Comparison of Robert Frost's Tree at my Window and The Sound of the Trees

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Robert Frost Comparative Essay

IB English HL Year 1

Code name: thdtmdgus

Comparison of “Tree at my Window” and “The Sound of the Trees”

Robert Frost’s “Tree at my Window” and “The Sound of the Trees” both share common grounds with regard to their structure, sound devices, tone, and imagery—not to mention the central leitmotif which is the tree. Frost’s “Tree at my Window” begins as follows: “Tree at my window, window tree” (line 1). What immediately catches our attention is the mirror-structure in which the first line is presented. This deliberate syntactical symmetry carries the implicit notion that the tree may be more than a provision from Mother Nature but an object of profound self-reflection.

These first few lines of Frost’s “The Sound of the Trees” reinforce a sense of delicacy. The sense of delicacy is derived primarily from Frost’s repetitive use of words that contain relatively long and complaisant vowel sounds. “Tree” and “window”, for instance, reinforce this sense of tenderness that is closely associated with nature—as trees are a part of nature. In fact, “The Sound of the Trees” has a similar beginning with regard to Frost’s use of sound devices. His first three lines contain three words with the letter “w,” which is a sound element technically referred to as “glides,” suggesting duration and weight. His “wonder[ing] about the trees,” therefore, is one characterized by the narrator’s profound and serious attitude.

Nonetheless, there is something that differentiates the beginning of “The Sound of the Trees” from that of “Tree at my Window”: tone. His use of tone in “Tree at my Window,” initially, is more casual. But his use of tone in “The Sound of the Trees,” especially enhanced by the serious attitude of the narrator, carries an immensely contemplative and, simultaneously, sentimental feeling. “The Sound of the Trees” is simply more evocative in the beginning due to Frost’s command of sound elements that reinforce the slow, contemplative attitude of the narrator. And the choice of this contemplative mood fits this poem perfectly because a large idea that underlies this poem is the narrator’s trajectory towards death.

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Subsequently, from line 2 onwards, Frost humanizes the tree as he writes: “But let there never be curtain drawn between you and me (lines 3-4) … Not all your light tongues talking aloud could be profound (lines 7-8).” Not only does Frost reinforce the tree as the narrator’s existential equal, but by writing, “[b]etween you and me”, Frost draws our attention to the intimate (more than simply nature-versus-human) relationship between the tree and the narrator. He also draws our attention to the physical wall, that is the “sash”; and perhaps also to the narrator’s sound resolve that he will not ...

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