The Two Tramps In Mud Time Essay, Research Paper

On the surface, “Two Tramps in Mud Time” seems to display Robert

Frost’s narrow individualism. The poem, upon first reading it, seems

incongruent, with some of the stanzas having no apparent connection to

the whole poem. The poem as a whole also does not appear to have a

single definable theme. At one point, the narrator seems wholly

narcissistic, and then turns to the power and beauty of nature. It

is, however, in the final third of the poem where the narrator reveals

his true thoughts to the reader, bringing resolution to the poem as a

single entity, not merely a disharmonious collection of words.

At the outset of the poem, the narrator gives a very superficial

view of himself, almost seeming angered when one of the tramps

interferes with his wood chopping: “one of them put me off my aim”.

This statement, along with many others, seems to focus on “me” or

“my”, indicating the apparrent selfishness and arrogance of the

narrator: “The blows that a life of self-control/Spares to strike

for the common good/That day, giving a loose to my soul,/I spent on

the unimportant wood.” The narrator refers to releasing his

suppressed anger not upon evils that threaten “the common good”, but

upon the “unimportant wood”. The appparent arrogance of the narrator

is revealed as well by his reference to himself as a Herculean figure

standing not alongside nature, but over it: “The grip on earth of

outspread feet,/The life of muscles rocking soft/And smooth and moist

in vernal heat.”

Unexpectedly, the narrator then turns toward nature, apparently

abandoning his initial train of thought. He reveals the

unpredictability of nature, saying that even in the middle of spring,

it can be “two months back in the middle of March.” Even the fauna of

the land is involved with this chicanery; the arrival of the bluebird

would to most indicate the arrival of spring, yet “he wouldn’t advise

a thing to blossom.” The narrator points to the conclusion that,

while on the surface, things appear to be one thing, there is always

something hidden below, much like “The lurking frost in the earth

beneath…”

In the final three stanzas of the poem, the “frost” within the

narrator comes to the surface. The humility of the narrator comes to

light, with the narrator saying that the tramps’ right to chop

wood for a living “was the better right–agreed.” The narrator also

says, “Except as a fellow handled an ax,/They had no way of knowing a

fool,” insomuch as admitting to his foolishness.

On the surface, the poem seems to be two poems with diverging

themes. However, Robert Frost guides there two apparently unrelated

thoughts into one idea from the heart: “My object in living is to

unite/My avocation and my vocation/As my two eyes make one in sight.”

Perhaps the narrator is the true Frost coming to the surface.