Robert Frost said that a poem should

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A* Oh yeah!

Robert Frost said that a poem should “begin in delight and end in wisdom” Do you think that is true of the poems of Frost and the other nature poets you have studied?

Frost’s statement in the title is certainly true in some of his later poems and most nature poems, but in some cases, the wisdom comes first and delight is found at the end or, there is no delight only wisdom or, just delight or just wisdom. Not all poems abide by Frost’s rule!

‘The Pasture’, being one of Frost’s earlier poems, possibly was written before he made the statement in the title, as I am unable to find any wisdom hidden amid the lines, only a great deal of delight. The poem is written using iambic metre, with a clear rhythm. In the eight lines he uses, he creates clear delightful images for the reader. The poem gravitates around the theme of a country farmer’s duties, except reading between the lines; this farmer enjoys carrying out these duties. He says that he will ‘only stop to rake the leaves away’ which gives the impression of him really wanting to ‘stop’ for longer and perhaps do some other jobs. After cleaning the ‘pasture spring’ he considers waiting ‘to watch the water clear’, this can be interpreted in different ways. Perhaps he wanted to make sure he had done the job properly, or it could be that he takes delight in watching the waters clear and wants to wait watch ‘it clear’ or perhaps it could be simply that he wants the moment to last, as he enjoys it so. In life I generally find that things I do not enjoy drag on and on, seemingly taking longer that they actually are, yet things that I enjoy seem to go faster. ‘I shan’t be long’ indicates that he knows that he is going to enjoy his tasks and the time will fly by when he is doing them. Also things we enjoy, we tend to want to share, Frost invites us to ‘come too’.

He then uses terms of endearment to describe the ‘little calf that is standing by its mother’ that he is going to ‘fetch’. He takes delight in how ‘it totters when its mother licks it with her tongue’, he must have watched it with its mother many times to have noticed this happening.  Again, he invites us to ‘come too’ as he ‘shan’t be long’, I believe he takes delight in this as well.

In Lawrence’s ‘Self-Pity’, the four lines he restricts himself to, clearly shows wisdom, I am unable to find any delight. His poem is about animals and their way of life, getting on with things, not feeling sorry for themselves; “a bird will drop dead from a bough without ever having felt sorry for itself”.  I get the impression that he is comparing birds, which do not feel sorry for themselves, to humans that do. I believe that he is insinuating that humans should take a leaf out of nature’s book and ‘get on with life’, without feeling sorry for ones self.

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 I agree that ‘Selfsame Song’, by T. Hardy, begins in delight, although its ending is verging on despair, rather than wisdom. Hardy opens this poem with his memories of a bird singing the ‘Selfsame Song’ with ‘never a fault in its flow’.  I get the impression he really loves the bird’s ‘selfsame song’ and truly deems it flawless. By ending the first stanza with ‘long years ago’ indicates that those lovely times have been, but now are gone.

In the second stanza by including delight vocabulary, such as ‘A pleasing marvel’ and ‘unchanged in a ...

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