SAMPLE IDEA MAP: ROBERT FROST
Swinging from
birch branches
Mending a
boundary wall
Turning hay
in a meadow
Picking
apples
Uses mainly monosyllabic
and disyllabic words.
He often focuses on the
dark side of life:
E.G. in “OUT, OUT”
“Acquainted With The
Night”
“Design”
ORDINARY, SIMPLE
SUBJECT MATTER
AND SETTINGS
Uses the natural rhythm of the speaking
voice.. (Frost always said “I will say a
poem” rather than “I will recite a poem.”)
SIMPLICITY OF LANGUAGE
PESSIMISM
MUSICAL
QUALITY
Rhyme; regular beat;
alliteration; assonance.
Walking the city
streets at nighttime
A spider on
a flower
ROBERT
FROST
© The Institute of Education
IMMEDIACY
The vividness of description and the
use of the 1st person make us feel
that we are present with Frost in the
event or experience he is describing
USE OF
1ST PERSON
Reaching
a fork in a
woodland
path
The importance of the open,
questioning mind
The balanced approach to life - the
importance of imagination and the
equal importance of reality
Life choices and their consequences
‘The brotherhood of man”
The spiritual effect of nature
THEMES &
MESSAGES
The randomness and
unpredictability of life
Loneliness/depression
Who or what - if anything - governs
the universe?
RICHLY
METAPHORICAL
Vivid description - visual
images & aural images
Gives his poems an intimate quality
- creates the feeling of spontaneity
and naturalness as if he were
sharing his own experience with us
Uses ordinary events and
situations as metaphors.
E.G. in “Mending Wall”
“The Tuft of Flowers”
“The Road Not Taken”
“Birches”
Contemplative (philosophical) quality Frost’s poems contain layers of meaning
and thought beneath the surface of simple
language & ordinary subject matter