Home E-Learning: LA Lesson 2

In a 1970 review of The Poetry of Robert Frost, the poet Daniel Hoffman describes Frost's early work as "the Puritan ethic turned astonishingly lyrical and enabled to say out loud the sources of its own delight in the world," and comments on Frost's career as The American Bard: "He became a national celebrity, our nearly official Poet Laureate, and a great performer in the tradition of that earlier master of the literary vernacular, Mark Twain." About Frost, President John F. Kennedy said, "He has bequeathed his nation a body of imperishable verse from which Americans will forever gain joy and understanding." - www.poets.org

Robert Frost. Author of a hundred poems. One of the very few people who can actually be compared to the legendary Mark Twain. One of the very few people commended by President John F. Kennedy of the United States as well.

Yes, I chose Robert Frost as the poet to blog about.

But why did I choose him, you ask? If you have read one of his poems, any on of his poems, you would realise that he outshines many other poets in the art of poetry. He is able to meld the inner meaning of a story into the story itself, he is able to picture scenes unimaginably beautiful to set his poems in that not only makes the story interesting to read, but also helps reinforce the underlying meaning of the story, and he is able to create poems that relate to everyday life but that hold a significantly deep undermeaning. He is even able to infuse his poems with a bit of irony and ambiguity as well.

To put it simply, Robert Frost is brilliant.

Robert Frost was born in San Francisco on March 26, 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 went to Dartmouth College, then to Harvard University, but never earned a formal degree. After leaving school, he drifted through a string of occupation such as being a teacher, cobbler and an editor for a magazine. He published his first professional poem, "My Butterfly", on November 8, 1894 in the newspaper The Independent.

Soon after, he married his wife, Elinor Miriam White, who was a major inspiration in his poems until her death. But only after he went abroad to England, was he influenced by the famous poets of the time, and inspiring him to write his own. When he returned to America, he had already written a full collection of poems, entitled "A Boy's Will".

From the above information, a thesis staement can be made: Robert Frost was a troubled man. It is evident from how he never managed to get a degree even after going to Harvard, one of the best universities in the world, and how he went 'job-hopping' even trying out low-income jobs such as being a cobbler. This can also be known from some of his earlier poems, of which many are based upon his own life, his recurrent losses, everyday tasks, and his loneliness. This is further reinforced when their Hampshire farm failed to achieve any success.

Some of Robert Frost's more famous works include: Stopping By The Woods On A Snowy Evening, Nothing Gold Can Stay, and Fire And Ice.

~Markie

IT Home E-Learning: LA - Lesson 1

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.
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1. In this poem, there are two devices of figurative language. Hyperbole and symbolism.

The hyperbole is used in the line "To watch his woods fill up with snow". In figurative language it means to just watch the it snow down upon the woods, but in reality, it is not possible to fill up a wood with snow, therefore it is a hyperbole.

There are two instances of symbolism in the poem. The first use of symbolism is in the line "And miles to go before I sleep" repeated twice. It actually is saying more than just the length he has to travel before he gets a decent sleep, but also the time he has before he dies.

The second instance of symbolism in this poem is in the entirety of the poem. It is not only about the author's journey across the woods in the middle of winter, but it also represents one's journey of life of hardship, with that ever-remaining gentle longing for death that tinges the poem with a melancholy that is reinforced by the night and winter images.

The author has much reason to use these figurative language in the poem, but the most pornounced reason might be how the death/sleep metaphor so pronounced in the poem blends in perfectly with the night/winter image the author conveys with this poem. Winter means the loss of leaves from the trees and night means that it is supposedly a time for sleep. By adding the figurative language, the author allows readers to peel off the skins of the poem layer by layer, going deeper and deeper, and while one can simply read the surface and admire the beautiful picture that forms in your mind, one can also dwelve deeper to find out more.

2. Just imagining the scene, the setting in which the poem takes place makes me like this poem. But what stands out from the rest is how the inner meaning of the poem blends in perfectly with the story itself, therefore making it literally 'short and sweet', unlike many other longer poems that are more boring to read. It also describes life in its true entirety, and one can relate to it intiminately, making it one of my personal favourites. (79 words)

~Markie