambition that spurs us towards greater achievement.” (Phillips 134).
In line 12 he addresses Autumn's rhetorical question. It is clear that Autumn is the time for harvesting, gathering and preparing for the Winter that lies ahead. The stanza ends appropriately in that it literally describes the process of the last apples being pressed for cider, but more importantly it describes the last breaths of life being squeezed out of Autumn.
...ert Frost 's poems, I now see his poems in a different perspective. I once thought as many do, that Frost 's poems where about nature but now I know that Frost 's true intention was of “taking life by the throat” (Frost Interview). While others consider him as a nature poet, Frost doesn’t believe himself as one and we can see his perspective in his poems but especially in “Mowing,” “After Apple-Picking,” and “The Road Not Taken.” Frost actually uses nature as an analogy to human life experiences or the troubles that people go through. He reflects these poems back to his personal life and the struggles he has been through also. After researching and reading about Robert Frost I have became very fond his work and enjoy looking deeper into his work trying to picture what he truly meant. While Frost uses a simple idea like nature, he relates it back to human nature.
The simple yet extraordinary emotion of nostalgia has been ingrained in mankind since inception. Every single individual has experienced this intense emotion at one point their life, sometimes even regularly. A feeling of sentimental longing for the past, sometimes referred to as 'looking back on the good old days' are typical of being in a state of nostalgia. Robert Frost demonstrates the natural emotion of nostalgia in his poems “Birches” and “The Road Not Taken”. Although both poems convey the feelings of wistful yearning for the days gone by, each poem addresses different kinds of nostalgia: the longing for a carefree, adventurous childhood of the past and the nostalgic reflection of life choices. Both poems make use of differing poetic structures—in addition to various poetic tools—to create the manifestation of nostalgia within their poems.
The vivid imagery, symbolism, metaphors make his poetry elusive, through these elements Frost is able to give nature its dark side. It is these elements that must be analyzed to discover the hidden dark meaning within Roberts Frost’s poems. Lines that seemed simple at first become more complex after the reader analyzes the poem using elements of poetry. For example, in the poem Mending Wall it appears that Robert frost is talking about two man arguing about a wall but at a closer look the reader realizes that the poem is about the things that separate man from man, which can be viewed as destructive. In After Apple Picking, the darkness of nature is present through the man wanting sleep, which is symbolic of death. It might seem that the poem is about apple picking and hard work but it is actually about the nature of death.