“Birches” moves the reader to interpret the deeper meaning within the poem. Frost uses the metaphor of the ice storm to illustrate its connection with life. The author’s use of imagery and nature of the bending birches secretly personifies the birches. “…After a rain. They click upon themselves…” Here the author uses sound imagery. Frost uses this imagery to illustrate the full harshness of the cold and the effect that it has on old age. After a rain those of old age who have bad joints may experience a clicking sound of the joints. This may be referred to as the “pains” which Frost speaks of later.
To connect to the poem the reader has to understand Frosts’ connection of the birch and old age. The author uses imagery of the warmth from the sun as well as the harsh winter ice to show emotion and to connect the reader to the birch’s environment. The ice storms, being a metaphor for life “…coats the birch branches…” The author uses this imagery to illustrate the impact that life has on the “branches”. The attitude of the writer here is calm as Frost uses soft and gentle language to speak of the imagery of the shells: “Soon the sun’s warmth makes them shed crystal shells, shattering and avalanching on the snow”. The author uses alliteration to portray the shattering effect of the ice. This element of alliteration implies a breakthrough of the birch branches. Frosts’ use of alliteration and gentle imagery heavily impact the reader’s perception of the shells of ice. The warmth of the sun appears to be a source of strength for the heavy-laden birches. An awakening is what is understood as the reader enters the world of the birch, now impacted by the sun. The sun’s warm appearance liberates the ice to reveal the cold, harsh reality of adulthood. With the discarding of the shells Frost attitude turns bitter-sweet towards the birch. The author uses harsh language to describe the birch’s environment. “Such heaps of broken glass… the inner dome of heaven had fallen”.
The author’s use of strong images is interpreted to be the ignorant perception of youth to want to discard the shield of youth and venture out into the cold, harsh world. Frosts’ “withered bracken” is the harsh descriptions of the disillusioned youth as they are “dragged”. The author’s mellow tone reveals the pity he has on the youth and the inescapable fate that their burden of old age may never be lifted. “Once they are bowed so low for long, they never right themselves”. Frost uses future imagery to describe what the future holds for these young birches. The author describes the future in a gloomy tone, as being overwhelmed with life: “You may see their trunks arching in the woods years afterwards trailing their leaves on the ground.” Frost uses the imagery of a young girl on her hands and knees, bowing, in order to portray the burden that is placed on the backs of these “like girls on hands and knees that throw their hair … over their heads to dry”. These images stand for the disillusionment of youth to want to run from under the canopy of protection which is freely included in childhood. The author’s tone turns nostalgic as he describes the rude interruptions of the logic of Truth who encompasses his dreams. Frosts personifies “Truth” as he breaks in and interrupts his thoughts of childhood, “But I was going to say when Truth broke in With all her matter-of-fact about the ice-storm”. Here the author implies that knowledge is inescapable as we advance on in life. As in the case of the young adults who discard the comforts of childhood, here Frost confirms the saying “ignorance is bliss”.
Frost uses the imagery of the woods and cobwebs and branches to describe life’s struggles and hardships. In this pastoral scene the author describes the journey of life and compares it to a trip through the woods, “And life is too much like a pathless wood, where your face burns and tickles with the cobwebs broken across it, and one eye is weeping from twigs having lashed it open.” Frost tone is now reflective as he distances himself from life and contemplates his return to it. The return that Frost speaks of is his return to his childhood. Frost’s love of his childhood is what keeps him wanting more of life and to return to earth. “I’d like to get away from earth awhile and then come back to it and begin over.” Frost wants to come back as a child but in another life but he knows that it would not be possible unless he died and returned as someone else. Love is the source of the contrast as Frost contemplates his break from the world. “…Earth’s the right place for love: I don’t know where it is likely to get better….” Still Frost is growing weary of this earth. Frost refers to the branches as “black” and the trunk as “white”. “…And climb black branches up a snow white trunk…” Frost uses black and white imagery to convey the simplicity of childhood. The author also uses this to refer to a black and white world that is viewed only in the eyes of children which is not as far as complex as the grey that adults view. He shuns the mix of grey that comes with adulthood and maturing to be able to see things in the way that they could be as well as the way that they are.
The Birch tree symbolizes a height, a height that can only be reached by a child. Pointing toward the sky the tree symbolizes power and the struggle to overcome the daily burdens of life. To overcome the aging process Frost would like to climb as a he did when a youth and not stopping until his dying day. “I’d like to go climbing a birch tree, and climb black branches up a snow white trunk toward heaven till the tree could bear no more.” The author implies that life at its best is climbing a birch tree when young, seeing things how they really are, in black and white, without opinions shaped by life. “That would be good going and coming …. One could do worse than be a swinger of birches”
