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 19th 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 20th 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.
