The further use of water as a symbol within “West-running Brook” enforces Frost’s notion of liberation. Although water can be confined to a certain shape or form such as a cup (and in Frost’s case, sonnets and villanelles), its true form is undefined and therefore allows it the ability to mold to any shape it wishes: the freedom to conform. The mentioning of the fact that “it’s…running west / When all the other country brooks flow east” enhances the notion of liberation from mandated conventional norms.
Walt Whitman, also an advocator of Emersonian doctrine, provided a vivid depiction of organic verse when he observed poetry’s relation to flowers and fruits: “The rhyme and uniformity of perfect poems show the free growth of metrical laws and bud from them as unerringly and loosely as lilacs or roses on a bush, and take shapes as compact as the shapes of chestnuts and oranges and melons and pears, and shed the perfume impalpable to form” (Erkilla 87). One does not command an orange about what shape it will take or instruct a lilac how to bloom. One allows organic things their intrinsic freedom and then waits for the enjoyment of fruition.
Form, in accordance, would be derived from inspiration. Organic structure is easily discernable in Whitman’s products, where the forms are innovative. Whitman’s poems do not follow established patterns in their composition, nor do the beginnings create rigid molds which would bind their own nether parts.
"A Noiseless, Patient Spider", is marked by its use of juxtaposition and extended metaphor. Unlike a metaphor, juxtaposition does not substitute one thing for the other, but depends entirely on the proximity of the two objects to infer their relationship. The use of juxtaposition in the poem ultimately serves to establish a metaphysical conceit, an extended metaphor. In the case of "A Noiseless, Patient Spider" the metaphysical conceit explicates the similarities between the speaker's "Soul" and the spider, both of which on the surface appear dissimilar and distinct. The effect of juxtaposition creates a relationship between the spider and the speaker's soul as both are portrayed as "isolated" and surrounded by the immensity of their worlds that they seem insignificant, minuscule. Correspondingly, both are driven to explore and make "connection" with the worlds in which they live: the spider by casting his web endlessly till “[it] catch[es] somewhere” (Noiseless 10), and the speaker by “musing, venturing, throwing, seeking”(8), a purpose in life. The repetitive use of gerunds also lends to the continuous action of both creature and man as each consecutive generation inherits a need for connection and thus on a holistic level becomes emancipated from the constraints of time.
Within “After Apple-Picking” Frost also places emphasis on time and the incessant continuity of it. It is fundamentally important to note that Frost’s setting consists of both nighttime and late harvest. Either would imply a prospect of death, but the union of night and the onset of winter render that prospect unmistakable. However, Frost draws on the fact that spring will naturally return after winter to bring about rebirth and vice versa in a never ending cycle. Two implicit references suggest that the resurgence of spring is imminent. The first comes with an obtrusive gesture in the poem’s second line, its seemingly wanton reference to the ladder’s pointing “toward heaven still” (Apple 2). Without straining the issue, the word “heaven” evokes subconscious thoughts pertaining to death and immortality. The second hint emanates from the last stanza, as the verse concludes with a capricious contemplation of the woodchuck’s “long sleep” (41), the hibernation, the modest imitation of death which will end in springtime “resurrection.” Even the conspicuous “just some human (my emphasis) sleep” (42), implies an eventual reawakening, exhibiting independence from the finality of time.
Whitman’s “A Woman Waits for Me”, besides the freedom in structure through free verse, draws on a complex relation between procreation and immortality to bring about the notion of liberation. Although the poem contains an air of egocentrism, it doesn’t detract from the theme, but rather reinforces it. Diction remains simple and relatively to the point, with some words that exhibit the poem’s tone; however it is the incessant use of the word “I” that draws on this solipsistic quality of which Whitman is confirming his immortality. It is his “stuff to start sons and daughters” that will enable his longevity into the next generation and beyond. The “loving crops from the birth, life, death, immortality, I plant so lovingly now” mark his liberation from the confines of the past as it projects him into a perpetual state of remembrance.
As such, both Frost and Whitman’s poems seem to end in deliberate ambiguity. Different interpretations are, therefore, encouraged as all poetry is hinting, essentially a metaphor. Poetry allows in its most basic sense the freedom to express thought and freedom to voice opinion. It is free from any definite meanings or interpretations. Consequently, to deem their work as poetry reveals Frost and Whitman as advocators of liberation and their produced works serves to strengthen the theme further. Even Frost, explicitly supported this notion as he stated that poetry is “the one permissible way of saying one thing and meaning another” (Education 36).
Works Cited
Erkilla, Betsy. Whitman the Political Poet. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1989.
Frost, Robert. “After Apple-Picking.” [in class handout].
__________. The Constant Symbol. [in class handout].
__________. Education by Poetry. [in class handout].
__________. “West-running Brook.” [in class handout].
Whitman, Walt. “A Noiseless Patient Spider.” [in class handout].
____________. “A Woman Waits for Me.” [in class handout].