Mending Wall
Robert Frost Something there is that doesn't love a wall, That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it, And spills the upper boulders in the sun; And makes gaps even two can pass abreast. The work of hunters is another thing: I have come after them and made repair Where they have left not one stone on a stone, But they would have the rabbit out of hiding, To please the yelping dog. The gaps I mean, No one has seen them made or heard them made, But at spring mending-time we find them here. I let my neighbour know beyond the hill; And on a day we meet to walk the line. And set the wall between us once again. We keep the wall between us as we go. To each the boulders that have fallen to each. And some are loaves and some so nearly balls WE have to use a spell ot make them balance: "Stay where you are until our backs are turned!" We wear our fingers rough with handling them. Oh, just another kind of our-door game, One on a side. It comes to little more: There where it is we do not need the wall: He is all pine and I am apple orchard. My apple trees will never get across And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him. He only says, "Good fences make good neighbours." Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder If I could put a notion in his head: "Why do they make good neighbours? Isn't it Where there are cows? But here there are no cows. Before I built a wall I'd ask to know What I was walling in or walling out, And to whom I was lIke to give offence. Something there is that doesn't love a wall, That wants it down." I could say "Elves" to him, But it's not elves exactly, and I'd rather He said it for himself. I see him there Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed. He moves in darkness as it seems to me, Not of woods only adn the shade of trees. He will not to behind his father's saying, And he likes having thought of it so well He says again, "Good fences make good neighbours." |
Analysis of "Mending Wall"
In this poem Frost is using the blank verse. The meaning behind mending wall was: what was the purpose behind fixing the wall, and the statement “good fences make good neighbors.” It is stated by the speaker that purpose behind mending the wall was useless due to fact that neither neighbor had cows, and only trees. So what was the purpose behind putting up that stone wall? Also, if it was useless then why keep mending it? The answer could be stated that the wall represents boundaries, such as liberties of owning land and having that boundary there to make it noticed. But, due to the speaker’s purpose of asking why, it can inferred that logically they are good friends and what was the purpose. Then comes the question why put it up, the suggestion cows could be referenced, but that was the excused used to why a fence would be put up. Another statement is made twice known, “something there is that doesn’t love a wall.” There is some force that wishes it not to separate. So it could be simplified by stating that “Mending Wall” is an application of a question of boundaries, their purpose and worth, and how it can confined location while at the same time expressing freedom. |
Birches
Robert Frost When I see birches bend to left and right Across the lines of straighter darker trees, I like to think some boy's been swinging them. But swinging doesn't bend them down to stay As ice-storms do. Often you must have seen them Loaded with ice a sunny winter morning After a rain. They click upon themselves As the breeze rises, and turn many-colored As the stir cracks and crazes their enamel. Soon the sun's warmth makes them shed crystal shells Shattering and avalanching on the snow-crust— Such heaps of broken glass to sweep away You'd think the inner dome of heaven had fallen. They are dragged to the withered bracken by the load, And they seem not to break; though once they are bowed So low for long, they never right themselves: You may see their trunks arching in the woods Years afterwards, trailing their leaves on the ground Like girls on hands and knees that throw their hair Before them over their heads to dry in the sun. But I was going to say when Truth broke in With all her matter-of-fact about the ice-storm I should prefer to have some boy bend them |
As he went out and in to fetch the cows-
Some boy too far from town to learn baseball, Whose only play was what he found himself, Summer or winter, and could play alone. ONe by one he subdued his father's trees By riding them down over and over again Until he took the stiffness out of them, And not one but hung limp, not one was left For him to conguer. He learned all there was To learn about not launching out too soon And so not carrying the tree away Clear to the ground. He always kept his poise To the top branches, climbing carefully With the same pains you use ot fill a cup Up to the brim, and even above the brim. Then he flung outward, feet first, with a swish, Kicking his way down through the air to the ground. So was I once myself a swinger of birches. And so I dream of going back to be. It's when I'm weary of considerations, And life is too much like a pathless wood Where your face burns and tickles with the cobwebs Broken across it, and one eye is weeping From a twig's having lashed across it open. I'd like ot get away form earth awhile And then come back ot it and begin over. May no fate willfully misunderstand me And half grant what I wish and snatch me away Not to return. Earth's the right place for love: I don't know where it's likely ot go better. I'd like to go by climbing a birch tree, And climb back branches up a snow-white trunk Toward 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 fo birches. |
Analysis of "Birches"
The poem is in the form of blank verse. Even though the title is “Birches,” it is only the object in which the main objective takes place. The poem is referring to the swinging of the branches. The boy swinging on the branches can symbolize youth, creativity, nostalgia, and imagination. The swinging of heaven and Earth, where heaven is the branches on the trees and the Earth the roots in which is twined into the ground, shows the pull up and down. It can be grasped that even though he loves the bliss of heaven, he still love “Earth” and wants to remain in part to reality. But by saying, “that would be good both going and coming back” says he enjoys being able to move between the though of imagination and reality. Then he ends saying “one could do worse than be swinger of birches.” The birches symbolize a path. Climbing trees take courage and, when fallowing a specific path, courage is needed. To represent that to climb up the tree is like cutting ties form Earth, one no longer is attached to the Earth. The analysis of this poem can be said that worldly lesson involved that people can get weighed down by life, like the limbs of the birch tree, and that climbing above it all could allow one to escape, but one must remember reality. |
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
By Robert Frost Whose woods these are I think I know. His house is in the village though; He will not see me stopping here To watch his woods fill up with snow. My little horse must think it queer To stop without a farmhouse near Between the woods and frozen lake The darkest evening of the year. He gives his harness bells a shake To ask if there is some mistake. The only other sound’s the sweep Of easy wind and downy flake. The woods are lovely, dark and deep, But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep. |
Analysis of "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening"
The stanzas are iambic, and have about the same length. It consists of end rhyme. When one would first look at the poem “Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening” it seems as though it is an obvious story of someone traveling along the road and stops to gaze at the woods. What makes someone relook at the poem is when the last line is repeated “and many miles before I sleep.” Robert Frost, a poet whose basis for his poems is a universal theme, could be implying “life.” By saying sleep, he could be meaning death, an eternal sleep, and the distance from the village from where he is now could be the distance away from society. It also being on the darkest day could imply how short life is. It could be interpreted any many different ways given that it also tells you the exact day that this horse slay is traveling, which would be December 22nd the longest day in a year, also known as the winter solstice. It is snowing which could imply purity, and the darkness for mystery. All in which is something that pulls humans curiosity. The entire poem could be a metaphor. The woods for all things that draw the mind of people, the snow for purity and isolation, the day for how short life is, the village the common wish to be distance from society, and sleep being death could all be connected to one. The main focus and question he represents is the last stanza and what his interpretation on “sleep,” when it is stated twice. There are many interpretations to his sleep and how long it would take to get there, but from what is viewed it is a pull of reluctance and obligations, and choosing the path that you currently walk on and heading strait forward no matter the temptation. |