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ROBERT FROST (1892- 29 Jan 1963)

(American Literature)
Biography: Robert Frost was born in San Francisco in 1874. He
moved to New England at the age of eleven and became interested in
reading and writing poetry during his high school years in Lawrence,
Massachusetts. He was enrolled at Dartmouth College in 1892, and
later at Harvard, though he never earned a formal degree.

Frost drifted through a string of occupations after leaving school, working as a teacher,
cobbler, and editor of the Lawrence Sentinel. His first professional poem, "My Butterfly,"
was published on November 8, 1894, in the New York newspaper The Independent.

In 1895, Frost married Elinor Miriam White, who became a major inspiration in his
poetry until her death in 1938. The couple moved to England in 1912, after their New
Hampshire farm failed, and it was abroad that Frost met and was influenced by such
contemporary British poets as Edward Thomas, Rupert Brooke, and Robert Graves. While
in England, Frost also established a friendship with the poet Ezra Pound, who helped to
promote and publish his work.

By the time Frost returned to the United States in 1915, he had published two full-length
collections, A Boy's Will and North of Boston, and his reputation was established. By the
nineteen-twenties, he was the most celebrated poet in America, and with each new book—
including New Hampshire (1923), A Further Range (1936), Steeple Bush (1947), and In
the Clearing (1962)—his fame and honors (including four Pulitzer Prizes) increased.

Q.1 ISOLATION AND LONELINESS IN FROSTS POETRY.

Robert Forest’s poetry is panorama of varied emotions, feelings, ideas, and thoughts; but
we can find some recurrent motives and themes in his works – the theme of lonliness and
isolation is one of them. He seems to be constantly telling that man is always solitary and
lonely. This isolation, he feels both emotionally and physically. Frost’s sense of man’
isolation seems to have been the outcome of his experience with his sister who was
mentally not fit.

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Thus Frost’s man is essentially alone. There are so many solitary figures in his poetry but
they are very different from Wordsworth’s “Solitary Reaper”. This alienation does not
give any kind of happiness but despair and frustration.“Desert Places” is a poignant poem
that points to the fact that every heart contains a wasteland – a more piteous and trouble
situation than any real geographic wasteland. The natural setting of falling snow, night
only falling, things invisible, animals withdrawn into their lairs- emphasizes the feeling of
loneliness, possessed by the poet. The empty spaces between the lifeless stars do not scare
him why should they, when he has his own desert places to scare him.

I have it in me so much nearer home

to scare myself with my own desert places.

Actually for Frost’ man is a complete independent entity in him and has no application
with the forces of nature working on him. The individuality of man and the forces of
nature work on two completely different principles. This difference, this distance between
man and its immediate nature must be maintained. In most of it, man is shown in all his
terrifying loneliness.

We see that most of the people in Frost’s poems are lonely. The man in “stopping by the
woods in the snowy evening” is all done when he sings:

“My little horse must think it queer

to stop without a farmhouse near
between the woods and frozen like
the darkest evening of the year”

In the same way the farmer in “Picking Apples” is also all alone. Perhaps that is why he is
tired and says. “But I am done with apple picking now”. Husband and wife in the “Home
Burial” although live in one house but they are enclosed in their own selves and shells.
Husband can not recognize his wife sensitivity. He must have known the answer of the
question, he asks from her always. “What is it you see from up”. In the same way wife
also does not know that her husband is a strong man who is only apparently cool. Both of
them are far away from each other.

Here one thing is significant that Forst’s woman take loneliness harder than man. A
woman in “Home Burial” is isolated and her baby’s taken away by the cruel hands of

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death and now she may get lost in the woods or go mad. Her cries express her grief of
loneliness.

“Not you! – Oh where’s my hat!

Oh- I don’t need it!
I must get out of her. I must get air
I don’t know rightly whether any man can”

The roots of this emotional isolation from other men is fear. Man is also isolated from God
in Frost. His reason stands as a barrier between man and a blissful communication with
God. It is only faith that can help man out one to make him achieve salvation. But there is
no faith that is the problem. Had the woman in “Home Burial” perfect faith in God, she
would have shown her patience. Man has lost his way toward God and thus. “Man acts
more like the poor bear in a cage”

With understanding, would come an acceptance of the world. And it will lessen the
differences which exists between man and man. He would then love his fellow men,
despite the barriers which divide him from both. Through barriers and alienation Frost
does not mean that he is against democracy or the brother-hood of the man. Speaking
psychologically Frost’s concern with loneliness is an expression of his intensity felt of
need for human love, sympathy and fellowship.

We can conclude that in Frost’s universe man is solitary and a stranger in this world. He is
born alone, lives in a lonely manner and dies a lonesome death. Frost is concerned with
brotherhood and fellowship but he looks at the world more realistically, he knows that
alienation could be overcome by the repeated fellowship. He can improve his lot and make
his life worth living by recognizing the otherness of other individuals. He should try to
understand his own nature and with self understanding of his environment and of his
fellow men.
Q.2 BOUNDARIES AND BARRIERS IN FROST’S POETRY

Frost is a great poet of Boundaries and Barriers, which divide men from men and come in
the way of way of communication and so result in lack of understanding. Man is not only
isolated from other man but Frost pictures him as alone and solitary in an impersonal and
unfeeling environment.

There are barriers at least of five kinds. First, there is the great natural barrier, the void,
the space, which separates man from stars. Man foolishly tries to bridge up this gap, but all

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his efforts in this respect are of no avail. Such efforts only make him more conscious of his
own littleness. In the poem “Stars” he tells us how man gets attracted by nature only to be
disillusioned by it. Here the stars shining in the sky at midnight don’t lend any glory or
state to the gazer rather they produce a note of disenchantment:

“And with neither love nor hate

Though the stars like some snow hit,
Minerous show like marble eyes
Without the gift of sight”.

In another poem, we find ‘how human relationships with nature are thwarted. The
protagonist of the “Star Splitter”, purchases a telescope with the insurance money which
he gets by burning his house down. He gazes at the stars but cannot escape the question
that raises its ugly head towards the end.
“We’ve looked and looked
But after all where are we”?

Secondly there are barriers between man and immediate natural world the barren and
desert places –which man must conquer, reclaim and cultivate. He must constantly wage a
war against such wilderness, if he has to survive in an environment, which seems hostile to
him, which at least is not meant for him and in which he is an alien. Man must wage a war
against his physical environment and wilderness in which he is an alien.

Thirdly man’s existence is a barrier, which divides man from the soul and spirit of nature.
Wordsworth denied the existence of barriers between man and nature and Frost is of the
view that there is a wide gulf between man and nature, spirit and matter In a number of
poems he stresses the indifference of nature and shows that it is futile to expect any
sympathy the spirit, which moves or governs the world. Individual man and forces of
nature are two different principles and the boundaries, which separate them, must be
respected. In a poem “Two look at Two”, the man and the woman do not feel that there is
some affinity between themselves and the bucks. There is a barbed wire, which separates
human nature from dear nature.

Fourthly there are barriers, which separate man from man. Such barriers come in the way
of social communication and lack of communication leads to social alienation and
emotional isolation and loneliness. “Mending Wall” is an ironic comment on those who

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raise walls between themselves and their neighbours, because they think, “Good Fences
make good neighbours”. Symbolically, the poem is a comment on social, religious,
national, and ideological barriers which divided and separate man from man. Such barriers
come to the way of human relationship; generate tensions, which result in neurosis and
emotional imbalance. North of Boston is full such emotionally isolated and alienated
people.

In the “Home Burial “there is a grievous lack of communication between the husband
and the wife and the mother’s grief deepens into insanity. The shadow of their dead child
is a barrier, which divides them and alienates them from each other. “The

Barriers are all that nature can give to man. Even in “Two look at Two” where there is a
sort of affinity between human and nature. The speaker in the “Mending Wall” gives us the
same theme when he says,
“There is something that does not love a wall”.
In this poem we see an orthodox old man who believes that good fences make good
neighbours but in fact these boundaries introduce loneliness and alienation with each
other.
Summing up, Frost is a great poet of boundaries and barriers which divide men from men
and come in the way of communication. According to the poet, barriers divide them and
alienate them from each other each. “The death of the Hired Nan presents a terrifying
picture of failure of relationship. In spite of the fact that Robert Frost’s poetry is a
panorama of varied emotions, feelings, ideas and thoughts yet we can find the recurrent
motives and themes of boundaries and barriers. He seems to tell constantly that man is
always a victim of boundaries and barriers and these two things can be overcome by
mutual love and friendship.

Q.3 FROST AS A MODERN POET

There is a lot of controversy among the critics on the subject of Frost’s modernity. Since
critics feel that Frost is essentially a traditional poet and not a modern. Hichs’says;
Frost has bound himself to a literary tradition
that is out of fashion and has lost its meanings in
the modern context”.

‘Schneider’ agrees with Hichs and says,

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“Frost is out of touch with his own time,

Perhaps he does not understand his age
as he shows his lack of comprehension
in the poem New Hampshire”.

‘The question is not whether Frost depicts the scenery of modern life or not but whether he
deals with its major problems”. In Frost’s poetry we find evidence of what Yeats called the
“modern mind in search of its own meanings”.

Directly, Frost has nothing to do with the hustle and bustle of city life. The man stopping
by woods on a snowy evening has own house in the village. The neighbours discussing the
mending wall also reside in some village. The Apple Picking gives us complete rural
scenery, but this retreat into countryside is not a romantic escape from the harsh and
unpleasant realities of human life rather in the words of Linen,

“It provides him with a point of view for studying and

Commenting on the fact of modern life”.
Frost uses the method of indirection like T.S. Eliot juxtaposes past with present in which
past reveals present and here Frost juxtaposes urban and rural in which rural acts as
comment of the urban. Frost’s pastoralism is a technique that takes Frost from modernity
to universality. Then the modern aspects of life are also criticized by Frost. The impersonal
modern way of life is satirized in a consciousness of modern age.

Frost tries to highlight the significance of impulse and instinct because in modern age
natural urges of humanity are subordinated. But Frost does not favour social groups nor
does he subscribe to extreme individualism. Frost is aware that these are eternal problems,
which cannot be solved.

Frost is modern is his attitude towards nature, which is definitely realistic. Frost does not
see nature with the warmth of the romantics nor does he see any ‘holy plan to emphasize
the oneness of man & nature. Modern man lacks faith to realize his relation to God, that is
why Frost has linked the rational man to a bear in the cage;

“that all day fights a nervous inward rage

In a mood rejecting all his mind suggests”.

In the same way the woman in the “Home Burial” never thinks that it is God who has
taken the life of her baby. Her husband is a pure modern man who is surprised at seeing

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her weeping out merely for’ the loss of a first child’. He says to her,” You over do a little”.
Trilling makes it clear how Frost’s poetry is essentially modern. He says,

“The terror, Frost expresses is the terror of something

which comes and must come with the birth of something
new. It is the mark of a genuinely modern poetry”.

His portrayal of the disintegration of values in modern life and disillusionment of the
modern man suggest that he is truly a modern poet. His poetry is representation of certain
traits of modernity like disharmony; disintegration and alienation. Most of his poems deal
with characters who suffer from frustration, isolation and helplessness-diseases of modern
life which are portrayed in his poems like ‘Home Burial’ are suggestive of his modernity.

In terms of language and style too the poems show the traits of modernity. Some critics
say that he uses simple and clean language, which is not a modern trait but the apparent
simplicity of Frost’s poetry is quite deceptive. It conceals layers and layers of meanings.
Note the following lines of “Desert Places” which are full of suggestions;

“They cannot scare with their empty spaces

Between stars on stars where no human race is
I’ve it in me so much nearer home
To scare myself with my own desert places”.

He is modern in his use of symbolic technique. Most of his poems are quite symbolic. The
poems like Stopping By Woods, Birches, Mending Wall etc, are great masterpieces. Thus,
his use of symbolism is essentially a modern technique. ‘Birches’ is a beautiful blend of
modern elements. The poem offers the best example of poet’s power to blend observation
and imagination. Thus Frost is undoubtedly a modern or perhaps one may say he has
universal appeal.

Q.4  Frost and Nature

 
Frost's use of nature is the single most misunderstood element of his poetry. Frost said
over and over, "I am not a nature poet. There is almost always a person in my poems."
"Spring Pools" and "A Winter Eden" are two rare exceptions to this rule, although both
poems embody the idea of perfection . Frost himself said,

“I am not a poet of nature, for I have never written a nature poem”.

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Most of Frost's poems use nature imagery. His grasp and understanding of natural fact is
well recognized. However Frost is not trying to tell us how nature works. His poems are
about human psychology. Rural scenes and landscapes, homely farmers, and the natural
world are used to illustrate a psychological struggle with everyday experience . Frost uses
nature as a background. He usually begins a poem with an observation of something in
nature and then moves toward a connection to some human situation or concern. Frost is
neither a transcendentalist nor a pantheist.
 
Robert Frost saw nature as an alien force capable of destroying man, but he also saw man's
struggle with nature as an heroic battle. As told in his poem "Our Hold on the Planet",
 
There is much in nature against us. But we forget:
Take nature altogether since time began,
Including human nature, in peace and war,
…………………………………………….
Our hold on the planet wouldn't have so increased.
 
Nature is separate and independent from man. Man "keeps the universe alone," even
though he may call out for "counter love," he will not find it. Even though he loved natural
beauty, Frost recognized the harsh facts of the natural world. He viewed these opposites as
simply different aspects of reality that could be embraced in poetry. He accepts these facts
with honesty and is remorseless in his realization of them. He probes the quality of truth
and accepts that there may be no answer.
 
Frost uses nature as metaphor. He observes something in nature and says this is like that.
He leads you to make a connection, but never forces it on the reader. Frost's poems always
make perfect sense. His facts are correct, especially in botanical and biological terms. But
he is not trying to tell nature stories nor animal stories. He is always using these
metaphorically implying an analogy to some human concern. The reader may or may not
be reminded of the same thing that the poet was thinking of when he wrote the poem, but
he hopes the reader is close.

Frost is often described as a parablist. His poetic impulse starts with some psychological
concern and finds its way to a material embodiment which usually includes a natural
scene. Frost always takes time to describe nature with sensitivity and care . Many of his
poems are text book examples of the use of imagery and poetic devices of all kinds to
describe natural scenes.

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Frost is modern is his attitude towards nature, which is definitely realistic. Frost does not
see nature with the warmth of the romantics nor does he see any ‘holy plan to emphasize
the oneness of man & nature. Modern man lacks faith to realize his relation to God, that is
why Frost has linked the rational man to a bear in the cage;
“that all day fights a nervous inward rage
In a mood rejecting all his mind suggests”.

Frost struggled all his life with a traditional faith-based view of the world and the rise of
science. It is still being argued whether or not he believed in God. Curiously, people of
opposing beliefs can find justification of their views in Frost because this poet is full of
contradictions. Basically he believed in a ever changing open-ended universe, which could
not be explained with systematic thought, whether it be science, religion or philosophy. He
declared that evolution was simply a metaphor for a changing world.

For him, nature is an independent phenomenon existing with man. But, there is no
spiritual transaction between the two. At best, there are some resemblances which bear
testimony to the whimsicality of fate. Yet, Frost expounds the concept of being at peace
with Nature. According to him, this is our only way to accept a Deity. we have no hope of
understanding.

Summing up Frost’s conception of nature, it may safely be said that he has a few
similarities with poets of nature like Wordsworth and Emerson but his theory of nature
does not set him in line with the Romantics. In Frost’s poetry, the centre of action is man
unlike Wordsworth who has nature as his main object of interest. In Frost’s poetry, nature
and man and similarly the spiritual power are separate entities and he believes in their
segregation.
 
Q.5 FROST, S STYLE

The essence of Robert Frost’s style can be seen in the letter he once wrote to a friend. In
it , he asserts that the purpose of a writer should be:

‘……never to tell them ( the readers ) something they

don’t know, but something they know and hadn’t
thought of saying. It must be some thing they recognize….’

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As a result, we see that Frost does not use any kind of rhetoric even when discussing the
most mystifying metaphysical issues. This is because even the commonest man can have
mystical and metaphysical experiences. But, he may certainly lack the linguistic maturity
which may enable him to express them. For example, the poet raises a very basic issue in
the poem ‘The Road not Taken’. He saw two roads diverging in a forest. At once, he found
himself facing a dilemma:

‘And sorry I could not travel both and be one traveller, long I stood.’

Here, it is clear to see that the poet has used very simple language to express a thought
which strikes at the very core of our being. The same point has been raised by countless
thinkers and philosophers using the kind of language which is always beyond the
understanding of the common man. The most important aspect of Frost’s style is this use
of the iambic pentameter as it is the most natural for the English language. Any person
with even a casual exposure to English will find the iambic pentameter very pleasing to the
ear. This accounts for the fact that Frost’s poetry is regarded as being democratic in tone.

However, it is also democratic in content. The poet belonged to the rural areas of Vermont
in New England. And, it is significant to note that he depicts every thought and concept in
the idiom of his native Vermonters. The result is a wonderful flexibility and earthiness in
his expression. Here, it is significant to note that this technique would never have been
possible with out Frost’s use of persona in his poems. He is perceptive enough to see that
his own physical presence in his poetry would certainly interfere with the natural flow of
thought. Moreover, words emanating from their natural speakers do have a raw vigour
which nothing else can match. Again, the use of persona sets the poet free from the
conventions of philosophical and logical rhetoric. In ‘Mending walls’, the subtle theme of
alienation and fragmentation is expressed thus in the words of a simple armour:

‘Before I unlike a wall I’d ask to know’.

What I was walling in or walling out,’

Frost’s sense of visual beauty is simply amazing. He can invest a few words with the
comeliness and grace of a simple landscape:

‘A leaping tongue of bloom the scythe had spared

Beside a reedy brook the scythe had bared.’

Or, the same few words can express the sweeping expanse covered by the fluttering flight

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of a butterfly:

And then he flew as far as eye could see,

And then on tremulous wing came back to me.’

The cunning use of wit is also a hallmark of Frost’s poetry. In fact, his colloquial tone is so
lulling that his witticisms come with stunning effect. Consider what he has to say about the
transcendental aspirations of man” ‘Between two metaphysical extremes, he sits back
on his fundamental butt.’And, we can conclude by quoting two more lines from ‘the Bear’
as they are highly expressive of Frost’s own poetic style:

‘The bear puts both arms around the tree above her
and draws it down as if it was a lover’.

For Robert Frost, the world and its unanswerable questions have always been like the
unreachable embrace of a lover. Not being able to reach it, he has never hesitated to pull it
down to his own level. The result is a poetical style which is either adored or condemned
by all who come into contact with it.

Frost once said, "It's the tone I'm in love with; that's what poetry is, tone." From the
beginning, he was after "tones of voice". He uses drama and situation to vary the tones. He
said, "Literature is a performance in words." Frost used distinctive human tonalities,
generally subdued and low key , ranging through the scale of human emotion, including
tenderness, scorn and blandishment.

 Frost said, "Poetry permits the one possible way to say one thing and mean another."
Frost's greatness is in his power of association. This begins in observation and follows
with connection. Frost said, "The figure (of a poem) is the same as for love, it begins in
delight and ends in wisdom." Frost said, "A poem is a thought-felt thing." Its
psychological overtones and undertones are important.
 
 

Q. 6 STOPPING BY WOODS ON A EVENING

STOPPING BY WOODS ON A EVENING is one of the most beautiful poems of Frost. It is

replete with charming natural scenes and deep philosophy of the poet. Snow is a recurrent
symbol in the poetry of Robert frost. The wonder is that, on different occasions, he uses it

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to express ideas and feelings diametrically opposed to one another. For example, in many
poems, the colourlessness of snow denotes emptiness and meaninglessness. Whereas, in
this poem, the softness of fresh fallen snow blends with the darkness of the woods to
convey an idea of deep repose. Here, solitude does not carry the painful connotations of
alienation. Rather, the poet relishes the idea of being alone. He is happy that the owner of
the woods is not there:

‘He will not see not me stopping here’.

To watch his woods fill up with snow.

The woods reflect the intricacies of human life . Snow may be symbolised as reflecting
the idea of death. The poet wants to convey the idea that life is followed by death.
Furthermore, the dreary darkness of the winter evening is not a sad phenomenon for the
poet. And, he realizes full well the difference in his own approach when he remarks that
his horse must be surprised at being made to stop:

‘Between the woods and frozen lake.

The darkest evening of the year.’

Clearly, this mood of peace and tranquillity is not quite the norm with the poet. It is a
transient feeling conjured up by the serenity of the surroundings. Moreover, at the
moment, an inner peace is reigning in his heart. This is why the falling snow and the
gathering darkness can move him only to comforting thoughts. Even the quietness is
soothing for him:
‘The only other sound’s the sweep
of easy wind and downy flake.’

But, as is always the case with Frost, pain is only a few thoughts away. He has stopped by
the quiet woods and is marvellously soothed by the scene. Moreover, he can see that the
deep darkness of the woods holds a promise of rest and repose for him. Yet, he can not
stop for there. This is because the ongoing struggle of life :

The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,

but I have promise to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

Here, it is noteworthy that the poet does not consider the struggle of life as a burden
imposed on him. Rather, he takes it as a commitment he has made to him self. This is why

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se says that he has promises to keep. These promises are the ones he had made to himself.
So, own attraction. But, this is a luxury only the weak can enjoy. The strong man may only
appreciate the beauty of this siren call. But, it can not make him break the promises he has
made to himself.

The feeling of loneliness have been described in such an appropriate and the aptest style
that the sensitive readers may share the sentiments of the poet. The meaning is exceedingly
clear and simple. The pathos of the poem is very touching.

Frost’s decision to repeat the final line could be read in several ways. On one hand, it
reiterates the idea that the narrator has responsibilities that he is reluctant to fulfill. The
repetition serves as a reminder, even a mantra, to the narrator, as if he would ultimately
decide to stay in the woods unless he forces himself to remember his responsibilities. On
the other hand, the repeated line could be a signal that the narrator is slowly falling asleep.
Within this interpretation, the poem could end with the narrator’s death, perhaps as a result
of hypothermia from staying in the frozen woods for too long.

The narrator in the poem does not seem to suffer from the same financial and emotional
burdens as Frost did, but there is still an overwhelming sense of the narrator’s unavoidable
responsibilities. He would prefer to watch the snow falling in the woods, even with his
horse’s impatience, but he has “promises to keep,” obligations that he cannot ignore even
if he wants to.

This poem shows that the poet has a dynamic view of life . It also shows that he has full
command over his craft and has an extra ordinary intellect and genius. For, the lush
lyricism exhibited here is a clear sign that Frost could be both musical and pictorial
whenever he wanted to be so. It may be undoubtedly accepted that the poem is among the
finest poems in English literature.

Q.7 "After Apple-Picking"

After Apple-Picking is a masterpiece of Frost that presents mild ideas in a romantic

fashion. There is no question here of tones playing against a traditional form; rather, an
original rhythmic form grows out of the dramatic setting. Pre-sleep and sleepy
environment is described realistically and the speaker's first words show what form his
dreamy talk will take. His 'ladder's sticking through a tree'—which is accurate and earthy
—but 'through a tree / toward heaven.' As the apple-picker drowses off, the narrative gets
mixed with dream, and the time references of the tenses become a bit confused:

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But I was well

Upon my way to sleep before it fell,
And I could tell
What form my dreaming was about to take.

The poem starts in the world of imagination and a sight of a person suspended in the air.
The opening lines of the poem generate the idea that life is full of complexities and there
are numberless tasks to be accomplished within a short space of time. In order to propagate
this idea, he gives the example of an apple picker who has to pick a lot of apples but he ca
not pick all the apples in spite of his hard work.. Because the apples are too many and he is
get tired of the apple picking. All this show that in spite of all the hard work , a man can
not accomplish all the tasks in life and in the end he finds himself on the verge of death.

More over as the apple picker is get tired of his job and then hypnotised by the fragrance
of the apples, similarly, a man is surrounded by death and the drowsy waves of death take
the man in to its lap and man enters in another world.

Everything said throughout the poem comes to the reader through sentences filled with
repetitions and, rhymes and in waves of sound linked by likeness of pattern. From the
opening lines, there is abundance of chain-like sentences, rich in end-rhymes and, echoes
of many sorts. The last word either introduces a new rhyme that will be picked up in the
next stanza:

The metaphor is renewed in many other expressions, for example, in 'Magnified apples,'
which are apples seen against the sky with daylight accuracy, and also great dream-like
spheres. The closing metaphor of the poem, the woodchuck's 'long sleep,' adds to the
strangeness of 'winter sleep' by bringing in the non-human death-like sleep of hibernation.
We are finally quite uncertain of what is happening, and that is what the poem is about:

One can see what will trouble

This sleep of mine, whatever sleep it is.

Another explanation is that the narrator is dying, and his rambling musings on apple
picking are the fevered hallucinations of a man about to leave the world of the living. With
that in mind, the narrator’s declaration that he is “done with apple-picking now” has more
finality, almost as if his vision of the apple harvest is a farewell. Even so, he can be
satisfied in his work because, with the exception of a few apples on the tree, he fulfilled all

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of his obligations to the season and to himself. Significantly, even as he falls into a
complete sleep, the narrator is unable to discern if he is dying or merely sleeping; the two
are merged completely in the essence of the oncoming winter, and Frost refuses to tell the
reader what actually happens.

Because of the varying rhymes and tenses of the poem, it is not clear when the narrator is
dreaming or awake. One possibility is that the entirety of the poem takes place within a
dream. The narrator is already asleep and is automatically reliving the day’s harvest as he
dreams. This explanation clarifies the disjointed narrative — shifting from topic to topic as
the narrator dreams — as well as the narrator’s assertion that he was “well upon my way to
sleep” before the sheet of ice fell from his hands.

Summing up the poem, “After Apple Picking” is a symbolic poem and it may be easily
generalised. It has leashed out great thoughts. According to Kaplan, “ A personal
experience has been used to highlight universal truths. The idea that the best work is that
which combines need with pleasure has been fully conveyed.”

Q. 8 Mending Wall" "

Mending Wall" is a meditative lyric that reports and assesses a dialogue between
neighbours who have joined in the annual occupation of rebuilding the wall which
separates their farms. Asked once about his intended meaning, he went on to answer
obliquely:

I should be sorry if a single one of my poems stopped with either of those things—stopped
anywhere in fact. My poems—I should suppose everybody's poems—are all set to trip the
reader head foremost into the boundless.

According to the poet, nature is in favour of removal the walls because they are great
obstacles in building friendly relations with the fellow beings especially with neighbours.
Apart from this concept of nature, there is another theme, that a run through the entire
poem is the ideological conflict between the new and the old generation. The conflict
between the old and the young is present since the existence of human beings and it will
survive. The old people are under the idea that they have all the wisdom and experience
that they have collected with the age and after experiencing through many adventures.
While on the other hand the young are not practical and can not see through the deep
insight of the complexity of life.

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This conflict lasts till the closing lines of the poem though both argue to bring the other
round. But this conflict will not be solved and remain in all ages and according to the poet
this difference of opinion is the colour and charm of life.

"Mending Wall" is constructed around the idea of mischief. "Why rebuild ancient walls?"
is a question offered to trip the neighbour. But one of the surprises in "Mending Wall" is
that the neighbour responds with a defence. Instead, threatened, he reaches into the past for
support and comes up with his father's proverb: "Good fences make good neighbours."
When we fail to recognize that the neighbour reply to the poet’s prodding with a proverb,
we miss a good deal of Frost’s point.

As the narrator points out, the very act of mending the wall seems to be in opposition to
nature. Every year, stones are dislodged and gaps suddenly appear, all without explanation.
Every year, the two neighbors fill the gaps and replace the fallen boulders, only to have
parts of the wall fall over again in the coming months. It seems as if nature is attempting to
destroy the barriers that man has created on the land, even as man continues to repair the
barriers, simply out of habit and tradition.

Ironically, while the narrator seems to begrudge the annual repairing of the wall, Frost
subtley points out that the narrator is actually more active than the neighbor. It is the
narrator who selects the day for mending and informs his neighbor across the property.
Moreover, the narrator himself walks along the wall at other points during the year in order
to repair the damage that has been done by local hunters. Despite his skeptical attitude, it
seems that the narrator is even more tied to the tradition of wall-mending than his
neighbor. Perhaps his skeptical questions and quips can then be read as an attempt to
justify his own behavior to himself. While he chooses to present himself as a modern man,
far beyond old-fashioned traditions, the narrator is really no different from his neighbor: he
too clings to the concept of property and division, of ownership and individuality.

Ultimately, the presence of the wall between the properties does ensure a quality
relationship between the two neighbors. By maintaining the division between the
properties, the narrator and his neighbor are able to maintain their individuality and
personal identity as farmers: one of apple trees, and one of pine trees. Moreover, the
annual act of mending the wall also provides an opportunity for the two men to interact
and communicate with each other, an event that might not otherwise occur in an isolated
rural environment. The act of meeting to repair the wall allows the two men to develop
their relationship and the overall community far more than if each maintained their
isolation on separate properties.

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Summing up the arguments, the poem is the manifestation of inner and outer barriers. It
also gives the poet’s conception of these barriers. He is very argumentative when he talks
about the old and the young.
Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening (1922-23)

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.

AFTER APPLE-PICKING (1914)

My long two-pointed ladder's sticking through a tree

Toward heaven still,
And there's a barrel that I didn't fill
Beside it, and there may be two or three
Apples I didn't pick upon some bough.
But I am done with apple-picking now.
Essence of winter sleep is on the night,
The scent of apples: I am drowsing off.
I cannot rub the strangeness from my sight
I got from looking through a pane of glass
I skimmed this morning from the drinking trough
And held against the world of hoary grass.
It melted, and I let it fall and break.

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But I was well

Upon my way to sleep before it fell,
And I could tell
What form my dreaming was about to take.
Magnified apples appear and disappear,
Stem end and blossom end,
And every fleck of russet showing dear.
My instep arch not only keeps the ache,
It keeps the pressure of a ladder-round.
I feel the ladder sway as the boughs bend.
And I keep hearing from the cellar bin
The rumbling sound
Of load on load of apples coming in.
For I have had too much
Of apple-picking: I am overtired
Of the great harvest I myself desired.
There were ten thousand thousand fruit to touch,
Cherish in hand, lift down, and not let fall.
For all
That struck the earth,
No matter if not bruised or spiked with stubble,
Went surely to the cider-apple heap
As of no worth.
One can see what will trouble
This sleep of mine, whatever sleep it is.
Were he not gone,
The woodchuck could say whether it's like his
Long sleep, as I describe its coming on,
Or just some human sleep.

Mending Wall (1914)

Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it
And spills the upper boulder in the sun,

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And make 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 dogs. The gaps I mean,
No one has seen them made or heard them made,
But at spring mending-time we find them there,
I let my neighbor 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 to 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 outdoor 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 neighbors."
Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder

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If I could put a notion in his head:

"Why do they make good neighbors? 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 offense.
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 and the shade of trees.
He will not go behind his father's saying,
And he likes having thought of it so well
He says again, "Good fences make good neighbors."

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