Symolism in Robert Frost's Poems

Topic:- Symbolism in Robert Frost’s Poems

Sub:- The American Literature

Name:- Vajani Bhumi N.

M.A-2 Sem-3

Roll No:- 04

Year:- 2013-14

Submitted To:-Department of English,

                          Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji,

                         Bhavnagar University

Ø     Symbolism in Robert Forst’s poems

Introduction:-

                                      Robert Lee Frost is one of the greatest of American poets. This great poet was born in San Francisco, California on march 26,1874. There lay a piece of paper bearing the four following lines on Jawaharlal Nehru’s office desk after his death. Robert Frost’s poem was-

“The woods are lovely, dark and deep,

   But I have promises o keep,

   And miles to go before I sleep,

   And miles to go before I sleep.”

This poem is an inspirational poem.

                                      During the winter of 1906, he came so near to death, from pneumonia that both he and his doctor were surprised when he recovered. Then he turned to poetry. Frost received more honors’ than any other contemporary literary figure in America. He was elected to the membership of the national Institutes of Arts and Letters in 1916, to membership in the American Academy in 1930. He was awarded Pulitzer Prize for poetry four times. On the occasion of his seventy-fifth birthday, and again on his eighty-fifth, the U.S Senate adopted a formal resolution extending felicitations to him. He was given honorary degrees by more than forty colleges and universities, including Oxford and Cambridge. In 1961, he was called upon to recite his patriotic poem. The gift Outright, when the late president Kennedy took office. He died in January, 1963.

Symbol:-

                                      In the broadest sense a symbol is anything which signifies something else; in this sense all words are symbols. In discussing literature, however, the term “Symbol” is applied only to a word or phrase that signifies an objects or event which in its turn signifies something, or suggests a range of reference, beyond itself. Some symbol are conventional or ‘Public’, thus ‘The Cross’, ‘The Red, White, and Blue’ and ‘The Good Shepherd’ are terms that refer to symbolic objects.

                                      “Symbolism transforms the phenomenon into idea, the idea into an image, and in such a way the idea remains always infinitely active an unapproachable in the image and even if expressed in all language, still would remain in expressible”.

                                      In the period World War I an era of symbolism began in the literature. The literary figures exploit symbols from religious or esoteric traditions work can be symbolic in setting, in agents, in the action and in the object.

Symbolism:-

                                      Symbolism is a 19^th century literary and artistic movement that sought to evoke, rather then describe idea or feelings through the use of symbolic images. It’s artistic method of revealing ideas or truths through the use of symbols.(Encarta) Poet of Romantic Period, especially Novelists and Holderlin in Germany and Shelly in England, used private symbols while writing poetries. Shelly wrote about morning and evening star, a boat moving upstream, a serpent and an eagles contemporaries in his recourse to as persistent and symbolisms. His lyric poems and his long prophetic poems or epic poems.

                                         In the Nineteenth-century America, a symbolism was a prominent element in the novels of Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville, the prose of Emerson and Thoreau, and the poetic theory and practice of Poe. The writers derived this mode in large part from the native puritan tradition of divine topology.

                                      Symbolist movement began with specifically a group of the French writes beginning with Charles Bauldelaire, Paul Nerlaine, Stephane Mallarme and Paul Valery.

Importance of symbols:-

                                      In addition to the meanings, Symbols evoke the eyes of our mind. Symbols are emotionally rich. Symbols make the language rich and expressive. Inexpressible concepts can be expressed through symbols. Symbols can be used to express mystery.

Regions used as Symbols:-

                                      Frost is considered to be a great regional poet. The scenes sights, events and Characters of New England form the base of his poetry. The region North of Boston becomes a microcosm of the world at large, and his Yankee characters became symbolic of human nature in all ages and countries. The emotional arguments of the mother in the poem ‘Home Burial’ is the symbol of stress and strain, isolation and alienation which is a stuff of humanity in the modern age.

Symbol from Nature:-

                                      Such symbols have been used by all parts through the ages, because they came to the mind naturally and spontaneously. Frost’s symbols came from simple source, yet it should be noted at the same time that they are full of complexity. His symbols convey more than concept. A brief analysis of a few of his more prominent lyrics would suffice to bring out the characteristic feature of frost’s symbolist technique.

Symbolism in ‘Mending wall’:-

                                      The fence of ‘Mending wall’ has literal and hidden meaning. It symbolizes religious, political and economic conflicts, national, religious, political and economic conflicts, national, racial, and prejudices which divide man from man and come in the way of mutual understanding and harmonious relationship.

“Good fences make good neighbors”.

                                      At the same time, the poem literally deals with a conflict related with an old man and his young neighbor. The two neighbors represent the problem between traditional sand modernity, Aged and young. The young wants to move away from his tradition and rebuilt his society on the other side the old uphold the value of the traditional and customary. The poem seems simple the richness of its texture is revealed only on a symbolic interpretation. Something in ‘Nature’ is against all the fences and walls.

“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;”

                                      The poem deals with two contradictory ideas-fencing the wall and not fencing the wall. The poem leads one to question-whether there should be a boundary or not. Though intentions on both the side are clear, yet the poem’s total meaning is not offered. Frost imply portray the problem and explore the many different and paradoxical issues it involves, the lines…..

“Something there is that doesn’t love a wall”

“Good fences make good neighbours”.

Have logical contradiction. Both lines are opposites of each other. To emphasize view points, he playfully adds…..

“He is all pine and I am apple archard, my apple trees will never get across And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.”

“Symbolism in Home Burial”:-

                                      ‘Home Burial’ is a poem that deals with an ‘over wrought’ mother’s feelings. The mother in this poem can’t forget that her husband himself dug the grave of their buried the child. She can’t forget that her husband buried the child their little grave yard. She thinks her husband, a callous person. The memory of the child has separated her from her husband. The husband is a simple man and is baffled by the excessiveness of her sorrow…..

“I do think, though, you overdo it a little what was it brought you up to think it the thing to take your mother-loss of a first child”.

He thinks that his love for her should be sufficient to console her.

“Don’t, don’t, don’t, don’t, she cried.”

                                      The poem depicts the grief of a sentimental mother who lost her child and whose husband himself dug the child in the graveyard to bury him. The whole meaning of the poem is symbolized by the open door in the last stanza poem:

Wife: “You-oh, you think the talk is all. I must go somewhere out of this house. How can I make you…”

Husband: “If you-do-she was opening the door wider- ‘where do you mean to go? First, tell me that i’ll follow and bring you back by force. I will…”. 

                                      The emotional arguments of the mother in the poem ‘Home Burial’ is the symbol of sisters and strain, isolation and alienation which is a stuff of humanity in the modern age.

                                      ‘Home Burial’ has been highly praised by a number of critics. Randull Jarrell calls it the “Submit of our poetry”. And “Unique in 20^th century poetry”. “The talk is the talk of everyday”- but “there situation is strange”. Mother’s grief is given universal significance. The opening of the door by wife in the end is symbolic. Marriage is a containing relationship and ‘home’ can not be, and must not be given up despite grave emotional crisis.

“Symbolism in  Design”:-

                                      Design is a beautiful sonnet by Frost. Frost’s universe is very different from other poets. His concept is unique. Critic’s praied ‘Design’. It is almost terrifying poem. According to Lawrence Thompson the poem is…..

          “A dark study-in-white”

                                      The ‘heal-all’ is a comman country plant supposed to have healing properties hence its name is ‘heal-all’. It’s color is blue but some varieties bear white flowers. The poet comes across this plant. The spider holds a white moth in its mouth. Thus, the pattern of whiteness is seen by the poet. The white spider, the white flower, and the white moth with dead wings,…..

          “And dead wings carried like a paper kite”.

                                      The poet observes this design or pattern of whiteness and talks about the same. The coming together of these three is intentional or not is not known. This pattern might be brought together by same prime mover, which sets the pattern and controls and guides the movement.

                                      The pattern which the poet observes is white, but in reality it is a bringing together of different ingredients of, “death and blight.”

“What brought the Kindered spider to that high then steered the white moth either in the night? What but design of darkness to appall? If design govern in thing so small.”

                                      The poet believes that there is a power that governs things that occurs, some unknown power weaves such appalling, ‘designs of darkness.” But in the end, the poet admits the possibility that there is no such appalling design or plan, that the coming together, of the white spider, the white flower and moth but man inhabitants in the petty, small and insignificant to have such design.

                                      Frost’s world-view is mores realistic. He glorifies ‘Nature’ as ‘kind mother or calls it’ holy plan. Frost challenges and upsets the romantic view of Nature.                  

Symbolism in ‘The Gift Outright’:-

                                      The Gift outright is a wonderful patriotic poem. This poem is very small lyric. A critic called Randall Jarrell call it…..

          “The best Patriotic poem ever written about our own country.”

Where as another critic call the poem,…..

          “The love of country is not expressed in Screaming or hysterical flag-waving, but in a salvation of faith, in surrender to the land”.

Frost himself regarded ‘The gift outright’ as…..

          ‘A nice piece of blank verse’

 And he calls it-

‘A history of the United states in Sixteen lines.’

                                      This poem is symbol of religion. This poem begins with an account of the coming of the British colonists in America. They become the colonials of America, and called the country their colony. Though they lived in America they considered England as their motherland. They lacked the patriotic feeling for the land they lived in. They believed in possession but not in belongingness…..

          “Possessing what we were still unpossessed by,

Possessed by what we now no more possessed.”

                                      In the beginning the colonizers called the land theirs but they did not love the country whole heartedly. They lived in the land for which they had no affection. Later on, as the time passed they started loving the land. Now, America was their beloved country…..

          “We were witholding from our land of living

 And farthvith found solution in surrender.”

                                      It was their love for their motherland that brought them to move west words and discover their country in all her virgin with simplicity and glory. Changes would not affect their love for her.

                                      The Patriotic feeling for one’s own country is universalized in very simple style.

Symbolism is Fire and Ice:-

                                      The poem “Fire and Ice” provides the best illustration of the use of metaphysical and antithesis by Robert Frost. Opposite concepts ‘Fire’ and ‘Ice’ have been presented in ‘Fire’ and ’ice’. The poet has the two concepts. Fire symbolizes cold of hatred and death.

                                      Fire and Ice are only nine lines’ poem. This short poem his succeeded in opening our eyes for deeper meaning. Desire to fire and haste to ice are human emotions, transformed into impersonal forces’. The poem is very rich in imagery critics commented on the hardness of the poem.

“Some say the would will end in fire, some say in ice.

 From what I’ve tasted of desire

 I hold with those who favour fire.”

                                      The lyric expresses the poet’s dreaded acceptance of the passion, both of love and hatred in their most destructive form. The intense heat of love or desire and the extreme cold of hate are compared and found to be equally destructive.

                                      ‘Fire and Ice’ is terrifying because of the intensity with which the forces of destruction are diagnosed and accepted. The emotion is intensely felt, but its expression is restrained and controlled. The poem is the representation of powerful and intense feelings. The poem is ironic and terrifying.

The destructive features of life are exhibited here calmly…..

“I think I known enough of hate to say that for destruction Ice Is also great And would Suffice.”

Symbolism in “Stopping By woods on a anowy Evening:-

                                      ‘Stopping By woods on a snowy Evening’ is one of the moving lyric of Frost. Wiiliam o’ Conner says-“Like Milten’s sonnet “on his Blindness” and Arnold’s Dover Beach, seems to have established itself permanently in anthologies.” The poet pauses one evening along a country road to watch the snowfall in the woods:

“The woods are lovely, dark and deep”

And as he gazes into the soft, silent whiteness, he is tempted to stay on and on,  allowing his mind to lose itself in the enchanted grove.

“But I have promises to keep,

And miles to go before I sleep

And miles to go before I sleep”.

But he gains consciousness quickly and says…..

“But I have promises to keep”

Johan Lynen says…..

          “This is the core of the poem, moving personal experience exquisitely rendered. Yet in reconsidering it, one cannot shake off the feeling that a good deal more is intended.

                                      “The real depth, richness and significance of the lyric is brought only on the bases of symbolism. A critic admires this poem for its ‘natural symbolism’. Sleep, darkness and snow suggest death and the woods suggest perilous enchantment. Commenting on the rich symbolism of the poem, one critic writes, “here atleast the ‘clear and classical’, ‘frost has adopted something technical of symbolism that vague shadow of romanticism.”

                                      Stopping by woods has rich texture and admits some interpretation. If we see its surface meaning, it seems to us as if a simple take that depicts the poet pause the woods. The poet is getting lost in the fascinating snowfall but soon remembers that his journey and many miles to go.

                                      “Frost technique of communication is essentially symbolic. Frost conveys his message through rich symbols. He states his themes with the help of symbols. Pessimism was also symbolically reflected in his poem, for example…..

A light he was to no one but himself where now he sat, concerned with he knew not what,

A quite light, and then not even that.

The log that shifted with a jolt once in the stove, disturbed him and hi shifted,

And eased his heavy breathing, but still step.

                                      These above lines do not simply takes old age but death. Such was his symbolism.”

                                      “Frost’s view of life is austere and tragic, yet his capacity for finding joy is poignantly ever ready. His spirit is torn by dubieties, his best poem offer queries, not affirmations. The salvation he seeks seems hard to come by. It demands great renunciations. His sensibility of his ancestors. In many ways he is the counterpart of T.S.Eliot.”

Conclusion:-

                                      Frost’s poem included various symbols which may not be easy to grasp.

His symbol communicates. Frost’s poems are symbolically mysterious. They are suggestive and indirect. Readers have to take trouble to comprehend. Frost’s symbolic poem fully one needs to do homework. One should have they knowledge of the solid background of Frost poems. Then and then one could understand the hidden meaning of his poems.