"Birches" - critique.

Birches Essay In any life, one must endure hardship to enjoy the good times. According to Robert Frost, the author of "Birches", enduring life's hardships can be made easier by finding a sane balance between one's imagination and reality. The poem is divided into four parts: an introduction, a scientific analysis of the bending of birch trees, an imaginatively false analysis of the phenomenon involving a New England farm boy, and a reflective wish Frost makes, wanting to return to his childhood. All of these sections have strong underlying philosophical meanings. Personification, alliteration, and other sound devices support these meanings and themes. Frost supports the theme by using language to seem literal, yet if one visualizes the setting and relates it to life, the literal and figurative viewpoints can be nearly identical. Take this example: "Life is too much like a pathless wood". This simile describes how one can be brought down by the repetitive routine of day-to-day life, but only if one processes the barren, repetitive forest scene that Frost paints in that sentence. Sound devices also add to the effect of the poem. Frost gives the image of the morning after an ice storm, as the ice cracks on the birch trees: "They click upon themselves / As the breeze rises, and turn many-colored / As the stir cracks and crazes their enamel. / Soon the sun's warmth makes them

  • Word count: 1012
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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A poem by Robert Frost called,

Jeff Dorschner English 235 Response #1 9-11-03 For my first response of the semester, I was quite intrigued with a poem by Robert Frost called, "Mending Wall." In this poem, the author tells a story about the relationship between him and his neighbor. He seems to be questioning the thought of a fence between their property line. What catches my attention right away in this poem is that the author sees the fence that is between the two of them to be dividing not only their land or property, but dividing a possible friendship. In the poem it says, "And on a day we meet to walk the line, and set the wall between us once again." It seems to me that the neighbor and the author tend to have a yearly routine come spring. The neighbors have a stone wall that separates their land. Each year, the wall needs to be fixed because boulders have fallen from the wall. So the two neighbors go and meet sometime in the spring and fix the wall together. In the poem, the neighbor says to the author, "Good fences make good neighbors." This confuses the author because throughout the duration of fixing the wall, he can't help but think why there has to be a wall between the two of them. Although the neighbor has pine trees in his yard and the author has apples in his yard, he tends to feel like they aren't suppose to share the apples or share the pine cones or even visit each

  • Word count: 622
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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Compare the poems "Hard Frost" and "winter the Huntsman". Decide which poem paints the best picture.

Compare the poems "Hard Frost" and "winter the Huntsman". Decide which poem paints the best picture "Winter the Huntsman" and Hard Frost" are both poems which have the same settings, both are in the season of winter, Hard Frost (HF) was set at the end of winter and Winter the Huntsman (WTH) was set at the beginning of winter. "WTH" is set in a forest being captured by winter and "HF" is set in a rural, and near habitation. Also the image in hard frost is completely different to image portrayed in W.T.H. The image from H.F is that there is human habitation this is proven by this quote 'at every footstep a tiny brittle pane is broken'. With the idea of humans being able to live along side with frost gives me the effect a Christmas card feel to the poem. In W.T.H the image created by the poem is completely different. The image is a cruel and harsh. The theme is a huntsman hunting down all colour and life from summer. Differences in the poem are continued with the use of personification. In "HF" frost is depicted as a soldier of the army of winter, evidence of this is numerous. One particular piece from the poem describes it best, "Frost called to water "Halt!", this personifies frost as someone who would command like a sergeant in the army. More aspects of frost being humanlike is in the following quote 'interns poor fish'. This means that he has the power to lock away fish

  • Word count: 1115
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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Analyse The Woodpile and compare the language and themes to other Frosts poems.

Analyse The Woodpile and compare the language and themes to other Frosts poems. Frost writes a lot about the emotion of solitude and being isolated, either physically or mentally, and this poem is no different. The line, "I was just far from home", is a good example to show how isolated and unhappy the narrator is feeling as home is a place of comfort. Pathetic fallacy is used, as the images in this poem set up a bleak icy day that reflects these emotions, for example, "frozen swamp one grey day", the adjectives, "frozen" and "gray" emphasise this lonely feeling. Frost also gives the reader the impression of the horizon looking the same, emphasising how lost the narrator is feeling, "Too much alike to mark or name a place by". There are other poems that resemble the idea of being alone; two examples are Home Burial and The Tuft Of Flowers. Home Burial is, for me, the loneliest poem in this selection, as it says that even though you may be surrounded by people it is possible to feel alone emotionally. In the beginning of the poem The Tuft Of Flowers the narrator is feeling alone physically. However this poem questions whether or not people can ever be truly alone, and, as a contrast to most of Frost's poems like Home Burial, decides you can't. Many parallels can be drawn between Tuft Of Flowers and The Wood Pile, another being nature, in a way, leading the narrator to an

  • Word count: 1279
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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Look at Sarah Orne Jewett's description of a New England town in the passage 'The Country of the Pointed Firs.' What impression do you get of Dunnet Landing?

Look at Sarah Orne Jewett's description of a New England town in the passage 'The Country of the Pointed Firs.' What impression do you get of Dunnet Landing? Pay particular attention not only to the details about the village itself but to what Jewett says about Mrs Todd's garden. Consider also her portrait of individual characters. What special 'regional' elements is the author emphasising? Writing in the nineteenth century, Sarah Orne Jewett adopts one of the most contemporaneous literary devices in 'The Country of the Pointed Firs,' producing a realistic portrayal of American life, whilst setting her scene specifically in the New England town of Dunnet Landing. Various authors of this period embraced this variation of 'realism' known as 'regionalism' due to its potential for the exploration of particular social issues, matters which could not be portrayed as effectively without a physical setting to intensify their significance. Caroline Zilboorg outlines this literary movement as often including 'vivid depictions of particular experience' one which explores 'the meaning of age, race, class and gender as well as region.' Although undertaking this technique of regionalist writing, the landscape Jewett writes about is merely a small garden at the back of a New England village house, whereas the majority of authors engage in writing about significantly larger and more

  • Word count: 1077
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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Commentary on Robert Frosts'The Gift Outright

Commentary on Robert Frosts' The Gift Outright Rahim Ladhani 3S1 414791 English Ms. Mansoor 824 Words Robert Frost traces the development of American culture from colonial times to a more present perspective in his poem, The Gift Outright. Frost tells the American story of colonialism, freedom, westward expansion, and the quest to develop a specifically American culture. In doing this, he focuses on explaining ways in which Americans supported the growth and development of their country and culture. Frost suggests that Americans showed their allegiance to their developing country and culture in several ways: battlefield bravery, commitment of talents to the good of the country, and dedication to expanding the United States' land and power. His reflection on the past is also a call for action in the future. He acknowledges that American culture is still not fully developed and the continued dedication of Americans, like occurred in the past, is required for the United States to recognize her full potential. The 'belonging' discussed in line one immediately establishes that there is some type of relationship between the land and the people. Furthermore, the land is treated as something that is material and can be owned because "the land was ours"(Frost 1). The second half of this line, "we were the lands"(Frost 1) establishes that things happening in a certain definite

  • Word count: 857
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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Commentary: 'Out Out' by Robert Frost

Commentary on Robert Frost's 'Out Out' 'Out Out' is a poem that tells the story of a young boy cutting his hand off while chopping wood and then dies, and how those around him cope with the death. This poem shows many techniques which are quite common in Frost's poems; such as imagery, ambiguity and it also has a universal theme to it. This poem can be perceived to have several themes, one of which may be the lives of those living in rural areas and how they have to get on with their lives when they have lost someone close, because there is nothing else they can do. Another theme to the poem could be that of child labour in rural areas, and although the poem is set in Vermont, this is a universal theme, as child labour is known to exist all over the world. The first line of the poem, 'The buzz saw snarled and rattled in the yard' does many things for the poem. For a start, the line sounds quite threatening to us and immediately we think that the saw will later become a problem or an issue. The line also personifies the saw, which further makes us believe that the saw will later play a major role in the poem. Frost also personifies the saw by using words like snarled and rattled which makes the saw seem beast-like. The word buzz is onomatopoeic which again personifies the saw. The next line, 'And made dust and dropped stove-length sticks of wood' describes the saw's

  • Word count: 1369
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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Robert Frost - The Road Not Taken, and Nothing Gold Can Say

Robert Frost - The Road Not Taken, and Nothing Gold Can Say. Robert Frost was one of America's greatest poets. From 1874 - 1963 he has written many famous poems including "Nothing Gold can stay" and "The Road not taken" which I will be writing about. He lived in San Francisco and sadly died in Boston in 1963. He moved to Massachusetts when he was eleven and went to the local high school. He then continues to go to Dartmouth College. The Road Not Taken is a poem about decisions in life and how each one leads onto another road, spreading into a vast complexity of situations and life. The roads symbolise decisions and how each decision effects the whole journey ahead of him. The first verse is about his first decision in the network of roads that he could have taken. He ponders which road to follow and wonders what the consequences of each road could lead to. He tries to look into the future by peering down the road to where it makes a turn! The first line, "Two roads diverged in a yellow wood" means that he has to walk down one of two roads leading in opposite directions and the yellow wood could be a screen blocking his vision into the future of his choice. In the second line, " And sorry I could not travel both", means that he wished he could have chosen both to compare each road to the other road and choose the one he preferred. However, he could not do this because once

  • Word count: 1928
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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Robert Frost said that a poem should

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'

  • Word count: 2215
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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Using a close analysis of 3 or 4 poems in this collection, write an essay on how Frost uses ‘the sound of sense’ in his poetry to convey both the difficulties and the worth of ordinary life.

Robert Frost Essay Using a close analysis of 3 or 4 poems in this collection, write an essay on how Frost uses 'the sound of sense' in his poetry to convey both the difficulties and the worth of ordinary life. In your answer, you should: · Look closely at the effects created by diction, syntax and register in creating the dramatic and emotional tones of the poems · Discuss the effects created by Frost's handling of poetic form · Set out clearly your view of the importance of this technique in communicating the meanings of the poems. Robert Frost uses 'the sound of sense' in 'Out, Out' to create the feeling of repetitive, boring work, through diction, words, such as the repetition of 'snarled' and 'rattled'. It also conveys a love of physical labour and also a peace, with the use of the word 'breeze', which has connotations of a light and airy atmosphere, which makes the workplace seem almost heavenly. The diction also has connotations of death and the desire to die,' day was all but done' and ' Call it a day, I wish they might have said'. The syntax in this is unusual because to make sense it would have to say, 'I wish they said to call it a day'. This gives the tone a much more colloquial feeling. This is supported by the Germanic diction, for example, 'supper', 'wood', 'boy'. The tone is low and mournful as if the narrator is looking back on the situation as if it

  • Word count: 1083
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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