Robert Frost: Nature Essay, Research Paper

Robert Frost

The Random House Dictionary of the English Language defines the term attitude as the following: manner, disposition, feeling, position, etc. with regard to a person or thing; tendency or orientation, esp. of the mind. (Random House, 1967) This definition is seen in everyday life. People can show certain feelings towards other people. They can show their feelings or positions on certain topics such as abortion or gun control. People can even have an attitude on life itself. This is nothing new to anybody. Because the eyes of people are humanized, their will always be subjectivity to what one feels or sees. A man that definitely represents this definition and a thought process all his own, was a poet named Robert Frost. What he did was show people, through his works, his attitude towards nature and even some of life.

To best represent Frost s works and his attitudes is to bring to the forefront many of his works and show what they could truly mean. The first poem that could show certain parts of his attitude is called Fire and Ice. This poem was from Harper s Magazine in 1920. It reads:

Some say the world will end in fire,

Some say in ice.

From what I ve tasted of desire

I hold with those who favor fire.

But if it had to perish twice,

I think I know enough of hate

To know that for destruction ice

Is also great

And would suffice.

Right of the start Frost is saying that the world will end. Whether it is a fiery death or a frigid one it does not matter. The world will cease to exist. Now in there he says that he favors those who foresee a fiery death, maybe one by war or another factor. Why does he favor this way? As the poem progresses he reveals that somewhere along his life he has come across some event that has caused him to have a feeling of despair and hatred. It does seem that Frost sees the world as killing itself in some way. He says that for destruction of ice would suffice. I believe Frost is implying that the earth, and nature for that matter, works in harmony with its other inhabitants. If one part of that balance is disrupted then the earth cannot function on the same plane of existence as it once had. In this poem, his attitude reflects his willingness to accept the fate of the world, albeit he does not like the idea of it.

Another poem to look at that seems to contradict his view in Fire and Ice is his poem Dust of Snow published in 1923. The poem reads as follows:

The way a crow

Shook down on me

The dust of snow

From a hemlock tree

Has given my heart

A change of mood

And saved some part

Of a day I had rued.

I think this poem is an obvious example of how ones attitudes can change. The narrator of this poem is hinting at a few things. First of all, he is giving two striking contrast at the very beginning, using a crow, which tend to be black and dark sounding, and contrasting that with the image of the dust of snow. I think he is trying to say that even from the darkest of things, people, events, something good can come out of them. In this case it is the crow shaking down a dust of snow. But if we continue further in the poem we see where that snow came from, a hemlock tree. It was in fact the poisons of hemlock that Socrates drank and died. But in this case, I believe that the narrator feeling this dust fall upon him is opening his eyes to a renaissance of thought and feeling. He knows that life is too short to worry it all away, which is why the ending of the poem is the way it is. He has a change of mood. His attitude towards life in this case is thankfulness. He realized that, through the nature of his surroundings, there is always a chance to right the wrongs of the past.

So far we have seen Robert Frost use two greatly different poems, which do contrast his views on nature and his surroundings. Another poem by Frost is Spring Pools. This reads:

These pools that, though in forests, still reflect

The total sky almost without defect,

And like the flowers beside them, chill and shiver,

Will like the flowers beside them, soon be gone,

And yet not out by any brook or river,

But up by roots to bring dark foliage on.

The trees that have it in their pent-up buds

To darken nature and be summer woods–

Let them think twice before they use their powers

To blot out and drink up and sweep away

These flowery waters and these watery flowers

From snow that melted only yesterday.

Frost is immediately saying that everything is not always as it seems. He knows nothing is perfect and to see an image suggesting so, total sky without defect has to make one wonder. As the poem continues, it seems as though Frost is suggesting that the reasons why things cease to exist is not a problem of the environment, not out by any brook or river, but a problem within the soul of the being, by roots to bring dark foliage on. Though this was only in the first half of the poem, Frost is obviously saying that the ideal in nature is not something seen, it is something felt.

Frost next uses the natural scene of winter to further enlighten our imaginations with two poems that are both similar and different, Desert Places and Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening. One of the poems gives the sense of depression and loneliness, like that of Dust of Snow, while the other gives of the feeling of a welcomed solitude. Look at the imagery that Desert Places reveals:

Snow falling and night falling fast, oh, fast

In a field I looked into going past,

And the ground almost covered smooth in snow,

But a few weeds and stubble showing last.

The woods around it have it–it is theirs.

All animals are smothered in their lairs.

I am too absent-spirited to count;

The loneliness includes me unawares.

And lonely as it is that loneliness

Will be more lonely ere it be less–

A blanker whiteness of benighted snow

With no expression, nothing to express.

They cannot scare me with their empty spaces

Between stars–on stars where no human race is.

I have it in me so much nearer home

To scare myself with my own desert places.

Does this poem possibly reveal some of Frost s attitudes towards nature? Yes it does. Take the line A blanker whiteness of benighted snow With no expression, nothing to express. To me this is saying that the snow is a white blanket that covers up everything living. The blankness symbolizes the emptiness that the speaker feels. To him there is nothing else around except for the unfeeling and his lonely thoughts. So again, we hear this feeling of emptiness, loneliness, etc. (It should be remembered that Frost s fascination with death or the continual usage of it might be caused by the extremely unlucky childhood his kids had.) Another line reads, The woods around it have it it is theirs. The woods symbolize people and society. They have something that belongs to them, something to feel a part of. The woods have its place in nature and it is also a part of a bigger picture. The speaker is so alone inside that he feels that he is not a part of anything.

The other part of the comparison to Desert Places is Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening. It says:

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.

This is a much happier and more upbeat poem. This poem is about stopping to enjoy life or as the adage goes, stopping to smell the roses. But I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep. The speaker in this poem was a very busy man who always had obligations to fulfill and places to go. Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening is the opposite of Desert Places. The settings where exactly the same, both being calm, dark, wintry evenings, but they express totally different feelings. Desert Places is a very depressing poem with a dark tone. The other is very happy, and it makes you wish that winter were already here. These two poems are very different, but they are also the same in some ways. They show two extremes of the same emotion. Being alone can be positive or negative. It just depends on the state of mind. Loneliness can be very depressing, or it can be a time to collect your thoughts without the pressures of the outside world crashing down. Winter is the perfect season to reflect upon when expressing solitude.

The purpose of the assignment was to analyze the works of Robert Frost and try to identify his attitudes towards nature. I believe these poems did reveal Frost s attitude, which is actually varied. He goes from pessimism to optimism back to pessimism again. In my own opinion, I feel as though I am more confused now by Frost than when I started. He seems to go back and forth through his thoughts. Is this because poets are normally like that? That I am unaware of. I do know that Frost did reveal definite attitudes towards nature in every poem that I read and wrote about. He not only talked about nature itself but also used nature to show other feelings he was having. In that sense, nature is vital to him and to his work.