Desolation And Alienation In Coleridge's 'Frost At Midnight'

The dramatic realization of the absence of objects during the brief moments of sunset on a snowy evening comes fast under

Frost further points out that the stretch of woods being viewed is very rural. This is made possible by the reference to the location between the woods and frozen lake. In closing the final sentence of the second stanza Frost reiterates the fact that this occurs on “the darkest evening of the year” stating the darkness of the mood.

Robert Frost’s approach to human isolation is always an interesting exploration. His poem of desertion and neglect paired with eternal hopefulness ignite the reader in his poem “The Census-Taker.” All of the elements of a Frost poem are in this particular poem. “The Census-Taker” must be from an earlier time in Frost’s career because the poem is written in an open, free verse similar to the style of his earlier 20th century poetry like “Mending Wall” and “After Apple-Picking.” Also, the language lacks the sophisticated word selection a reader of poetry might find in Wallace Stevens and instead uses simplicity to

The experience of darkness is both individual and universal. Within Emily Dickinson’s “We grow accustomed to the Dark” and Robert Frost’s “Acquainted with the Night,” the speakers engage in an understanding of darkness and night as much greater than themselves. Every individual has an experience of the isolation of the night, as chronicled in Frost’s poem, yet it is a global experience that everyone must face, on which Dickinson’s poem elaborates. Through the use of rhythm, point of view, imagery, and mood, each poet makes clear the fact that there is no single darkness that is too difficult to overcome.

Robert Frost takes our imagination to a journey through wintertime with 
his two poems "Desert Places" and "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening". These two poems reflect the beautiful scenery that is present in the snow covered woods and awakens us to new feelings. Even though these poems both have winter settings they contain very different tones. One has a feeling of depressing loneliness and the other a feeling of welcome solitude. They show how the same setting can have totally different impacts on a person depending on 
their mindset at the time. These poems are both made up of simple stanzas and diction but they are not straightforward poems.

The word choice used in this poem helps to portray a mood of isolation. “And all I loved, I loved alone” (8). What the speaker is saying with this quote is that everything they found interest in, nobody else did, and therefore he had nobody to share their life experiences with. Even from a young age, the speaker felt as if he were an outcast. “Then- in my childhood, in the dawn/ Of a most stormy life- was drawn/ From every depth of good and ill/ The mystery which binds me still” (9-12). The speaker felt that they had no control over their fate. No matter what happened, whether it be good or bad, the speaker felt abandoned

Frost uses a multitude of poetic devices, including metaphors, irony, symbolism, hyperbole, and personification “Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right. to vividly reinforce the desolation in the mind and the surroundings of the speaker. The uncertainty of the time in the end is a reflection of the uncertainty in the duration of isolation that the speaker would have to continue to endure. In conclusion, this poem displays the transition into night figuratively as the author experiences a broken heart. I have been one acquainted with the night.” (V,2 ). This is a beautiful and dark poem that describes the somber emotions that an individual endures after a separation. This poem can be relatable to anyone as we all have experienced some type of sorrow. Hopefully after experiencing something of this nature we can see the bright lights after being acquainted with the

     Last stanza of the poem talks about the emptiness that is so overwhelming that even when Frost looks up to the sky, all that he could see or feel is still loneliness and emptiness. But then Frost mentions that the emptiness or loneliness that he fears the most isn’t the one that exist on

The act of being distant is known as isolation. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley and a collection of poems by T.S. Eliot are texts, which will be discussed and examined to highlight connecting ideas and themes with the most focus on the theme of isolation. This essay will compare both texts to see how each relates to and deals with the idea of isolation, keeping in mind the characters, language and also the setting of Brave New World and how Aldous Huxley has portrayed this as well as examining the relative idea’s in T.S. Eliot’s poetry and how these two selected texts can be compared and contrasted to each other. Brave New World has a strong connecting theme of isolation.

Robert Frost had a fascination towards loneliness and isolation and thus expressed these ideas in his poems through metaphors. The majority of the characters in Frost’s poems are isolated in one way or another. In some poems, such as “Acquainted with the Night” and “Mending Wall,” the speakers are lonely and isolated from their societies. On other occasions, Frost suggests that isolation can be avoided by interaction with other members of society, for example in “The Tuft of Flowers,” where the poem changes from a speaker all alone, to realizing that people are all connected in some way or another. In Robert Frost’s poems “Acquainted with the Night,” “Mending Wall,” and “The Tuft of Flowers,” the themes insinuate the idea of loneliness

Robert Frost’s poetic techniques serve as his own “momentary stay against confusion,” or as a buffer against mortality and meaninglessness in several different ways; in the next few examples, I intend to prove this. Firstly, however, a little information about Robert Frost and his works must be provided in order to understand some references and information given.

“Acquainted with the Night” by Robert Frost dramatizes the conflict that the speaker experiences with the outside world, which has rejected him, or perhaps which he has rejected. The poem is composed of fourteen lines and seven sentences, all of which begin with “I have.” Frost’s first and last line, “I have been one acquainted with the night,” emphasizes what it means for the speaker to be “acquainted with the night” (line 1; 14). The speaker describes his walk in the night as journey, in which he has “walked out of rain—and back in rain” and “outwalked the furthest city light” (line 2-3). Through the depiction of the changing weather conditions, Frost signifies the passage of time, perhaps indicating that the narrator has been on his journey for a lengthy period of time and has traveled through many cities. Furthermore, the imagery of the rain at night creates a forlorn atmosphere in the poem.

In a conversation poem titled “Frost at Midnight,” romantic poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge creates a persona of himself who spends the duration of the poem having a one-sided conversation with his newly born baby. The narrator laments his own childhood, but finds solace in knowing that his baby has potential for a better life than he, since the baby will have a nature-centered upbringing. The narrator contrasts constricted and expansive imagery, enumerated and enjambed sentences, and alienated and familiar diction to underline the differences between his own childhood education, which was spent studying books, and the childhood education he hopes his baby will have. The narrator suggests that nature will offer his baby a childhood education superior to his own because nature will teach the baby to be one with the world, allowing him to feel peace and serenity no matter the circumstances.

“The problem of alienation is a pervasive theme in the classics of sociology, and the concept has a prominent place in contemporary work”(Seeman). Alienation is one of the biggest problems in the modern world today. From being alienated at work to your skin color, almost everyone has been alienated in some way or form. In many poems by the 20th century poet, Robert Frost, he focuses on different forces of alienation throughout the New England area. Robert, born in 1874, was raised in New England, stirring the fire for his poem. Many call him one of the best poets in American history. The majority of his poems start as simple word pictures, then move toward vivid and complex ideas. In the poems, Mending wall, Out Out, and Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, Frost expresses many types of alienation.

With the formation of a “rare device”, symbolizing his masterpiece of poetry, Coleridge acknowledges that poetry forms through the combination of nature and human perception. In the end, Coleridge demands the readers to “beware” (49, p.1634) of the power of the inspired poet, who recreates his own “sunny dome” (47, p.1634) in the protection of a “circle round him thrice” (51, p.1634). The energy from nature is eventually transferred to the poet, the poet to use his imagination to create his own “Paradise” (54, p.1634), which resembles Xanadu of Kubla Khan. Through the metaphors developing in the poem, Coleridge pieces together the process a Romantic poet creates a poem from the inspiration of a nature scene.