Each poem hides a deeper meaning behind its outer shell. It is important to understand and analyze every part of a poem in order to discern all its hidden features. Robert Frost is a famous poet, he wrote “After Apple-Picking” which at first seems to be a poem just about apple picking . However, if this poem is picked apart the reader can discover the deeper message behind it. Robert Frost’s, “After Apple-Picking”, is a poem about a dying old man who is looking back on his life, represented by apple picking, and of his regret for unaccomplished desires. Throughout the poem, the reader gets a sense that the speaker of the poem is in a dream like state, reminiscing about his life. The speaker is in bed sleeping, dreaming about his life and connecting it to apple picking, not knowing if he is just normally sleeping or is he about to pass away. Throughout the poem, Frost uses many different literary devices and specific word choice to convey the deeper meaning behind this poem about apple picking. The theme of the poem is the reminiscence of life's desires and the acceptance of death. The speaker of the poem is an old man who lives on a farm and has an apple orchard. The old man is tired, and is reminiscing about his life before he presumably dies. In the poem, apple picking and life go hand in hand, and the old man is just tired of it all and all the missed opportunities. The poem begins with a happy tone, the old man is happy and welcomes his fate of death. He shows this by saying things like he is ready for heaven; he is finally done with picking apples. In line three, “And there’s a barrel I didn’t fill” suggests that he does not care anymore he is content with his life and ready to accept what comes his way. With references to his ladder pointed to heaven and being content about being done picking apples shows the poems happy tone in the beginning. The tone then start to shift to something more dark and somber. This tone sets up the theme of desires and the significance in life, but does not complete it. The later part of the poem is sad. He is finally accepting his fate, when he realizes that he was wrong and there were things he wished to complete. Line nine says, "I cannot rub the strangeness from my
The poems “First Snow” by Mary Oliver and “After Apple-Picking” by Robert Frost use wildly different poetic forms to achieve much the same practical goal: to describe and represent the first snow of winter. In comparing these two works one is reminded of the universality of experience that makes poetry possible. In contrasting the two one is reminded of the unique creativity and range of expression that makes poetry precious. A synthesis of the two is a solid statement on the power of good poets.
The world has several great poets and numerous mind-blowing works, each with its own way of portraying its own message using symbolism to represent lessons of everyday life. Jane Flanders wrote the poem named “Cloud Painter” she shows the world from an artistic way, using a painter and his canvas to help the reader picture the true meaning behind the words and images created. Robert Frost takes on the same idea, but uses a less complex example so that it makes his work easy to understand while not revealing the actual meaning of the poem. Frost and Flanders are just two of the many poets that use nature as a way of explaining the very lessons in life. Each poet has a different way of presenting similar images but from a different perspective. Poems are short stories that have a meaning behind them without revealing them in obvious ways. Although some are confusing and may use a different style there are a few that present the same message even if they are written by a different poet. “Cloud Painter” written by Jane Flanders uses the clouds and other subjects of nature. Such as trees and the hills. to help the reader picture the true meaning behind her poem. Robert Frost's poem by the name of “Nothing Gold Can Stay” also takes the nature route to convey the point of his poems words and their Each has a unique way of creating an idea that most can relate to emotionally and physically.
There are two main tones in this story, a happy one and a gloomy one. These both tones come together in the poem to create the theme of desires and significance in life. The poem first begins with a happy tone. The old man in the story is happy and welcomes/accepts his chances of dying. This is shown by him saying things like he is ready for heaven and is finally done with picking apples. In line eight he says, "I am dosing off," he is indicating that he has finished everything planned and is ready for his judgment. I believe that this tone sets up the theme of desires and the significance in life, but does not necessarily complete it. As we keep reading through the poem, it starts to introduce a sad mood. He starts accepting his fate when
What is it about a person walking alone in the woods that can be so meaningful and powerful? Weather its fifteen lines or five pages the reader can gain many different observations and mindsets to overcome obstacles this life throws at you. Eudora Welty and Robert Frost display this in their own unique ways wile portraying meaning in some similar and some very different ways, when writing Welty’s “A Worn Path” and Frost’s “Stopping by woods on a snowy evening”. Anyone can tell you that different authors will approach similar plots in different ways, and that there are multiple lessons to learn from any story or poem. To say that themes and lessons overlap from story to story would be obvious as well. However, the strategies and techniques these authors use to approach the meaning of their passage, is what makes these two authors unique. Robert Frost takes a simple and straight forward approach with a poem that reaches out to anyone loosing motivation, and begins to guide them in the right direction. Where Eudora Welty tends to take the more sophisticated approach and go more in depth with the story, motivating different people in different ways. Both of these passages use the walk through the woods as a metaphor of life and the speakers are reminders on how to go about it.
"Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" is a very well know poem by Robert Frost. The poem appears to be very simple, but it has a hidden meaning to it. The simple words and rhyme scheme of the poem gives it an easy flow, which adds to the calmness of the poem. The rhyme scheme (aaba, bbcb, ccdc, dddd) and the rhythm (iambic tetrameter) give the poem a solid structure. The poem is about the speaker’s experience of stopping by the dark woods in the winter evening with his horse and admiring the beauty of the fresh fallen snow in the forest. Then, the speaker projects himself into the mind of his horse, speculating about his horse’s practical concerns and the horse
Robert Frost is one of the most widely-read and recognized poets of the twentieth century, if not all time. If his name is mentioned, it is usually followed by a reference to two roads diverged in a yellow wood and taking the one less traveled by. But lurking in the shadows of the yellow wood of Frost’s poetry are much deeper meanings than are immediately apparent. As the modern poet Billy Collins says in his “Introduction to Poetry”, in order to find the true meaning of a poem we must “…hold it up to the light/ like a color slide” instead of “…beating it with a hose/ to find out what it really means” (1-16). When Frost’s poems are held up to the light, it is revealed
Often a poet’s greatest work comes from life experiences. This may be partially due to the realness of the experience and the hearer’s ability to relate. This effect of relating to an author can be accomplished with themes and tone of a poem. A poet’s “attitude” can also be expressed through the similes and metaphors that he or she uses. Robert Frost is a poet whose attitude and beliefs about life show through his poems. He has been described as a romantic due to his themes, but that may be inaccurate due to the complexity and depth of his work. With a further understanding of the history of the author a new idea of him may be realized. Robert Frost’s history, lifestyle, and outlook influenced his work; this is shown when he attributes the relationship between man and the universe with alienation, nature, and death.
Literature, poetry included, gives us the opportunity to understand a person’s experiences, or at least empathize with him or her. Often these experiences are categorized and labeled as themes; such themes include contrasting death to life, age, and regret. “Those Winter Sundays” and “Eating Together” focus on the death of the father of the narrator. Each poem also details briefly how the narrator has chosen to respond to his or her father’s death. One takes a particularly regretful stance on the issue, whereas the other focuses more on appreciating the time shared. This essay will explicate each poem, compare these explications, and compare the writers themselves.
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.
This strong metaphor compares the narrator to the elephant who feels their fate is death. The third part of line 4 is the fine timbers that directly relate to the house previously mentioned. The purpose of the house fortifies the idea that what’s inside is of value. The house is nothing without its fine timbers and it is merely for protection and shelter. Just like a pregnant woman is for her unborn child. The fifth line represents the rising loaf like a child growing inside a womb. It is a pun on a familiar saying to pregnancy of a bun in the oven. “Money’s new minted in this fat purse” plays with the idea that the purse has no great value in itself but contains valuable things inside. Line 7 explores the narrator’s feelings towards having a child. She feels like “a means”, as if she is just a way for the baby to be born. As a mother she is just “a stage” and a platform but not a performance. She is “a cow in calf,” where many cows are separated from their offspring and have little to do with their mum. The final lines seem to break away from the rest of the poem and have a tone of darkness. After eating “a bag of green apples” one might feel sick especially since green apples are considered sour. The fruit is also unripe, signifying that the narrator is not ready to have a baby. Another point that can be found is that it is easy to see the resemblance of this line and Eve from the Bible. Eve was tempted to eat an apple and was cursed with the
Poetry is a literary medium which often resonates with the responder on a personal level, through the subject matter of the poem, and the techniques used to portray this. Robert Frost utilises many techniques to convey his respect for nature, which consequently makes much of his poetry relevant to the everyday person. The poems “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening’ and “The mending wall” strongly illuminate Frost’s reverence to nature and deal with such matter that allows Frost to speak to ordinary people.
In the poem “After Apple-Picking”, Robert Frost has cleverly disguised many symbols and allusions to enhance the meaning of the poem. One must understand the parallel to understand the central theme of the poem. The apple mentioned in the poem could be connected to the forbidden fruit from the Garden of Eden. It essentially is the beginning of everything earthly and heavenly, therefore repelling death. To understand the complete meaning of Frost’s poem one needs to be aware that for something to be dead, it must have once had life. Life and death are common themes in poetry, but this poem focuses on what is in between, life’s missed experiences and the regret that the speaker is left with.
“Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words,” Robert Frost once said. As is made fairly obvious by this quote, Frost was an adroit thinker. It seems like he spent much of his life thinking about the little things. He often pondered the meaning and symbolism of things he found in nature. Many readers find Robert Frost’s poems to be straightforward, yet his work contains deeper layers of complexity beneath the surface. These deeper layers of complexity can be clearly seen in his poems “ The Road Not Taken”, “Fire and Ice”, and “Birches”.
Poems are one of the oldest forms of literary expression often times including complex themes. The poem “Come in” by Robert Frost is no exception. The poem provides us with his experience going into the woods, which represent death. The theme of the poem is a description of Frost’s encounter with his personal feelings and emotions, in which he uses “the woods” as a symbol to express what he is feeling. In the poem “Come In”, Robert Frost’s symbolism via birds, and light, imagery of the woods, constant use of metaphors and similes, line breaks, rhyme, and overall sad tone, illustrates the darkness of his thoughts, feelings, and general experiences in his desire to
As time goes on, society becomes more and more disconnected from nature. With each year that passes new gadgets are put onto the market. Technology has recently released a device known as a virtual reality headset. This is for those who want to see the world without actually taking a step outside. Technology has become the forefront of people’s lives. In his eye opening poem, “Stopping By Woods on a Snowing Evening”, Robert Frost addresses the idea that nature is a blessing that should be appreciated, not ignored, and seen for its true beauty. In order to convey the meaning of his poem, Frost includes elements such as relaxing language, vivid imagery, and an appreciative tone.