About book The Road Not Taken And Other Poems (1993)
This is a short selection of poems by Robert Frost, who was born in San Francisco, California, in 1874. Although he is considered to be one of the greatest American poets of the twentieth century, his first collection, "A Boy's Will" was originally published in England in 1913, during the 3 short years when he lived in England, between 1912-1915. In England he made some important acquaintances, including Edward Thomas and Rupert Brooke, who were both member of the group of six known as the Dymock poets. For the few years just before the First World War these six poets went walking in the Malvern Hills, Herefordshire and across to Gloucestershire, discussing their poetry and reading. Frost also met T. E. Hulme and Ezra Pound. Back in the USA he went on to write many more highly regarded collections of poetry, winning 4 Pulitzer prizes for poetry and was eventually awarded the Congressional Gold Medal for his poetry in 1960. He died in Boston, Massachusetts in 1963.For English readers, the English connection and his English ancestry resonates, and much of the imagery used seems familiar. Usually it helps to have a frame of reference to assimilate all the nuances, but it is not quite so essential with Robert Frost's work. Nevertheless he is often more specific and localised, using colloquial American speech, with realistic depictions of rural life, specifically those in New England in the early 20th century. Frost had worked the farm for nine years while writing early in the mornings and producing many of the poems that would later become famous. Ultimately his farming proved unsuccessful and he returned to the field of education as an English teacher. His poetry can be read on many levels however, using these themes to examine complex social and philosophical issues. He has been thought of as the poet who hides the most, while appearing simple and obvious. Perhaps this explains his popularity as it is perfectly possible to enjoy the poem's imagery on a straightforward, superficial level, but there are hidden depths for those who want to find them.There follows a list of the thirteen poems in this collection, with the name and chronological order of the original collections. It can be seen that they span a broad range:The Road Not Taken (Mountain Interval, 1916)The Death of the Hired Man (North of Boston, 1914-15)The Mountain (North of Boston, 1914-15)Fire and Ice (New Hampshire, 1923)The Generations of Men (North of Boston, 1914-15)The Grindstone (New Hampshire, 1923)The Witch of Coos (New Hampshire, 1923)A Brook in the City (New Hampshire, 1923)Design (A Further Range, 1937)House Fear (Mountain Interval, 1916)The Lockless Door (New Hampshire, 1923)Storm Fear (A Boy's Will, 1913)Snow (Mountain Interval, 1916)The Road Not Taken, the first poem in his third collection of poems, "Mountain Interval" is perhaps one of Frost's most famous and well-loved poems. It is a narrative, with a strict metre and rhyme scheme. The final couplet,"I took the one less traveled by,And that has made all the difference"contains a clear message that there are always two choices in life.It is also autobiographical. Not many readers may know that it is a poem about the close friendship between Robert Frost and Edward Thomas. They frequently took long walks together through the countryside, sometimes with the other Dymock poets. As Frost himself put it, the poem is "a mild satire on the chronic vacillating habits of Edward Thomas". He was amused over a familiar mannerism of Edward Thomas, who would often choose a route which might enable him to show his American friend a rare plant or special view. Invariably though, Thomas would regret his choice, sighing over what he might have shown Frost if they had taken a "better direction". Since they were such good friends, it vividly illustrates the importance of irony in understanding much of Frost's work. For, sadly, Edward Thomas failed to see either Frost's irony - or himself as the subject of the poem - and despite his wife's belief that Frost never intended a serious criticism of his friend, it is thought to be a major contributing factor in Edward Thomas's decision to enlist in World War I. He was killed in battle 2 years later. The Death of the Hired Man comes from Robert Frost's second book of poetry, "North of Boston", although it had been written earlier, in 1905 or 1906. It is a long narrative poem in blank verse, consisting almost entirely of a conversation between Mary and Warren, her farmer-husband, but as critics have observed, Frost makes the prosaic patterns of their speech sound lyrical. To Ezra Pound The Death of the Hired Man was Frost at his best - when he "dared to write ... in the natural speech of New England; in natural spoken speech, which is very different from the "natural" speech of the newspapers, and of many professors."Silas, an old workhand who used to help with the haymaking, had previously left the farm at an inconvenient time. Now though, he had returned during the Winter, looking, Mary says as she tries to appease Walter, "a miserable sight". She feels sorry for him. The couple wrestle with their consciences as to what to do about the man who seems to view the farm as home, but is not welcome. A major theme in the poem is that of the "home" or homecoming and belonging, as well as justice, mercy, friendship, guilt, age and death.The much-quoted lines,"Home is the place where, when you have to go there, They have to take you in."come from The Death of the Hired Man, although in the context of the dialogue they are said bitterly, and perhaps with a certain amount of sarcasm.The Mountain also comes from the collection "North of Boston" and is also a narrative poem in blank verse. The narrator is staying in a village, where a large mountain dominates the sky. On a walk around and towards the mountain, he meets a farmer, and has a conversation with him. As they discuss the mountain, the farmer tells stories about it, and it becomes clear that he is trying to persuade the narrator to climb the mountain. By the end of the poem, the mountain has been so well described that the terrain seems familiar to anyone who has walked and climbed in mountainous or hilly areas. (To an English reader it might convey the mountains of the Lake Dictrict, for instance.) The narrator has been convinced to make the climb, although the reader is left wondering whether he did so. The farmer's last words are inaudible, as he has left the scene so abruptly.There are three elements, the description, the persuasiveness of the farmer. and the narrator's actions. It is possibly a poem about manipulation.Fire and Ice is a beautifully evocative short poem; highly structured and compact. One of Robert Frost's most popular poems, it is often found in anthologies. Although it was published in his fourth collection, entitled "New Hampshire" in 1923, it had been published earlier in a magazine in 1920. It discusses the end of the world, matching the elemental force of fire with the emotion of desire, and ice with hate.It was partly inspired by Dante's "Inferno", and partly by a conversation Frost had had with the astronomer Harlow Shapley, who went on to quote it as "an example of how science can influence the creation of art, or clarify its meaning."The Generations of Men is another blank verse narrative poem from "North of Boston" in 1914-1915. Two adolescent cousins meet accidentally at the Stark family reunion. They have a conversation which varies between being nostalgic and being speculative. They show intellectual curiosity and an appreciation of literature with references to Shakespeare and Homer. At one point they invent an imaginative character, Granny Stark, showing their sense of fun. Although the poem is set in the rain there seems to be the promise of sun. The poem is celebrating continuing generations, and perhaps could be broadened to represent the cycle of birth, death and rebirth for all humanity.The Grindstone, from the collection "New Hampshire", published in 1923, is a poem about the feelings of a boy, who is reluctant to speak out in front of the man sharpening the scythe. It may be metaphorical musings about death. The grindstone would represent the speaker's life, having slowed down and being left out in the cold. The grim reaper comes around and wants to sharpen his scythe's blade. The speaker tries to help by running the grindstone faster and almost ruins the blade, which makes him laugh.The Witch of Coös also comes from the collection "New Hampshire", of 1923. Coös is an invented county in the north of New Hampshire. The inspiration for the poem is the characters in the tales of Edgar Poe who escape their incarceration or the confines of their coffins; it is a macabre ghost story. The narrator initially stresses the truth of the supernatural events he is about to tell, which he says were told to him by the witch and her son. But the tone of his language suggests that he doesn't share their beliefs - he considers them superstitious. Forty years ago, they claimed, a skeleton locked in the cellar carried itself up two flights of stairs and into the attic. These bones belonged to the woman's lover, whom her late husband had killed and buried under the house. By the end all the narrator seemed to believe was the husband's name, because there was never any evidence of human bones in the house. Frost said the theme of the poem was "murder will out - he's murder trying to get out." This treatment of women is reminiscent of some nineteenth-century literature, where the repression of women, and their restriction to the domestic sphere, force them into flights of imaginative fancy, or even madness as in Charlotte Perkins Gilman's story "The Yellow Wallpaper". The reader is unsure. It may have been merely a "good yarn."A Brook in the City again comes from the collection "New Hampshire", of 1923. This time was a period of increasing industry and urbanisation, but in many ways the poem is timeless, and speaks to us even now. Robert Frost creates and contrasts images of a peaceful brook, and a hectic city. A small sewer drain of water flows through the urban city, forgotten among the tall buildings and monuments. The poet muses that there used to be farmhouses there, and the little trickle was once a strong brook. Both of these represent the rural landscape, and a simpler way of life before the area was urbanised. An apple tree which has also been lost, and in its place is a wooden house. He describes with regret that people in their greed have built over this fresh green landscape, rendering the strong force of nature weak. At night the stream still flows, but a time will come when people will forget that there ever was a brook. It will exist only on maps. The brook, like the trees, are no longer useful in this new landscape and are converted into a useful system, then covered with dirt. No one will ever know, or care, where the brook used to be; the rural landscape is being destroyed in the name of "progress". The poet concludes that people are so engrossed in their own selfish lives, that they are unlikely to ever understand this mistake; that the brook in the city also deserved a life. In our self interest we have forgotten the interests of nature.Much of the power of this poem is due to its imagery and personification, such as, "The farm house lingers" or the "brook that held". We feel the force of nature even with inanimate objects. Phrases such as, "The meadow grass could be cemented down" demonstrate both hyperbole and metaphor. The grass is not literally cemented down; it is a symbol for how nature is become overcome by cities. This poem is strengthened further by a specific rhyming scheme, which stays consistent throughout the poem. Design, from "A Further Range" of 1937, also has a very formal structure. It is a sonnet using iambic pentameter, but then the final 6 lines have a separate tight and perfect rhyming structure of their own. Typically for a sonnet, it is composed of fourteen lines and develops an argument having a shift or turn in it. Of the three different types of sonnets, (Petrarchan, Shakespearean and Spenserian) Design combines elements of both the first two. The first line,"I found a dimpled spider, fat and white.sets the rhythm and metre for the whole poem, and the first 8 lines (or "octave") follow this strictly. Then by rhyming the last two lines, there is a classic Shakespearean couplet (or "heroic couplet") within those final differently structured 6 lines.This is just a superficial analysis of the structure; it is possible to delve far deeper with more detail. But there is a reason for Frost to employ such an unforgiving structure for this poem, which becomes evident when the reader reflects on the content of the poem.It begins then, with a big white spider on a white flower, poised to eat a white moth. The narrator ponders on the idea that all three might be brought together for some ominous reason, and this leads to further questions. Why is this flower white, when it is usually blue? Why did the spider visit this particular flower? Why did the moth decide to flutter by at that specific moment? The poet concludes that if it is "design" that brought these three together, it must be a very dark design. Why would God want this moth to get eaten? And in the last line he concludes that we do not know whether there is a designer, or whether everything in life is occurs in a random fashion. It is typical of Robert Frost to notice a simple fact, a small detail in nature, and mull over it at length, so that he will question the very nature of creation, and begin to consider the basic questions we all want answered about life.But is Frost laughing up his sleeve at the reader here? First of all it seemed a deceptively simple poem about a spider, then rapidly became reflections about whether there is an intelligent design behind things, and in the end the reader becomes aware of the controlled, intelligent and contrived design behind the very structure of the poem. Frost is the master of everything that he creates in this poem, down to each individual syllable.House Fear from "Mountain Interval" of 1916, describes the caution or concern the narrator feels about what he might find entering a dark house at night. He describes the little rituals he has, such as always making a noise, or always leaving the door open until the house was lit. Is he being fearful and cowardly instead of adventurous and brave, or simply being responsible in the face of the unknown? Does it in fact indicate a loss of adventurous spirit? These fears are common to all of us to a degree, so perhaps this is rooted in an actual fear of Robert Frosts's.The Lockless Door is such a similar poem in both feeling and thematically, to the preceding one, that it is tempting to consider them as a a pair. Actually, however, it is from the "New Hampshire" collection of 1923.The poem is said to be based on an autobiographical event. Frost was extremely afraid of the dark as a child, to the point where he slept on a bed in his mother’s room through his high school years. In 1895, Frost was staying alone in a cottage on Ossipee Mountain when he heard a knock on the old, lockless door. Being too terrified to answer the door he jumped through a window in the back and only then calling out "Come in!" Next morning, Frost returned to the cottage to find one of his neighbours drunk and asleep on the floor.The poem The Lockless Door follows the action of the memory, but makes it less humorous than the original episode must have seemed in retrospect. In the poem, he creates a more ominous force outside the lockless door. He says "whatever" rather than "whoever" to emphasise the potential threat, and exaggerate the narrator's own fear of the unknown. Frost uses short, stilted lines, placing the stress on the final syllable of each statement to highlight the narrator's terror.In the final stanza, Frost is gently mocking the terrified narrator - and therefore his earlier self. He points out the irony, that one simple knock causes the narrator to leave a safe refuge and expose himself to the New England winter. He also points out that this is the first chance the narrator has had to escape his isolation, and to meet another person for a long time. Rather than communicating with another person, even in an enclosed "cage", he still chooses to abandon it.Yet in his panicky attempt to escape the person at his door, the narrator is in the end forced to interact with the rest of the world, inevitably escaping his own enforced isolation. He feels he cannot reenter his house without knowing who is in there, so the narrator finally "alters with age", adapting and meeting others.Again, this is a highly structured poem, made up of five stanzas of four lines each. Each line is very short, with only two feet per line and only one to three syllables per foot. This tight metre increases the sense of panic in the poem.Storm Fear is the only one of these thirteen poems from Robert Frost's very first collection, "A Boy's Will", published in 1913 in England, or 1915 in the USA.The poem paints a grim picture of a blizzard, portraying it as a raging beast that dares the inhabitants of an isolated house to come outside and be killed. Wind and snow are hitting a basement window, but when the speaker taunts the storm it responds and gets angry. At this point it is clear that the storm may be a metaphor, or at any rate the meaning goes beyond the literal of being stuck in a storm. Frost uses many literary devices such as imagery and personification, to get his points across. Early on in the poem, the narrator counts the people, saying there are two adults and a child. Thus the poet is using this example to say that in a difficult situation we must first take control and see what our strengths are. The poem shows how people make a determined struggle to save themselves when everything else is falling apart. "'tis in us to arise with day And save ourselves unaided"Snow is another long narrative poem from his "Mountain Interval" collection of 1916, and weaves a story around one of Robert Frost's favourite themes.Out of this collection spanning many moods and periods, my personal favourites are The Road Not Taken, Fire and Ice, A Brook in the City and Design.
(Spoilers, um, a little. Nothing that will take away the beauty of the poems, I promise.)The Road Not Taken, a poem by Robert Frost that inspired awe in my when I was half the height I am now, is the reason I chose to read and explore the rest of Frost's work only to find pearls and other gems.The Road Not Taken - 3/5A simple, short poem to convey the importance of trying something unconventional. In my opinion, it is one of the most straightforward poem by him.An Old Man's Winter Night - 3/5A poem with a melancholic touch about ageing and its shortcomings.Meeting and Passing - 5/5Short and to the point. A beautiful perspective about a short-lived love.The Oven Bird - 5/5Short and to the point, again. "The question that he frames in all but words; is what to make of a diminishing thing." Amazing!Birches - 4/5Nostalgia filled, the poem treads into Frost's appreciation of all the experiences Earth has given him. He is a little anxious about death and what it may bring.Putting in the Seed - 4/5A sweet poem about love and inception of life.A Time to Talk - 2/5Not as much of a poem than a dialogue.An Encounter - 3/5Frost expresses his frustration with how things are moving from nature to technology and its impacts.The Bonfire - 4/5An exciting poem about facing fear just for the fun of it.The gum-gatherer - 5/5Frost is marveled by a man who lives as he pleases.The Vanishing Red - 3/5A poem about murders driven by political conceptions.Snow - 3/5I would give it a 4 if it weren't such a long poem. I was lost in the beauty of the rendition and length of the poem and was unable to grasp the single underlying theme of the poem, if there was one. The Sound of Trees - 4/5Frost talks about how trees are noisy and how they are held under constraint due to their roots. He talks of duty and imagination. He wants to pursue the latter, so he would do so silently without influencing the others to do the same.Mending Wall - 5/5An autobiographical poem. A political poem. Whatever it is, it depicts the contrast in the ideology of neighborhood by two neighbors. The Mountain - 4/5Beautiful mix of culture and nature interests.The Black Cottage - 5/5I loved the irony of the poem. The progressive woman ahead of her time taken away by time, yet a man so resistant to change continues in existence.Blueberries - 3/5A lengthy poem about blueberries and wild fruits.After Apple - picking - 5/5A man who wants to have a peaceful sleep without having nightmares about his monotonous and hateful occupation.Good Hours - 5/5What makes a good hour? A combination of sadness and joy.Mowing - 4/5He doesn't know what sense to make of the whispers of a scythe and decides to voice it with his opinions about how work is important.A Hundred Collars - 4/5An distrustful man finds amiability due to political views.Home Burial - 5/5The burial of a child and a marriage. Perfectly written.The Housekeeper - 2/5Too lengthy, I wasn't sure what the take-away was.A Girl's Garden - 4/5Perfect length. A nice tale of a girl who tells tales from other's experience as if her own.The Last Word of a Bluebird - 4/5A poem to his young daughter to teach her to be a good girl and that she'll get what she wants by being one.
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I have never liked poetry that much, which does not make much sense, since I love songs with beautiful lyrics. Yet, we have learned a poem of Robert Frost in English class in school and I really liked it - 'The Road Not Taken', actually. The english itself is not as hard as it might seem, and I could actually make sense out of it, and even enjoy it. The thing is, in class, we were discussing this poem forever and I, who got the meaning of the poem from the very first lesson, could not stand just digging into it. So I asked the teacher to quiz me, which she did, and after I got my A she let me read the whole book - this one. So while my fellow-pupils enjoyed only one poem,I could enjoy the whole collection. It was beautiful, quite ellegant and a candy not only to petry fans, and you do not have to be an adult or a geek to understand and slightly like poetry, I discovered it's a gift we all have inside, we just have to let it out.Two Road Diverged in a yellow woodAnd I - I took the one less traveled by,And that has made all the difference.ENJOY
—M/Ðɑηηɑ
"The Road Not Taken" included in the list of 10 most liked poems by American Authors of All times is truly a perfect example of interweaving of delight and wisdom. Robert Frost one of the most liked American poet with his extraordinary brilliance and also known for his ambigious approach towards things, brings forth the ultimate reality of each and every human soul faced with the fact of making a decision in life.the poem expatiates not on the choices available in one's life but on the one choice that has to be made and the route followed which in the end,"Makes the Difference"Other Poems by Frost too are simple and move toward wisdom like Fire and Ice, Birches, Mending Wall, Neither Out Far Nor in Deep, After Apple-Picking, Design.THough categorized as a nature poet but he was undeniably the poet of man too. Peculiarly never stressing a single point of view, it seems Frost always stood at the vintage point observing the things and leaving it onto the readers to decide on their own without being didactic.Sheer Brilliance of Robert Lee Frost the New Englandian born in San Francisco.
—Sachin
A man of true sagacity. Look me into his eyes, and see his warm prose. He writes like a tree, and lives as tall as one.Robert Frost is a poet. He adjusts his imagination to reality, and adds inspiration to all his voices.A common man with the most magical words. He doesn't ask for the wise to worship his words, and that's one of the glories of a true writer. They don't gratify anyone's compliments, but they know deeper in their depths what they are made of.What this poet mentioned dug a life into my littleness-"I shall be telling this with a sighSomewhere ages and ages henceTwo roads diverged in a wood,And I--I took the one less traveled by,And that has made all the difference."The above lines have made the noblest sense. I cannot express how this man hugs my Literary heart. He is very warm, and can capture a woman in her potential depths. I liked these lines as well-I'd like to get away from earth awhileAnd then come back to it and begin over.May no fate willfully misunderstand meAnd half grant what I wish and snatch me awayNot to return. Earth's the right place for love:I don't know where it's likely to go better.I'd like to go by climbing a birch tree,And climb black branches up a snow-white trunkToward heaven, till the tree could bear no more,But dipped its top and set me down again.That would be good both going and coming back.One could do worse than be a swinger of birches.Aren't they beautiful? Oh yes!My father finally agreed to send me to study Literature, but only after I finish my Masters in Law. :)Wow.Taymara.
—Taymara Jagmohan
