The Gift Outright, by Robert Frost is a poem that expresses the connection of humans with their land.
Do Do, Wendy English 1A, Per. 1 20 May 2011 Extra Credit: The Gift Outright The Gift Outright The land was ours before we were the land's. She was our land more than a hundred years Before we were her people. She was ours In Massachusetts, in Virginia, But we were England's, still colonials, Possessing what we still were unpossessed by, Possessed by what we now no more possessed. Something we were withholding made us weak Until we found out that it was ourselves We were withholding from our land of living, And forthwith found salvation in surrender. Such as we were we gave ourselves outright (The deed of gift was many deeds of war) To the land vaguely realizing westward, But still unstoried, artless, unenhanced, Such as she was, such as she would become The Gift Outright, by Robert Frost is a poem that expresses the connection of humans with their land. The poem itself has a strange meaning, but if you dig deeper into the meaning you will understand it better. America is a strange place to begin with, and everyone believes they understand it, but do they really? The poem, likewise, is just a simple portrayal of the relationship between existence and possession with us and America. The narrator describes America’s history as a nation in this poem. During this time, America is still tied to England and cannot establish freedom, but by accepting the
"The Darkling Thrush" by Thomas Hardy
The Darkling Thrush The poem entitled "The Darkling Thrush," written by Thomas Hardy, has a very appealing connotation. The work can be separated into two parts; the dismal part pertaining to the beginning of winter and the second part focusing on one small aspect of good in all of the dismal surrounding it. The general idea of the poem is that the dismal winter is approaching, but there are some incidences of goodness in this depressing time. The first part can be sectioned into the first and second stanzas. The poem opens with "I leant upon a coppice gate." This is the moment when the author enters the small wood and begins to narrate his thoughts and feelings. The next line, lines two and three, talk about "The frost was specter-gray and winters dregs made desolate." This describes that the author feels that during this season, the idea of frost and no greenery, makes the winter a very desolate season. The fourth line is very interesting. It states "The weakening eye of day." This displays that during the winter, the time of day shortens. The author relates this shortening of daylight to the weakening of the eye. Lines seven and eight also help to describe the desolates of the winter months. It states "And all mankind...sought their household fires." This line suggests that the narrator views the summer months as a time of friendliness and togetherness. During the winter
An Analysis of a Poem:
An Analysis of a Poem: "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" Diction, Verb Tenses, Rhyme and Rhythm in "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" Diction (i.e. choice of vocabulary) The diction of "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" is extremely simple. None of the vocabulary is difficult or unusual, and most of the most of the words are short and plain, for example 'woods', 'house', 'snow', 'horse'. None of the descriptions, either of the setting, or the horse, is detailed or elaborate: the horse is simply, 'little'; the lake is 'frozen' (but we learn nothing else about it), and the only time more than one adjective is used to described anything is when we are told that the woods are: 'lovely, dark and deep'. One major effect of such plain and simple diction is to give the poem a fairy tale quality. This is because, in fairy tales, the settings could be 'anywhere' and 'nowhere' in particular. Fairy tales tend to avoid describing their settings in great detail so that readers from any country and culture can identify with them, and can recognize and respond to the 'universe' significance of the situations in the tales. Verb Tenses Another crucial aspect of the diction in "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" is the fact that the entire poem is spoken in the present tense. For example, line 1: 'Whose woods these are I think I know'. This choice of tense has two
'The road not taken' and 'Not my best side'
The Road not taken and Not My best side The first line, "two roads diverged into a yellow wood," starts off the poem explaining 2 choices available to the author in life, using the extended metaphors of "roads" and "wood." As well, the word "yellow" is symbolism for the uncertainty Frost has in making his choice. In the line "And sorry I could not travel both", the word 'both' immediately indicates that Frost wanted to take both the paths, but being 'one traveller', he had to make a choice. The choice, it is clearly shown, was not an easy one "...long I stood and looked down as far as I could..." In the last stanza the narrator seems content with his choice yet he tells of it with a sigh: not so much a regretful sigh but a speculative one, 'I shall be telling this with a sigh.' He is resolving himself to the fact that even when ages and ages pass, he will still wonder what if he had taken the other road. There are many equally valid meanings to this poem and Frost may have intended this. He may have been trying to achieve a universal understanding. In other words, there is no judgement, no specificity, no moral. There is simply a narrator who makes a decision in his life that makes the man who he is now. It allows all readers from all different experiences to relate to the poem. Frost chose what appeared like a 'grassy' road that 'wanted wear' but eventually realized
What lessons in life does Robert Frost teach us and how does he do this?
Essay - Robert Frost What lessons in life does Robert Frost teach us and how does he do this? The American poet Robert Frost teaches us about lessons he has learnt in his life through the use of his poems. In the poem, The Wood-pile Frost attempts to attack conformity and show how vital individuality is. Through the second poem, The Road not Taken, Frost conveys importance of taking choices seriously, and that if we don't we could end up regretting our decisions. The poem The Wood-pile, can relate to the western world, this world in recent times has become a conformists paradise. Everyone is the identical, the words unique and individual poses no real meaning in this New World and it is reaching the point where we are almost taken off shelves as if we were a massed produced product. This is highlighted in the beginning of the poem. "The view was all in lines, Straight up and down of all slim trees". The next line supports this theme of conformity "Too much alike to mark or name a place by,/ So as to say for certain I was here,/ Or somewhere else...". Here the persona is confused because he acknowledges that he is in a different place, yet because of the image appears totally in separable as everywhere he has been he cannot distinguish where he is or even orientate himself. The bird is introduced, Frost designed the bird represent a change in the poem, as we jump from the
Write a critical appreciation of Mending Wall exploring how far you think that Frost uses his observations of a simple rural event to make a significant conclusion.
Write a critical appreciation of Mending Wall exploring how far you think that Frost uses his observations of a simple rural event to make a significant conclusion. In Mending Wall, Frost assumes the character of a farmer who has the task of rebuilding a wall which separates him and his neighbour. The poem can be viewed from two very different angles, both which raise very different conclusions. At first glance, the poem seems harmless and innocent, whereby Frost's character questions the need for a wall to be in place - a wall that he feels symbolises the barriers of communication that people put up around themselves and other people. This idea of innocence is repeated throughout the poem. He appears to see that repairing the wall as the labour of love, gaining no reward from his efforts, but continuing anyway. He begins by fantasizing about how the wall has become broken, creating naive images in his head, such as the idea of rabbits breaking it during the spring - the 'mischief in [him]', and gives the sense that he believes that repairing the wall is a game to him; in line 21, he states that it is "just another kind of outdoor game" and incorporates the childish idea of magic into his 'game' - claiming that he needs to use "a spell to make [the stones] balanced". In this simple and gentle view of rebuilding the wall, comes an element of sadness, when Frost must
Fros's peorty is more about people than nature. Discuss
Frost's poetry is more about nature than people- Discuss. Throughout all of this collection of poems, Robert Frost captures the true meaning of human behaviour through his comparisons with nature. Taking inspiration from his experiences of farming and agriculture, Frost uses parallel's between the natural order of nature and that of human behaviour. Originally he was not recognised in the UK but recognition for his work was a huge success in the USA. Acknowledgment for his work within England however, came much later on in life. He presents an idealistic idyllic view of beauty and contrasts this to the stark harsh reality of everyday life created by people. By doing this, he appreciates that the harshness of everyday life will always remain an essential feature to human nature. His poems could be described to be deceptively straightforward as it is through the simplicity of nature that Frost examines the true human nature of people and it is through this, that I shall examine the themes of 'barriers', 'duty versus desire' and isolation. Barriers appear to be a recurring theme within this collection of s poems. In general everyday conversation, a barrier can be defined as, anything that separates or holds apart and it is through this concept that Frost takes on this basic assumption of barriers being physical 'things' and extends it by looking at barriers in an abstract
Critical Evaluation of a poem which I have read recently is "Out, Out" by Robert Frost.
Critical Evaluation Siobhan Lawless A poem which I have read recently is "Out, Out" by Robert Frost. This poem is memorable as it affected me in several ways. It shocked me because the little boy cut off his hand and then died, but also because after the boy died people turned back to their work and didn't seem to care about the boy. When I had read the poem for the first time the title did not seem important because I could not tell what the poem was about, from it. After I had studied the poem in more detail, I considered the poem to be particularly effective. The title "Out, Out" is a famous quotation from Macbeth which was written by Shakespeare. It intrigues the reader by keeping them in suspense which makes them read on. The poet intrigued me the first time I read the title as I thought it was a very peculiar title for this poem. This made me study the poem in more detail; it was the title of this poem which made me keep the poem vividly in my head. The title of this poem was effective because the poet was comparing our life to the life of candle flame and how it can be put out. He is trying to stress to us how short life is. Robert Frost appeals to my sense of smell, sight and hearing by the writing: "Sweet scented stuff" The techniques he used were alliteration and onomatopoeia. He uses alliteration by starting all the
How to understand the reality and truth around us through our ways of knowing.
The given question asks how to understand the reality and truth around us through our ways of knowing. It is possible for numerous persons to view the same problem at a different position with a different reality as illustrated by Amitav Ghosh's quote: "(when) The rubber tree won't yield latex: the biologist blames the sapling, the geologist blames the soil, the contractor blames the unskilled laborer and the owner says its fighting back at being controlled." Thus we see that one's position in a certain matter can filter his/her reality because of different reasoning. One's Ethical standpoint also plays a role in his/her view of reality as well. An extremist Muslim can see Ben Laden as a savior, not a terrorist, whereby an American would see him as a terrorist and not a savior. Experience is another "filter" that can affect our knowledge of reality. Children (which generally have less experience) view the world and life in a different way than an adult does. Language is used for communication and thus is a way of knowing- although different sources can be less reliable than other; language is a filters that can either help or harm our perception of reality, as other filters discussed before can as well. The main way by which our minds communicate with the external world is through our five senses; but even these can prove to be treacherous. Under emotional distress one can
"The Road not taken" by Robert Frost
On "The Road not taken" 0312101 ???( Class A) Literarily speaking, the first-level meaning of this poem written by Robert Frost is pretty obvious. A traveler comes to a fork of the road and needs to decide which way to proceed so that to continue his journey. After some mental debates, the traveler picks the road "less traveled by." It is a choice which has "made all the differences" in sights and conditions of his journey. This is the surface meaning I can perceive from the poem "The road not taken". In my opinion, the deeper second-level meaning in this poem is not too hidden either. It describes the tough job of making choices that every people have to face while traveling on the road of life. It is a poem concerning about decision-making. As we decide and choose, so are our lives formed. As soon as we came to the world, we face all kinds of decisions------friends, hobbies, favorite food, life style and then the road of life we'd like to take. In this poem, the author is choosing a road to take. Road shall have various implications and here it represents a road of life. To decide which road to take is important as it may decide you a totally different life. The dilemma is that we could only choose one rather than try them both. Then while walking on the road we have struggled to pick out, we may still feel pitiful and are in memory of another one, the one we wouldn't
