Analysis Of The Gift Outright

America is a land filled with strong nationalism; however, there was once a time where one living in America could not say that he was an American. The colonists in the New World did have nationalism, but it was for a land across the sea. In Robert Frost’s poem “The Gift Outright”, there is set forth a stanza concerning the history of America and how this nation came to be. Through his use of personification and other stylistic choices, Frost efficiently communicates and explores the forming of a nation and, thus, the creation of nationalism.

Frost begins “The Gift Outright” by speaking of a land, to which he refers to as “she”. Robert Frost uses this personification throughout the rest of the poem in order to communicate the close relationship

Since Robert Frost does not use a rhyme scheme in “The Gift Outright”, it is necessary to provide some form of continuity for the sake of readability in the form of poetry. In other words, iambic pentameter allows structure into the poem. On the other hand, the lack of a rhyme scheme is also significant in defining the potential of young America. Frost usually implants important ideas into the last lines of his poems, and the last line of this poem reads, “Such as she was, such as she would become” (Frost 16). This line resonates with an inner potential for America. It resonates with America’s ability to be molded, and this is the same idea infused by the lack of a rhyme scheme. Rhyme schemes provide poems with a definite pattern; if a rhyme scheme is excluded, there remains a lack of pattern and a sense of unknowing. This unknowing feeling is the same as potential. Frost excludes the rhyme scheme and writes the last line of the poem in order to challenge or cause inquiry in the minds of his audience concerning the potential that America had and still has

In this case the title is “The Gift Outright”. Upon first encountering this title one primarily makes the logical jump to questioning the specifics of what the gift is. After further investigation into the poem, the first lines to coincide with the idea of a gift are lines twelve and thirteen: “Such as we were we gave ourselves outright / (The deed of gift was many deeds of war)” (Frost 12-13). The word “gave” is associated with the giving of gifts, so Frost exploits it in order to almost explicitly announce that the gift is ourselves. However, when Frost begins line thirteen and mentions the giving of gifts to be the same as the giving of war, it causes one to call into question the prior line, line twelve. Frost connects both the gift of ourselves and the gift of war together in order to bring forth the main gift of sacrifice for one’s nation. Frost is detailing the actions during the American Revolution when several men gave themselves as an act of sacrifice during that war; and through war, in relation to the theme, nationalism was