Analysis of Themes

In
Robert Frost’s Poetry
By
Sadiqa Naqvi
Robert Frost As a
Modern Poet
In spite of the Pastoral
element predominant in Frost’s
poems, he is still a modern
poet because his poetry has been
endowed with the awareness of the
problems of man living in the modern
world dominated by Science and
Technology.
 Most of his poems deal with
persons suffering from loneliness
and frustration, regrets and
disillusionment which are known as
modern ailments.
 Another sense in which Frost is a
truly modern poet is his portrayal of the
disintegration of values in modern life
and disillusionment of the modern man.

Frost's poetry reflects modern life not

in the sense that it depicts the outward
events and conditions, but it brings out
the central facts of twentieth century
experience—the uncertainty and painful
sense of loss
Diversity of themes
Following poems will be analyzed
thematically to infer the implied
truth.

The Road Not Taken.

A Brook In The City.

Acquainted With The Night.

Stopping By Woods On A Snowy

Evening.
Dilemma Of Life’s Choices.
One of the attractions of the poem
is its archetypal dilemma, one that
we instantly recognize because each
of us encounters it innumerable
times, both literally and figuratively.
Paths in the woods and forks in
roads are ancient and deep-seated
metaphors for the lifeline, its crises
and decisions.
.
 Identical forks symbolize for
us the nexus of free will and fate:
 We are free to choose, but we
do not really know beforehand
what we are choosing between.

 Our route is, thus, determined

by an accumulation of choice
and chance, and it is impossible
to separate the two
Challenging The Dogmas
The Road Not Taken indicates those
people who don’t follow the beaten rut
but create something new. The
iconoclast who challenge the taboos
and change the world with their
revolutionary steps.

These are usually the ‘less travelled’

paths which pave the way for new
explorations. Such steps help unchain
the fetters of conventional thinking.
Materialism Versus Spiritualism

The Road Not Taken also

refers to the path of those
who shun worldly
temptations and physical
desires ,preferring to
explore the yet unexplored
boundaries of spiritual
elevation.
 Spiritual Drifting
Some critics say that the poet
behaves like a ‘spiritual drifter’
unable to make a definite choice
because he lacks the requisite insight
and energy in the making up of a
major poet and choosing between the
types of poetic styles; conventional
or modern, adopted by his
contemporaries.
A Brook In The City
Panoramic View Of Nature
Robert Frost the great American poet
has given his panoramic view on
Nature and man’s meanness. His
response to Nature is entirely realistic.
 The poem A Brook In The City was
written somewhat in early 1920 when
history was witnessing Industrial
Revolution and urbanization. It was at
that time when man became an evil
and the outcome was the devastation
and extinction of Nature
Urbanization &
Mechanical Existence
 Just as Eliot in his poems, for
example, The Waste Land, juxtaposes
the present and the past to reveal and
interpret the present, so also in his
poetry Frost juxtaposes rural and the
urban, the rural serving as a comment
on the urban.

The poem seems to be an elegy

upon the havoc of urbanized
existence depriving the man of the
purity of Nature.
Stopping By Woods
On A Snowy Evening
Pastoral
Element
His retreat into country-side
is not a romantic escape from
the harsh, unpleasant realities
of modern life, rather, it
provides him with a point of
view, a frame of reference, for
studying and commenting on
the facts of modern life.
It is the same method of
indirection as is used by such
modern poets as T.S. Eliot.
Allure of Nature &
Responsibility.
It explores the theme of the
individual caught between Nature
and civilization.

 The speaker is drawn to the

beauty and allure of the woods,
which represent Nature, but has
obligations—“promises to
keep”—which draw him away
from Nature and back to society
and the world of men.
 The speaker is thus
faced with a choice of
whether to give in to the
allure of Nature, or remain
in the realm of society.
 Philosophical Symbolism
Many critics have opined that this
poem contains a conscious or
unconscious death wish.
 The very common interpretation
is that the speaker, finds the woods
so "lovely, dark and deep" that he
is tempted to walk into them and lie
down in the snow to let himself
freeze to death.
 According to this
interpretation, the speaker
is prevented from realizing
his "death wish" because
he is reminded of his
responsibilities and
obligations to other
people.
Acquainted With The
Night
 Loneliness & Personal
Melancholy
It is one of the finest personal,
reflective lyrics of the poet. 'a
record of personal melancholy
touched with terror'. In the poem
during his night walk, the poet is
startled to hear a cry come to him,
"over houses from another
street".
 He listens to it with rapt
attention. He stands still,
"and stopped the sound of
feet", in order to
understand its meaning.
But the cry is not
addressed to him
 It is a vague, impersonal
cry, suggestive of the horror,
bloodshed and violence of city
life. In this way, the poet's own
personal melancholy and
terror acquires a universal
significance and becomes an
expression of the so-called:
"ache of modernity
Night As Spiritual
Darkness
The gloomy and bleak
atmosphere of night alludes to
perpetual darkness of spiritual
barrenness.
The arid soil of life is shrouded
in eternal darkness of
materialism. The “interrupted cry’
may refer to the whining of dying
humanity
Alienation &
Isolation
 The whole poem is submerged
. with the sense of loneliness and
alienation of man in the world of
scientific progress.
It is not only the personal
melancholy of the poet but the
sordid sense of loneliness
haunting each individual going
through the night of existence.
Caught in the cobweb of material
gains he has’ no time to stand and
stare’.
In short ,Frost is a modern poet
because we find in his poems
The terrifying and bleak aspects
of modern existence,
The painful sense of loss
Disintegration of values
Frustration and disillusionment.
His symbolic and indirect mode
of expression renders his poetry
suggestive, complex and
exclusively modern.