ROBERT FROST AND THE CLEARING IN THE WILDERNESS
A Thesis
Presented to
the Facu'ty of the Department of InglIsh
California State College at Hayward
In Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degre.
Haster of Ar ts
by
David Warren But'.r
I
August 1966
Or. Morton Rosenbaum. Reader
Or. BIckford Sylvestef. Re.def
TABLE OF CONTENTS
'8g_
I NTRODUCTI ON • •
·... . ..... .
THE VILDERNISS • • • • • . • . • • ••
THE CLIAR I NG • •
5
· . . . . . . . . . • 25
ROBERT FROST AND THE CLEAR ING IN THE WI LDERNESS
INTRODUCTI ON
In a famous speech delivered In honor of Robert Frost on his
eighty-fifth birthday, Lionel Trl111ng called hI. a "terrifying poet."
There Is some truth In thll Itatement.
I
Frostconfrontl a unlverle
which Is a1len and Indifferent, In which un's civilization and his
sanity are constantly threatened by • chaotic world In which the Individual Is Inevitably condemned to a certain degree of Isolation and
confusion.
Frost's poetry Is terrifying becau.e, like many of his con-
temporarle., he I. unable to comprehend any transcendent order which
gives meaning to ..n'. existence.
As Trilling', addresl revealed. Frost Is enmeshed In the metaphysical dilemma which Joseph Krutch de,crlbes In The nodern Temper.
2
Trllllng'l speech, reflecting the critical consensus of the late fifties,
Indicates that Frost'. place as a modern poet .erlously concerned with
the philosophical Issue. whIch dOMinate the twentieth century I. no
longer a subject for dispute.
As JaMes Cox states, the speech marks
t~
surreneter of the critical oppositIon to Frost's poetry and personality
'''A Speech on Robert Frost: A Cui tural Episode," Robert Frost,
ed. James H. Cox (Inglewood Cliffs, N. J., 1962), p. 156.
2
"Prefacell (New York, 1956), p. xl.
2
which developed during the thirties.
3
Th. plctur. of a stubborn. nine-
te.nth -century rural cons.ryatlve presented fn such .sseys a. Malcolm
4
Cowley's ''The Ca.e Against Mr. Frost" was at last generally recognized
as a distorted portrait of the artist.
However. the nature of Frost·. r.spon.e to the modern dfl .....
and consequently hll significance In relation to other well-known conteapor.ry American poets, r...ln controversial.
CrItics alMOst unanl-
moGsly acknowledge Frost', conslder.ble poetic talent, but they offer
a wide range of opInions concarnlng the character and the yalue of the
philosophical attitude which hlspoells ..scribe.
Among those Icholars who have att.-pted to eveluate Frost',
work within the last ten year., Yvor Winter. and 'eorge Hltchle maintain that he Is barred fraa greatness by his tendency to treat serious
themes In a whimsical. superficial. Intellectually Irrespon.lble mannero
In his essay, "Robert Frost:
or. the Spiritual Drifter as Poet.,'1
Winter. make. the following statements:
Frost. as far as we have examined him, then, ts a poet who
holds the following views: he belleyes that 'mpul •• I. trustworthy anet r••sOft contemptible, that forNtlve decisions should
be Mde casually and pas.lvely, t .... t tM Indlv'dual should retr.at fra- cooperative action with his kind, .hould retr.at not
to engage In Intellectuel actIvity but In order to protect himself from the conte-Inatlon of outsld. Influence. that affairs
manage them.elvel for the best If left alone, that Id••• of good
and evil need not be taken very .erlously. Th.s. ylews ar. sur.
to be a hlndr.nce to •• If-development, and they effectually cut
Frost off fra- any really profound understanding of human !xperlence, whether polftlcal, MOral, metaphyslca' or r.llgious.
'cox. "'ntroductlon." p. 9.
5
As quoted by Cox, p. 75.
:5
And Mltchl.'s objections to Frost's work ar. of much the .... order.'
't
'S
not difficult to pick out certa'n of Frost's poems which
confirm the crlticls.. whIch Winters and .'tchle make.
Such a poem. Is
"The Cod.'" in which an attem,t" IRUrdar .e,,,..
Illustrate the
Oftty to
relatlv.ly trivial I.,son that one cannot t.11 a hlr.d hand to work
Itbetter or fa.ter. u
Another exafttpla I. "Awey,,' In whIch Frost ,laY""
fully sldest.ps the major Issue which the poeM r•••••··th. prObl_ of
facing "eath··by proposing an vnllk.ly solution:
. • . I May return
If dlssathfled
WIth what I le.rn
From having died. 7
But the conclullon that Frost I. a s,lrltual drifter, and there·
fore .. minor poet, does not do Justice to hIs work a' • who'e.
Major poets have written lORe slIght poeal.
poeMS
All
Since FrOit's collectad
fill over seven hundred peg•• , even a larga nuntber of faa lurel
doel not ,reclude the posil bll Ity that he ha. also produced .. slt.ble
body of poetry reflectIng the labor. of • re.ponslble IntellIgence.
Indeed, his belt work hal now convInced the majorIty of
c~ntators
that he de.erves to be ranked among the gr.. t American poet. of ovr
century.
In order thet tha objections which WInters and Hltchle rat.e
may be satl.factorlly answered, and that Frost ' • signIfIcance as a
modern poet may be justlv eve)u.ted. 't Is essential. 1 am convinced,
6
UAMorMntary Stay AgaInst Confusion." !;taUn ~.Iues In the
PoetrX of .obert Frott; A Study of a 'oet's t!riYlcj1Ons (Durham, )960).
7 1n the Ct.,rlng (New York, 1962), p. )5.
4
to d.flne as clearly as polslble the significant IdeologIcal position
Frost has established In the face of the modern dilemma.
Much
the material published In praIse of Frost 15 essentially
of
uncritical, wrItten as an apprecIation of his poetry, lIke Randall
8
Jarrell's "To the Laodleeans", or as a friendly biography, like Sidney
It 'ortral t of Robert Fr.ss;
Cox's A !wInger of ,Irche.;
blnatlon of the
The Trlel
~
~.
f1
or.s _
COlt-
lIke Elizabeth Shepley Sergeant's Robert Frost:
Ixlstence.
10
Only In John F. Lynen', critical enalysls.
The,Pastoral Art of Robert frost. Is the
approached;
9
I.~tant
ontologIcal problem
but as the tItle of hIs book sUfge'ts. LyRen Is more
concerned with his att..pt to prove that Fr.'t Incorporate, certaIn
techniques derived 'rom pastor.I and symbolist poetry then with a discussIon of the poet's Ideas.
Of course, a thorough study of Frost's significance as _ modern
poet Is far outside the scope .f this thesis.
Although my discussIon
wIll neee,.arily be I'.lted to • few major poInts, • have chosen to
ex_lne the symbol ic ._nl09 of the clurlng In the wilderness be-
cause
t believe that It off.rs a wey to go dIrectly to the center of
Frost', thought and
~.rn'ty.
and becaus., ••• hope to Indicate In
subsequent analyses. Frostls awareness of the modern dilemma fs re·
vealed In his fl nett P<*fts.
8
James CO)(. pp. 83-' 04 .
10
New York, 1960.
9
New York, 1957.
It
New "eyen. 1960.
THE WILDERNESS
To determine the meaning of the clearing. it Is necessary to
understand the significance of the wlldernes$ which surrounds It.
In
general. the wildernesl or wasteland which appears In many of Frost's
poems. Uke the "pathless woocft' of "Blrches." or the "sameness of the
wood" in "The Demlurge's Laugh,lt represents the allen, Indifferent
universe that confront. modern .an.
The poet. 5ymbollcally lost in
the woods. admits his share In the spirituel bewilderment of his contemporaries.
Joseph Krutch s.....riz.s his essay on the "modern tem-
per" as follows:
The universe revealed by Iclence. especially the science.
of biology and psychology. Is one in which the human spirit
cannot find a comfortable home. That spirIt breathes freely
only In a univ.rse where what phIlosophers call Value Judgments are of supreme Importance. It needs to believe. for
Instance that right and wrong are real. that Love is more
than a biologIcal function, that the human mInd Is capable
of r.ason rather than merely of rationalIzation. and that It
has the power to will and to choose Instead of belog compelled
merely to react In the fashion predetennlned by Its conditionIng. Since science ~as proved that none of these belIef, Is
more than a delusion, mankind will be compelled either to surrender what we call its humanIty by adjusting to the real
world or to live some kInd of tragic exlsllnce in a universe
allen to the de.pest needs of Its nature.
Frost concludes the poem. "tn the Long Night," with the statement that "There will come another day."
Perhaps <as does Robinson In
"Credo" or "Man Against the Sky") he intends to suggest that In another
1241The Modern Temper," p.
x,.
8ge man's spl rI tual confusIon wi I , be ..eaolved.
Unll k. the hard-cor•
• KlltentlaI1ats. who neverperc.lve the possIbIlity that lome transcendent ord.r .xfsts which .'ght l.act to afutur• •nllght.....nt. FrOit
faces an .pht_olog'cal Issue.
Th. world whfch he confronts Is-not
n.cessarlly absurd, but Frost returns re,.atedly to the theme that for
the pr••• nt It appeara to be absurd ao4
~st
be dealt wIth as such.
'erhaps 'rost's best expre,,'on of ...n'sinabllity to d'scove,.
.. foundation for hUlian values In the eKternal world of nature Is the
PC*I uThe Most of It.tI
Th• • Ilet.rness In which the po-. It set acqul rei
unfversal signIficance wIth the openIng line.
The
poeM
r.ads:
He thou.ght he kept the unlver•• alone.
For all the volc. In answer he could _Ice
Was but the mock'ng echo of hit own
'reat .GIH tr....hldd.n cliff acro.s the lak••
Sa-e mornIng 'raa the boulder-broken beach
He woul. cry out on llf., that what It wants
not Its own love back In c~ speech,
lut counter-love, original relpons••
And nothing ever came of .... t h. crlecf
Unless It was the embodIment that crashed
In the ellf,f, talul on the oth.r II.e,
And then In the far dIstant water spla'hed,
lut after a tl. . allowed for Jt to IW'.,
'ns tud of proy I ng hUlWln when I t nee red
And lomeone ella addItIonal to hl_,
As a great buck ft powerfully appeared.
PushIng the cr.,.e.. water up ahead,
And landed pourIng 11k. a weterfall,
And 't....bled through the rocks wfth horny tr.ad.
And forced the underbrush--and thet was all. I3
'S
'n1. Iftuatlon of the ..n on the beach, alone In the wi ldernels (descrIbed In the first .Ight lIne.
13
0'
this poem) Is Iymbolle of manklnel's
C-el.~e PotMI of Robert frost (New York. ''''9). Unl.ss otherwise Indlc.ata~, ell subsequent quotatIons of Frost's poetry will be
taken frOM this work.
.
7
exIstence In en aile" universe.
HIs cr'., In search of
f~ounter·love,
ortg'nal r.spons......epr.sent un's need for objective truth. for "a·
tural or divine guides to human behavior rether than "copy .......eh." or
lolely subjective yalues.
LIke modern "", however, the llste"er he.rs
only the ·'mocklng echo" of hit own voice. whatever ,tat__nU
01"
prln-
e'ple. he Is able to articulate ,.. .'n. to all appearance•• pur.'y
relative.
The rema'nder of the poem (t Ina 9 through 20) Is devoted
to the bea.t which Is nature's dumb. fierce mockery of the lonely
II'tener l s de.lre for r.spon...
The descrIption of the stag carrIes
out the theme of physical vIolence which Is suggested by the landscape,
the "boulder-broken beach," and the Hcll ff's talus." The Inhwaenlty
of nature and, consequently, the ImplicIt mockery of the romantic view
of neture as syalpath.tlc to un, Is emphasized by the fllpressfon of
brute power which Frost's portraya' of the st.g cr••t.s.
the .tag as a "great buck" which "powerfully ."""••,"
He describes
~nd
he make.
that .Ize and power seem yltal through the use of verbs and verbals
such .s "crashed," "sp'ashed,1t Hcrumpled." "pouring," and "forced. u
The.e emph.slze the vlolenc. of the Itag's collisIons with surrounding
Metter, the rubble at the base
0'
the cliff, the lake. and the und.,.-
brulh.
The structure of the s.cond lection Is noteworthy.
After
~
phaslzlng In the first .'ght line. the need 'or response that the
solItary fIgure on the beach f.ets, Frost opens the conclUding sectIon
by conffr.lng natur.'. failure to supply an answer, "And nothing ever
c.... of what he crIed." With the next Itne, "Unle.s It was the embodiMent that cralhed," Frost begins hIs description of the stag'. Journey
8
fr. the oppo"te sid. of the l.ke to the boulder-atrewn beach.
dell beratelv create. an atao.phere
o~
lu.pen...
He
He doe. not Ident' fV
the .tag 8. such until It .ctualiV .,pear., but refers to the beast
only .s
H't" or
,Iz. the buck'.
Itth. _Md...nt," • term which It
~ll"ehOien
to _phe-
rol. e. a r.pr•••nt.uly. of the phy.lcal world.
The buck d've. Into the leke f r . the ba• • •f a "tre.. hldden
ell ff ,It and 'r.lt further develops the at... ptaere of .uspen,e eyoked
by thl, -Vlterlou. . .bodl. .nt by noting the Uti.. allowed for It to
.wl.... The appearance of the buck, whose f.roclou. yft.. llty Is certainly I.pre•• lve enough to .. ,rant 'rost'. elaborate IntroductIon, he.
a cll..ctlc quality.
aut the point of the
poeM
Is ..st .ffectlvely
conveyed by the phra.e with which It conclude., ....nd that
Frost does not al low the po. to en4 on the note
w.
eli."
0' exel
t . .nt
struck by the a"..rance of his •• ,hty stag, but Instead 'close. with an
antlcU..ctie echo of the title, _pha.ldng not the terrifying yltal-
Ity of the world which the etag repre.ent., but the ..ptlnes. of a univerte In which
Mn
can discern the workings of no IntelUgence which
tran.cends brute .enlatlon.
Fr. the point of yl. of the obe.rver
on the beach, the Itag I. 'ndeed "nothing"; It Is Incapable of artl ..
eul.Ung a r.lflOA•• to his crl.l.
Geeaelonally FrOlt l.pll •• that natur.'. Indlff.rent ...k hide.
the oUtline. of a
d.r",.,e grin.
In the '.ture'.ee wood of "The
_r ..
urg.-. Laugh." Frost delcrlbel a yltlon of a deltywhfeh he mafntalns
has laste. him ''many and many a .,•• r.'·
9
Tho sound was behfncl 1M Instead of bet'o..e,
A sleepy 'OUM, but mocking halt,
As of one who utterly couldn't eare.
Tha f).-on arose fr. his wallow to laugh,
BrushIng tho dirt from his eyo as he went,
And we 11 t knew who t the Demon ...nt.
webstar's third 'ntarftaslonal Olctlonarx of'er
""d'l
Is approprlat. to FrOit's usa of the t
def'nltlen of d..lurge
:
"an 'nf.rlor «'tOt abo-
solutaly IntellIgent deity who I. the creetor of tbe .. ter •• t -.rld •
,,14
If thera Is anlntaU Igence ... oclat'" wIth the Nterl,a\
• • •
world, Frost 'mplte., It t. of .. Ifmitad natura, and's concern" with
mankind only .s .. lubJect for ridicule.
A better and lIO,..e f"ghtenlng po-. whIch likewl .. lugge.tI{the
exlltence of a host I Ie universe Is '-o.'9n."
The·,.. does not
deit
speclflcaUy with the wllde""e•••~1, but I t Is Whotty re'eva.t..
the conception of the world which the
wl~dorneSI
to
r.,ra.enU •
• found a dhllpled Ip'cler, 'at"lInd whIte,
On a whIte heal-all, holding u~ II moth
..1I«t .. whhe ,Iece of rigid •• t~\n cloth....
Assorted chc)racters of death and ~llgbt
MIxed reedy to begIn the ~n'ng ~'9ht.
Llke the Ingredrents of a wltene.' broth-A .now-drop .plder, a 'lower like. froth,
And dead wings carried 11k. a paper kite.
What had that flower to do with being white,
The .yslde blue and Innocent he.t.. aU?
Wh3t brought the kindred spIder to that belght,
Theft steer. tbe whlta MOth thither In tbe night?
What but design of darkness to appa'I1-*
If "'Ign govern In a thing so ...1••
'fOe119n" Is written In the form
0' • Petrar.an sonnet.
The
s,lder, al It Is deserlbed In the open'"9 "ne of tbe octet ••aeml no
14
PhIlip Gove, ed. (SprIngfield, 1961).
'0
more ominous than the one that frightened Little M's, Muffet.
whl••y Is only apparent.
But the
The Irony of 'rost's Intention I. made clear
fn the fourth 'tne, whIch Identlf'e. the spIder, the flower, and the
moth .s the r.presentat I ves of Itdeath and blight. II The subsequent cte·
scription whIch compere. the three elements In the configuration to tha
IngredIents
of
a "witches' broth," contInues to «Ievelop the slnlstar
tone, foreshadowing the pes.lmlstlc ph'losophlee' statement of the se.tete
The se.tet Itself Is effectively constructd. The fIrst four
11 nes "e.en t the Mtaphyt Ical quo t 'on
pos.',
and
wh' eh
the ".eeect' n9 «Iete rt pt I on
the clos'ng couplat suppllas 'rost's r.,ly, the luggastlon
that tha unusual scene he ha. "apletM Is the creetlon of a .. Ievolent
poNer, Intent upon horrifying mankind wIth the prospect of lnevltabl •
• rt.llty and decay.
AI
the wordl ttbrought" and l'st•• redH 'mply, the
IDOth Is the victiM of a netural Ich. . .mlch 'tis ha'p'e•• to 81ter.
But Frost doel not Ins 1st that the Itcharae ter. of death and b 1& 9ht"
have been produced by the de.lgn of a host' I. 'nt.,IJgence.
'erha,.,
a, the flna' line h'ntl, horror t, only 'ndlcatlve of human va'ues,
and ". consequent'y, of no concern to whatever natural order there
may be.
The "'gu'ty only coatpouncts the I rony of
the~.
Men Is
not only faced with two hIghly unplea.ant alternatIves In terms of
whIch to e.platn the evIl In the world; he cannot even knQif enough to
uke
the cholca.
Frost r.'nforce. the Ironic effeet by pl.y'n9 upon the ... lfora-
tr".
cOftl1OtatJons of the cte.cd pUve terms whIch h• •,Ioys.
Ha ex-
,lolU the "apllcaUons of the contrast between the whlta spl.r. . .th.
an4 flower, and the black nIght with partfcular .ff.ctlven....
White-
ness frequently I•••socl.t.d w'th goodness or enlIghtenMent, bl.ckness
wi th evl' and c.onfuslon; but In the ...., which suggests thet theNhI t.
~onftguratlon
reveah .Uh.r the neta"gn
0' darkness" or the chaotic
workings of chanc., the ctlstlnc.tlon bee. . . . . .nlngl....
Inste" of
repre.entl"g beMvoient forces which oppose .. II,nant powers of etark..
nes., the wh't. eNract.,.
.r.
entirely subordlnat. to the 'epenetreble
blackne.s which surround' th...
The 'ronlc .Ignlffcance of the color Whit. I. . .pha.lzect by the
fact that Frost', heal-a", by .ervlng •• the stage upon whIch the
elr. . of ......th and blight" It enacted,
. .n Nve t Iyen
't 1n the . _
IDCkl
the wl.hful n.e which
wey that the ent Ire ,... IIOCks the , . . .
of goodn••• wtlleb . .n conventionally .".'ate with whltene...
The
fact that the 'lower •• nonully bl .... r.'nforce. the '.,r••• 'on that
the pettern •• the
MnkiM.
.n berate
eont r I vane. of a" I ntell1g.nee hostl Ie to
The f rony I. C_POUMect by the Impllutlon that cte.th, which
the flower. ItOth. aM .pl.r re,re••nt, It the only "heal-al I" avail ..
able to humen'ty •
. Froat .,Ioys 'everal c.pa,hons which allo underscore his
I tonic rever•• 1 of the conventional connotat'ons of will tenal.
The
.rd urlgld" which .ppear. In 11M .3 of the ....... ua mothl Like • whh.
piece of rlgle' .aUn cloth," lug9•• t. both the brlttlen••••, the cloth
and the stlffne.s of the corpse, foreshadowing the IdentIfication of
the pettern with mortality and decay In line 4.
The whit"lcal tone of
.. ne 7, whi ch compare. the spIder to a Hsnow-drop" and the flower to
"froth,1t echoes the playful opening t lne;
~t,
•• the grotetque c_per-
Ison of the next Ifne, "cIead Wing. carried llke .. ,..per kIte," ukes
painfully apparent, the flippant tone, like the Oemlurge's aocking
I.ugh, only refleets nature' ••,parent rIdIcule of men's value..
The
word "kindred" In the third line of the •••tet also reflects Frost'.
IronIc technIque.
As he us.s the ter., It Is .trlpped of any of the
ameliorative connotatIons of consanguInIty, reiteratIng Inst.ad the
fact that the spider Ihare. wIth the moth and the flower only a COMmOn
color and a role In the natural Ich. . which tuds only to "th.
The rhyme seh. . which Frost .pJoys _phash•• , like the fr...
quent r.petltlon of the word "whit.," the significance whIch the color
assUIMS In the poem.
Unllk. IMny 'euareban sonnet., uDeslgnU repeats
the InitIal or ..... rhyme In the ...tet (abb•• abba aaaee).
Since the
na" rh.,.. begins (In both the octet and the I •• t.t) with Hwhlt.,1t the
word Is echoed throughout the
~,
wh'le the rhyaalng of the wordl
Itwhlt." and Itrlghtll wIth "bllghtH and I'nlght" r.flects Frostts play
upon the . . lIoratlve 'apllcatlons of the color.
Siallarly, the l11ylftlng of ftappe11" and Ith•• I....lllt In the sestet
eec;.ntuates Frostts exploitation of
t"
flower's name, and the us-e of
a couplet Itr••••• the Ironic: twist whIch concludes th......
However, des,it. the luggestlon In "Design" and lith. o-tlurg.ts
Laughlf that the universe Is governed by a hostne Int.llI~nc•• en
13
overriding 1.,r8sllon of
MtU... ·S
absolute 'ndlfference to Nn II con-
vttyM by suc.h poem. as HTheMost of
It," ..... lth.r
Out Fa,. Nor In Deep,1l
"Upon LookIng Up at the COnst.llatlon.... ". Will Sing You One-O," end
HAGqualnted with tha NIght."
'arheps. a. the Jau Una In ltOas'gn"
,_,lie•• the 'mp"ess'on of ..Ievol.nce exist. only In the eye of the
beholder, man. who, Itke the f'gure on the beach In ltThe Most of
't."
II ridiculed only by "the mockIng echo ofhh own unanswe,ed erie. for
lven the 0-Iurge', 'augh Is that of one
mean'ng.
U"",o
utterly couldn't
care."
The universe,
Night" and
a. 'rost descrIbes
tt' Will S.ng You One-O,"
It In "Acquainted with the
I•• vast clockllk. mechanls. whIch
ticks regul.rly on at the peee determIned by Its cogs and lIIIh... s. with
no more coneern for ..n· ••thlca' confu.lon than a
for the condition of the Ileeper It awake..
~.Jde
a'arm ha.
The .tonty night which .,..
pears In .ach 0' the bIG poeM .ervel tt.. .ame symbolic functIon
the wllder.,..I.
loth
~
portray
.,.t
chaM within the
8' does
fr~rk
of
mechan II t f corder. theroy ref 1eet' ng the p1l ght ., "'ern .an. who
3S
scientist ha. uneover.-d the 'ntrlcate workings of nature only to
fInd that thay cteny thOle fnf.rences of
as phltoaopMr.
lftOtat ""Jue which he has ucle
The ..... I It v.vate ,rOlt·s bell.f that In the .pl r-
Itual desolatIon ..epr•••nted by the nIght
0' the
wlldernesl men ar. not
only condemned to Individual lon.lIness. but also to Mutual fear and
conflIct.
In
II'
'If 11 S' ng You
One-O.If Jn wh Ic:h , ros t desert bes wek In9 on
a wIndy. snowy nIght to hear the clocks of the town strike the hour of
14
one, he
NkeS
the relatlon.hlp between the Jocal clock. and the grut
meehanl,. of the unlver.e explicit:
fn that grave One
They spoke of the lun
And MOOn .nd .ter••
Saturn and Mars
And ,Jupf tor.
Stili more unfettered.
They l.f t the .,.....
And spoke of the Jettered.
1'btt ...... and tav.
Of constellations.
1'bey fIned the'r throats
With the furthest bodle.
To which . .n senti hft
Speculation.
"yomf wh I ch lod I••
The cosmic mote.
Of yewn'ng I.n....
theIr solemn PNh
Vere not thel, owrt:
They spoke for the clock
With . . . . yalt ....,.
Thefr. Interlock.
Whatever God there Is remains outside raen's c..,rehens'on. beyond the
'Meh of' hit "speculatIon."
ent almle.snes.
As he proceed•• 'rostlnd'cate. the appar-
0' creation, end
l.plles that a .ense of thIs purpose-
le••nes. h•• affected the behavIor of men to men.
Th.ough let so far
ftl whirling frenz'es
Appear lIke standIng
In one .e" .tatlon.
It hal not ranged.
And uve for the wonder
Of once expandIng
To be a nOVI,
It has not changed
To the eye of man
On planett over
Around and under
It In creation
Sf nee un began
To drag down man
And nation nation.
IS
fn "AcquaInt'" with the Nitht. u Frost dr. . th•• hIs own unsucces,f"l .....ch for ..,.a' order In .. unlver.. which he find• • U.n and
lnet"ferent.
Rather than risk the
d.~'"
of .. ,,-,Ity or . .uenln
self-ctr. .tlzatlon, he open. and close, the PHIl with. line whIch sugge.ts that hit ,.rsona' frultr'at'on Is not a unique cur••• but reftects
line 'ncUcat••• he I. only lIone"
0' uny .en who ..... hact to ltve In an
age of' .pl rI tua' bewlldef'lMnt.
t have been one acqua'nt" w'th the ftltht.
, have walked out In raln..·and back In rain.
t have outwalUd the fur'.... t cIty tight.
, have looked downth•••eW•• t city lane.
, have pelsed by the watchmen on hf I beat
And dro".. IRY • .,.., """,lttlng to ••,'aln.
t"'"
• have • toed It 111 an4 •
the I . .NI of f . .t
When f.r away an Interrupted cry
c.. over hous•• trOll enother 'tr..t ..
Ivt not to call _ back .r '.y good-by;
And further stIll at an unearthly heIght,
One
'.'nary clock agaln.ttM .ky
'rocl...... the tl•
• _ .... It...r wrong ..... r'ght.
a have been one acquaInted '"Ith the n t gh t •
The clock to whIch Frost refers In lIne. 11 to 13 recalls the
"alt clock of the un'ver•• th4t he portrays in "f Witl $Ing You One·o.'·
The siMIlarity is emphasized in pertlcul.r by the suggest'on that the
It
J lID r"" roy
• 8g8 fils
C IGCkft
Is the moon.
It appears at an "unearthly height • •
t the sky." and the term ''I uml nary ,It as the
Rxfordlns IIsh
Dictionary states, Is "pr.... em.nently a,p. ted to the sun or
tn.
moon."
16
(Aceoretlng to an okolete us.9ft •• t continues, the t .... Uthe 1_'Mr.....
often re'erred to tbe .un end the MOOn.)
As In •• , W.II SIng You Ofteoo'O.u
then, the clock repr..entl the Indlff.rent uchlnery of Mture , .
whIch
Nn
born Into the "'rhual n'ght wh'oh charecterlz.. our tttl
cen dltcern ne'ther good nor ev'l.
It well-chosen, .fnce the
MOOI\
•
fn this CORtex'. the word uproc'al'"
enel rcle. the .arth. and ,'nee-- tlke the
word Uti_e_-It reeon"ras the "apUeaUon that ,,... t', cUI. . . I.
ch.racterlstlc of our era.
The poet's 'nabliity to '.t'sfy hIs long'ng. for a revelation of
....1 or.r •• Incllcated both by the • • cr.,tlon of his .-net.rlngs .nd
by the
tM
'tructura of tha
~,
~
It.elf.
"'s
walk• • ra
round tr'ps. Lfke
which begIns and endl with tha I " Itatement, he never .,-
dve. anywhere.
'nMI only ,...egr... lon lilIhlch the,...
_lea,
'S
fl". the
,.,Uc.tlons of .Ii..... tlon and confu.loncarrhHl by the .,.n"" scenes
tothe ex,lIclt •••• ion of .,al bewU.....nt In the fin.' couplat.
Tbe rhy," contrlbut.. to the fMUng .f purposeIe••••• whIch
the . . . COttvey..
The ..coneS .. ne .erves 8' en •
.,.e: '"
have
_tkeel out In r.I.,..·.n4 back In r.ln. u Here t .... rhvtt.-'cal ItrO.I • •1
•• 1 •• tho "Ih, underscores the para' '.1 c• • trucelon of the
phra'.1 Mglnning with "outH and Hbeck."
The rhyme pettern (.ba;bcb;
c4c;dd;••) .11. ,.o'nf.rc.. tho '..,..o'ilon of clrcul.rlty.
an4 t.lt line. of NCh .laAza rhyM••net the In' tI.1
•n thee.
01'
two
rh~
The flrlt
Is r.,..tect
"9 couplet.
In l'Acqua'nted w'th the Night," •• In
tt. 'It II Sing You One-O."
Frost .ploy. theurb4n .ettlng offect'vely in order to _pha.lze the
I]
Indlvldualls holatlon from his feI1OW1Nn- ... problem which I. magnified
by the loss of a cOl'II8Only shared Iyst_ of values In term. of which ..n
My cOIaIUnlcate wIth one another.
In both
tM .t.nRY night has
~"
,
driven
MOlt lINIn
off the
str. . ts
and Into the I r
. . . . . 10
tut even In
the city they live apert, Immured agaln.t the threatening darkne.s.
Wanting any Iyst. of objectIve v.lue., they turn Into t ...... lvet. so
that the house, are. perha". repre.entatlye of the IndivIdual subjec-
tivIty which .eperate, man 'rOD ..n.
AI' shall mention again. Fr.st
.hare. little of the hope Camus expr.s••• In
lbe ,1-821 that ..nls
spirit of rebellion against an ab,ur4!l unlyer.ewlJl resuft In an a'"
flt'MatJon of hUNn .olld..... ty; Instead. the night of IIOrat confu.lon
I..HS to IndIvIdual sol Stude and wtual ,usplcton.
The poet I. "un-
w'lllng i to ,peak to the only porson he .... tI. who .s. appropriately•
.. "watehnaan," a IIIn hi red by men 'n order to ,rotect tn-,elve. 'rOIl
other ..n.
The cry In the third .t.nz.·.. th. Inarticulate wall to
which human communication he. been rHuced....... not only fnterrupted,
but ,eperated
f,.. the
H It.ner bV the hOUte..
The $en.e of c_,'ete
l,oJation Is furth.r ,e'nforCed by Frost'. Itat-.nt that when he
paused, the sound of feet .topped. and that the cry
Me
we. l'not to call
beck or .ey tood-byto"
"AcquaInted with the "Ight." like ..... 'gn.. and nTh. Most of It ...
Is MOng Frost's best poeu.
He avoids the exce.slve .ent ' . .ntat Ity
which charecterhe• •ny modern bew4iI" . .ntl of persona' frustration
and confusion by treatIng his Indlvlduel d'l.... not
a. a unIque .f,-
fortune or .n unulual psychic wound, but as repre.entatlve of thet
18
conflict between the human need 'or
180.... 1 order
cern I t which INIny ..n MV4t had tof'ace In
OUr
HCt the INbl1hV to dhi-
century.
Following hit
de.crlptlon of the nIght, of the mode,-n clll_ and Its consequences,
Frost' .....,.U tlon of the open'ng 11 ne at the end of the poem sounds
lIke an understatement.
Both "AcquaInted with the HIght" and ." Will SIng You One"O" ,,,...
dleate that human relatIonshIps haV4t suffered In the ethIcal ..,teland
of the modern world.
Although he clearly recognIze. the corrosIve e'-
fects of the modern dIlemma upon the tles between man and men, however.
Frost beHeve. that the IndIvidual hUINn being Is capable of .. tnta'"...
Ing • certain dignIty even In an er. of morat bewlld.nnent.
then accept a degraded. or Kafkaesque vIsion
Rather
0' men, he sugSests that
whatever higher order there Is conffrm. his own estimate of man's .....
sentlel worth.
I should like to examlne fn this context the short lyrIc,
"For Once, Then. SomethIng."
Othe...s taunt me wIth havIng knelt at wett"curbs
AI.-vs wrong to the light. 10n... r
Deeper down t n the we I t than wh.re the water
Glvel .. back In a shining Iurfac. ,'cture
Me mvs.1 f f n the I~r heave'" god It ke
Lookfng out of a wre.tho' f.rn. and cloud puff••
Once. when trvtng with chin aga_.nst a wel1-curb,
• discerned, .1 I thought, beyoqd the picture,
Through the pleture, 8 lomethlng white, uncerta'n,
Something eor. of the depthl.~8nd th.n • 100t It.
Water came to rebuke the too cle.r water.
One drop fell from. fern. and 10. a rlppl.
Shook whatever It wes lav th.re~t bottOM,
Blurred It, blotted It out. Wha~"1 that whiteness?
Truth? Apebbte of quartz? Fo, ~ce, th.n, SOMething.
''''Ag
Frost's position at the well-curb il a car.funy developed
celt through which he descrtbes his phi tosophlcat quest for some
c~­
19
&bsolut. or fdul.
The concludIng phr•••• "'or once. then, something,"
whIch receive. additIonal emphasis a. the tItle of the poem, Indicates
'rost's acceptance of the possIbilIty that lome absolute does exist.
even though It , . .Ins Inscrutable.
Moreover.
the fact that the poet
does perce Iv. "sGlHth Ing" conf I rAtS the d Jgn If led" J ,Ion of un wh Ich
his position t'wrong to the IIght U affords.
'rost Inshts that whateY'
ftnal truth the,e "y be IWIt be .een through-"an. consequently _st
gIve value to--th. plctur.
0' hl ••elf which surf.ce re.llty refl.cts
The laportance of the surface picture Itsel', or of m.n In natur., I •
.....Ih.et by the IntentIonally redundant t.....y.elf ,'t the words .*h.....
venti and 'tgocfllke." the h.lo-l1k. "wr.ath
of
f.rn and cloud puffl,u .nd
the rhetorlc.l .tr... proctuced by the all It.r.tlve tts" syll.ble.:
,.It
'lshlnln9 surf.ce . . . . . . . .
In l'ne. 7 to II, which describe that partlcul.r Inlt.nce In
hlch the poet fInally percelv•• III000th'"g ore of the depths," h.
:.tr..... the 'act thet J t Is .een not only "beyond the plctur.1t but
tthrough the
plcturel~-w'thout
losing sight of the picture.
The lines
echo RobInson's ItCredo," which also concludes .ffl ....tly.ly:
No, there Is not a gll.mer. nor a c.ll,
tMt welc.......Ie. . . llIlhen he fee,..,
Th. bl.ck .nd awful chao. of the n'ght;
'or through It .Il,·-.bove, beyond
all,-I know the f.r-sent ......ge of the y••,..,
I feel the cam'ng g'ory of the Light!
'01"
on.
Although FrOlt'.
't
g".P'. 0' .n _bftUOUI .....thlng'· .xpr••••'
no hope for the eventual .nJlght....nt wh'ch Rob'n.on predicts, both
poets I.ply that even In the moral ch.os of our age the Indlvldu.1 can
20
pre••rve his dignity and Integrl ty.
The exalted pIcture of hfmself
which Frost .ee. r.flected In the well, like the "dark, marvelous, and
Inscrutabl." flgur. which Robinson s... silhouetted on the hIlltop In
"Man Against the Sky." str.sses the nobility of
In the final line,
t~ruth1
Nn.
r
A pebble of quartz? For once, then,
'OIMthlng," Fro'tagaln Juxtapose. the r.. l and the Ideal.
The _blgu-
ous whltenea. disappears, but the .ugg.stlon of value underlying the
"shining lurfaee plctur." , . .Ins.
The 9"mp.e of .mhenes. Is the
poet', answer to thOle who have taunted hfm for Inshtlng on the signifIcance of the godlIke visIon of man In nature which the surface of the
water reflects.
~
Frost skillfully exploht the InventIon upon which the
rests In order to ..phaslze the Interre'atlonshlp of tha raal and
the Ideal which It all.rtl.
Although he portrays the modern world .s a .,Irltual wllderne•• ,
In whIch men-"although they mey ..Intaln a certain Individual dlgnlty-are Isolated 'rom ona another by mutuel f.ar and lusplclon, Frost asserts tho valu. of earthly existence.
In ...Irch.... "e ..ke. explicit
his .fflnDatlon of life In spite of Its ..ny '.perfectlons and the deslra whIch he occasionally f .. l. to esca,. Its vicissitude.:
It'. when It. weary of considerations,
And life Is too much like a pathless wood
Where your 'ace burns and tickle. wIth the cobwebs
.roken acrOiS It, and one eye Is weepIng
From a twig's havl ng l ••hed across It open..
"6 like to get .-.y from earth ..nIle
And then COlH back to It and Mgtn over.
May no fate willfully .Isunderstand ..
21
And half grant what I wish and snatch 1M . .y
Not t~ return. larth', the right place f.r love:
I don't know where
It',
likely to go bettor.
Even In the trackl.,• .cod of a morally Indlff.rent nature, In which
RIOdern un wanders confu.ecHy, an e.sy prey to spiritual weariness,
llf. offers c.rtaln attractIons.
I should like to disculs In greater ctetan than "'Irches" e IlUch
shorter and 1.ss poputer ,..a. ItOn Going Unnoticed." nto latter , . .
also suggests that HEarth"
the right place for love," but the ."Inu-
tlon •• more restrained, and, I feel. mor. e"ectlve:
As vain to r.lse a volee ••• sigh
In the tumult of free 1••vel on high.
What .re you 1n the .had_ .f tr..,
Engaged up tbere with the light end breez.?
LeiS than the cor. I-root you know
That Is content with the daylight low.
And has no lea... at .11 of It.
Whose spotted f lowers he", .... nly down.
own.
You gr.sp the bark by • rugged pl.at,
And look up ... 0 f r . the forest's , .. t.
The only 1•• f I t drops goes wIde,
Your n... not written on either sid••
You linger your l'ttle hour and are gone,
And Itll' the woodl sweep 'e.'lly on,
Not even .;,slng the coral-root flower
You took .s • trophy of the hour.
Once again Frost .pJoys the wi hternes, setting.
The contrast
between light and shadow IntrodUCed In the first Itanza, ,uppl.anted
by
the contralt between the I'fr.. le.ves on high" and • plant .ppre,d·
atelY named coral-root which h.1 no ' ..ve, at all sugge.ts the conflict
batween . .n'l need to dllcern , . . tranlcenclent val". an4 his Inability
22
to do so.
In the modern world, ...n, who cannot cOlltprehend and a".r..
ently goes "unnoticed" by the higher order toward. which hfs spirit
y. . rnl,
",ult flnaUy content hlm.eH with the h.",fect beautle. of
earthly I He. wi th a plant "Who.e spotted flower. hang . .anly down."
The poem Is carefully written.
The syntax Is cle.r and the
yocabulary Ilmple, but the language I. characterlled by a precIsIon
which place. It far above the barta', conversational 'evel frequently
seen in Frost', drametlc narrative..
a.
• anlng
Rhythm effectIvely reInforce•
In the line, "AI va'n to 'ahe
11
vo'ce
a.
a sigh," .ere
the .lIlter.trye, h••yJ1y accented ltv" sounds _pha,'ze the relation'"
Ship between "yaln" and 'Iyolce," and accentuate the dro, whIch occurs
at the end of the line.
The long syllable. In "And stilI the woodl
sweep I.aflly on," also underscore the sens., contrl butf n9 to I tI succ... .s one of the bel tit ne. I n the poeat.
The rhyme Icheme
sh., key words, such ., "s'gh," "Iow,lt Itdawn,"
uf•• t,lI
_ph.-
"gone," and
The Shake.peartan edt" (n another gGOd 11 ne, "You II nge,. your
"hour."
little hour and are gone,lI supports the contrast between man's aph...
arat ex',tence and the eternal wood' developed In tha lalt Itanza.
this context the word "trophy" Is well chol.n.
'Ife
10
I.
In
For un, fac.d with a
fl ..ting, the flower's not so poor a prlz••
Frost
appreclathm of natural beauty for I tI own sake as ..
real It y wh I ch has va' ue I n f ue tf Is also .xp.....ed I n the .poem l'Hy la
IrookH :
0'
Iy Jun. our brook'i run out
long and lpeed
Sought for IJUch .fter that, I t wI' I be fGUnd
Either to have gone grO"'lng underground
(And taken with It 811 tha Myl. breed
23
That shouted In the .Ist a month .go,
LIke ghost of .1.'9h.. bell, In a ghost of snow)-Or flourished an4 come up In jewel-weed,
WUk foliage that II blown upon and bent
Even agaInst the way Ite water. went.
I tI bed It left 8 faded peper sheet
Of d.ad Ie.... Ituck tog.th.r by the heat-A brook to none but who r-....ber long.
Thl. a. It will be ...n
other far
Than wi th brooks taken othe""".r. In long.
we love the thl n9' we loy. f.r whet they are.
'S
The real brook, with It. IOftg and ,peed subject to the ....on. Is pre-
ferred to the romantIcized Ilter.ry brook whfch babble' the whole year
round.
The attitude whIch Frost expresses towards Iffe In the moral
wi Iderne•• of the ....rn world In "On GoIng Unnetlc"· Is character"
Istlc of that whIch h. a'sumes throughout the body of hIs poetry.
As
the poem Indlc.te., Frost ., a thorough"golng skePtIc, but not apes,Im'st; h. recognize, the Irony of man's sItuatIon In the mod.rn w.l ..
d.rn....... un.bl. to comprehend the transcend.nt order for which the
human spIrit yearns"-but h. avoIds d•• pelr.
hs pl.asur•• for what they ar... -flawed,
Me see•••rthly "fe and
.pheme,.', and
but the fact that he perceive. th••e IIm'tatlOM
final affinDatlon the mor• •ffectlve.
.0
unsatlsfY'ftg--
c'early ...k•• hI.
In an apparently Indlff.rent
universe mod.rn man II fet.d to live. life of .plrhua' frustration,
but Frost ass.rtl that he he. the nobilIty and strength of spirit to
do 10.
The wf tderne...
or the Itpeth1ess wood,1t which surround. the
clear'ng In Frost's poetry, then I. 'v-bolfe of the mechanistIc unlverse, unconc.rned with the human ne.d for
~.I
and ethical guIde.,
24
which science has reyealed to m8n.
It represents. world which denies
any inf.rences of transcendent yalue, and In whIch man Is laolated from
un by the 10$1 of any cCl1Donly shared Iyst_ of beliefs In terms of
which cODmUnicatlon would be possible.
wl'derne.s
I
ytnbo I I ze.
Like C.-ul' plague, Frost's
the unlversa' prospect of .,al chaos which, by
contradIcting thOle values and 'deals heretofore believed to dlst'ogulsh
men 'roe the anl.. I., threatenl to Itr', hI. of his humen qu.l.t ••••
THE CLEAR ING
Although Frost believe. that man lives in a universe which appears to be absurd, he doe. not turn to despelr; he does not i.ply that
the individual can only
beCCll'ltt
a "spiritual drifter," destined to w.n-
der erratically in .. wildernesl of ideological confusJon.
He insists
that man can and mUlt establish a clearing In the wilderness, .. limited
dOMain of ethical order in teras of which he can save his humanity de·
spite the prospect of moral chaol.
Like Camus' I'homme r!yolt"
Frost
believes that through the unflagging exertion of his will and the coordlnated efforts of his mind and body, man can maintain his el.arlng.
that Is. transcend bestial anarchy and preserve his hUManity In an
.Ileo world.
In uRober t Fros t and the Edge of the C188 rI n9, II James Cox recognJzes the Importance which the conflict between the clearing and the
wilderness assumes In Frost's poetry. but he discusses the development
of the clearing only as Frost's attempt to cre.te, from the wildernesl
of his personal experience, the ··.yth of Robert Frost. The Only GenuIne Robert Frost In Captivity."
15
According to Cox, Frost
15
primarily
concerned with dramatizing and characterizing himself a. a New England
farmer poet. a. a "kind of stage Vankee full of gnomic wisdom and
prankish humor, carrying his history In his head and venturing cryptic
15Ylrginia quarterly Reylew, XXXV (Winter, 1959), 74.
26
comment upon all .xperlenc. In • sufficIently provlncl.l manner to r.·
16
mInd thea of • pr.conc.lved c.rlcatur....
Since Cox falls to discusl the direct r.latlonshlp between Frost's
sV-bollc us.
of the
wild.rness .nd the Indlff.r.nt unly.rs. which modern
man confronts, It II not lurpriling th.t h. llkewls. f.lls to pote the
unlver•• 1 slgnlflc.nce which the cl ••rlng .ISumeS.
If Frost's contrf·
butlon to modern American poetry I. to be .ccur.t.ly ey.luated. it Is
ess.ntl.1 to recognlz. that h. I. not only developing a ch.r.cter for
hlms.lf, but. ch.r.ct.r In the context of our tlmel.
H. Is not limply
conc.rned wIth cre.ting uThe Only G.nuln. Robert Frost In CaptIYlty''''·
he
is prtmarlly conc.rned with dr••tlzlng through his description of
the perlonellty which Inhabits and pre••rv.s the clearIng, the prlnclpl •• which coaprlse his r.spons. to the mod.rn dilemma.
Th. Importanc. which Frolt attrlbut.s to the clearing Is Indlcated by the fact th.t h. calls his last volume of published poetry
In the Clearlns.
He auk•• the unlv.rsal slgnlflcanc. of the clearing
In the wlldern.ss evld.nt in one of the first poeml In the coll.ctlon,
UA Cabin In the Clearing," In which the personifications of I 'Smoke" and
Ilml stl ' appr.iI. the shuation of mod.rn ... n, "The kindred spl rJ t of an
I nner
haze":
MIST
I don't believe the sleeper. In thl' hoUI.
Know where they
.r..
SMOKI
They' y. been here long .nough
To push the woods back fr. . .rouncl the house
And pert thea In the .ld41. with. path.
16.!!!.!!., p. 75
27
HIST
And stIll I doubt If they know where they ar••
And I begIn to feer they never wIll.
All th.y .. Int.'n the path 'or I. the comfort
Of visIting with the equ.lly bewildered.
Hear.r In plight their neighbors ar. th.n dlst.nce.
SMOKE
I am the guardl.n wr.lth of .t~rJlt sm_ke
That I..nl out thIs and that way from their chImney.
I wll' not h.ve the'r h."lnos, de,,.lred of.
"'.ST
No one--not '--would give tn.. up for lost
SI.ply bec.u•• they don't know wh.r. they .re.
In the face of the .llen unl.".,•• that the wIlderness r.pr•••nts. Frost
turns to hope rather than d••pal,.
oesplte the ulnner hazw' of mor.l
confusion which INn luffe" In an Indlff.r.nt world. h. Is capable .f
creating. 1I.lted order •• lUll cl••rlng like "_'ngwey's itA CI.an.
wen-Lighted Pl.c.... In which he can .scape the thr.at of spIritual
Th. I.n•••f .ecurlty whIch man can dl.coy.r In the cl.arlng Is
lugg.sted by a number of Frost's , . .. . . . .n9 tt•• uCocoon" and "AtMSphere." The letter. which Is subtitled, n'nscrl ptlon for. larden Wat1 ,"
conveys flWch the .... 118pr.,,'on of .tabllity .Idst chaos a. does Vvor
Wlnt.r's r.ference to his neighbor', g.rden In "Iy the Road to the
Alrba..... '7 Fr.st',
poent
r••dl e. follows:
17 The callou'ed graIl lie. hard
The hIghway, lIke a beach,
Turn. whIter. shadowy, dry:
AgaInst the cracking pl.ln:
Llf. Is • grayl.h Italn;
Loud. pale agalnlt the sky.
The .alt-Nrsh h_1 my y.rd.
The boablng ,lane, hold .peech.
Dry dIkes rise hill on hIlI:
V.t fruIt grows on the tr.e.;
In slought of tidal ,II..
Her. schol.rs peuse to speak;
Shel'-fl,h .eposlt II...
Through g.rden. bar. and Greek.
Wild sea-fowl cree,.t will.
I he.r -v neighbor's be.l.
Collected Poems. 2nd ed. (London,I960), p. 77.
28
Wlndl blow the open gr.sly places ble.k;
But .nere this old ~ll burnl a sunny cheek,
They eddy over It too toppling weak
To blow the ..rth or .nythlng lelf-clear;
Moisture .nd color and odor thicken here.
The hOUri .f daylight g.ther atMOSphere.
Just a... g.rdener erectl walll agalnlt the wInd which deslcc.tel the
bleak "gr.ssy pl.c..... s. that his g.rden will thrive. man e.t.bllshe.
barriers .f v.lue .galnst the prospect of despair which h. confronts
In .n Indifferent unlv.rse
10
that life becomes meaningful.
In 'tyhe Figure In the Doorway" Frost indlcat.s the dignity whIch
Is achieved by the Individual who Is able through his own 'abors to
Impose upon an Indifferent world .n order which Is lufflclent to .. Intaln hi. Integrity.
The poet attrIbutes to the solitary figure whom he
gllmpt.s fro. a pas.'ng train an alpect of lonely grandeur 11_ll.r to
that wh 1ch Rob Inion alcrl bel to uThe Ken Ag.1 nl t the Sky. It The poem
opens with the poet's descrlpt'on of the westeland In whIch the fIgure
lives, a "monotony" of '.vel ground covered only by stunt" oaks. th.t
raealll the "sameness" of the wIlderness in ''The D_lurge's Laugh."
Frost's Introduction of the figure as that of a "'Ivlng manit f.,.eshadows the approbatlve tone est.bllshed In the subsequent 'Ine, "His
gr.at gaunt figure filled his cabin door." The ..n's ability to survIve In the wasteland h. Inh.blts Is made explIcIt In the next few
lines:
And had he fall.n InNerd on the floor,
He ..,st h.lve .....ur.d te the further wall.
But we whe ,..sed were not to see hili fal'.
Th••1'e, and .11•• h. lived frem anY'i'here
were evidently .... thfng h. could bear.
Ne stood unshaken, and I' grl••nd gaunt.
It
not necessarily f r . want.
we.
29
He had the oaks for heat~ng and for light.
He had a hen, he had a pig In sight.
He had a well, he had the rain to catch.
He had a ten-by-twenty garden patch.
The first two lines of the quotation, like Frost's statement that the
man "filled" the cabin door, suggest that the c.abln Is measured to fit
human needs.
wants.
It Is made by man hl.self In order to supply his own
The "unshaken" figure In the doorwy represents Frost's belief
that man can endure life In a world In whlc.h God I., at best, remote,
and that the stru991e to endure endows hi. with a certain nobIlIty.
Like the lonely fIgure who has acquIred the food and shelter essential
to physlca' lIfe frem a wasteland, mankInd can establish the values
essential to the preservatIon of spiritual uprightness.
The conclusIon of the poem (reiterated more explicItly In such
poems
lilt)
"A Or. . lIn Woodchuck" and "A Serious Step Lightly Taken") sug-
gests Frost's belle' that the order which the clearing represents fs
secured by the IndIvidual or by the family, the basic social units,
rather than by loc'ety.
Unlike Camus, who stresses the 'mportance of
human solidarity In the struggle to defeat the plague of absurdity,
Frost expres.e. I'ttle hope that the Individual will be able to dIscover a satisfactory response to the modern dilemma In unIted socIal
actIon <al he Implle. In both
"11th the NIght").
It,
Will SIns You One-Ott and "AcquaInted
The concluding lines of "The FIgure In the Doorway"
read a. follows:
Nor dId he lack for common entertainMent.
TMt I .s• ..- was wh.t our ,..slng train ...nt.
He could look at us In our dIner eatIng.
And If so MOved uncurl a hand In greeting.
30
For Frolt, part of the dIgnity that the IndivIdual acquire. through the
.stabllshment of I'll. cl ••rlng Is derived from his ability, once h. hal
obtaln.d poss.sslon of hi. own ord.r, to either accept or reject the
attitudes currently held by society In general.
Secure within hI. own
self-sufficiency, he .. y grant or withhold h•• acqulescenc., h. may
wave or not, as hi. awn bell.f. dictate.
Per"'ps the leverest crltlcl. that can be leve'. agaInst
Frost's philosophical position Is that It incorporat•• no concept .f
locial r••pontlbfllty·.. that, l'kethe drumlfn woodchuck, he Is too
quick to "dive down unet.r the fa",,' when faced wI th the harsh realltie. of Ute "Lik. wer and pestllencel And the loss of
CQIMlOn
s.n.....
But the woodchuck', burrow, like the clearing, r.pr••ents those prlftelpl., upon whIch the Indlvlduel has baled hi. Ilf., and not an un"
realIstic e.ea,. from on.'. responslbllltl.s to his fellow ..n.
"All
we who pre'er to Ilv.," Frost stet•• , r.turn to our burrows at "th.
least a'anat' arwl "tak. occasion to thInk." A man who wish•• to r.taln
his IntegrIty
Of
humen'ty In .plte of the combined physIcal and Ipirl-
tu.1 thr.U posed by • chaotic world, the "double-barreled blast,"
can only r.v.rt to a system of values whIch he himself has founGed.
In the short poera, "Beech," Frost make. the tyatbol'e sign' fIcane. of the clearing In the wlld.rness
~p"cit.
Th. poem reaGs al
follows:
Wh.r. any I.g'nary lIne
Bends square in woods, an Iron spIn.
And pile of real rocks hay. been rounc:ted.
And off this corner In the wIld,
Wh.r. th.s. are drIven In end piled.
31
One tr.. , by being d. .ply WGunctM,
Kas been '.pr.s.eeI .1 Wltne.s Tre.
And made cOI1MIt to .....ry
My proof of being not unbounded.
Thus truth's e.tabllshed and borne out,
Though circumstanced with dark and doubt-Though by • world of doubt surrounded.
As the last three Jine. of the POM indicate, the "wood',1t or the ltw'I4,"
repre.ents a ltwor1d of ctoubt," and the plot of tand which the poet hal
marked off Is the "truth" or order which he has .ecur. against the
surrounding ehaos.
The statement that the poem make. fl obvious enough.
The world Is • mor.t wllderne.s fn Which the Individual can .stabllsh
only a )hllted order,
8
smelt clearing In the tlpathless wood," so that
the .rken which .,.e the poet's "proof of beIng not unbound......• Iymbet-
leze both the limitation. of the order whIch he comprehends and the
fact that h. comprehend. ft.
As In "At...ph.r.... then, the very act
of establl.hing MeanIng Involves the ta.k of erecting barrIer. against
the 811en universe which .edern Man Inhabit..
To Frost nature Is a foe
to be r•• 'sted by man In hIs atteMpt to create meaning; It Is not, as
It Is to Wordsworth, a friend who can lead man to the dIscovery of
transcendent value••
Throughovt the poem Frost us•• "erbs which denote violent or
forceful action In order to underscore the fect that the IndIvidual
Must struggle hard If he Is to survive the conflIct between men and
nature """Ich the opposl tlon between the cle.rlng and the wilderness
symbolizes.
The "Iron splnel l hal been "drlven" Into the .rth. and
Is further supported by rocks IIpi'l ~dl' .agal nst I ts base. whIle the beech
has been "deeply wounded" or tll.pressed."
32
Similarly, FrOlt playl upon teMmlnology .ssoclated with the law,
lueh as "WItness,1t "proof. 1I and "circumstanced."
Th. I.pllcatlon Is
that "truth," like lega' evldenc. of a property elal., cannot be care.... lyassUlHd, but mutt be fl,..Iy '''stabllshed and borne out."
At In his , . . t on the subject of labor, 'rOlt Indleat•• In "Beech"
that the cr.atlon of ... nlng Involva the .stabllshlHnt
correspondence between the r.. 1 and the " ..glnary.
0' • 1I.It.d
Th. cl.rlng Is that
, ..II area In whIch un has . .nag. to subordlnat. nature to ht.
GIIIm
need for order, In whIch the Indlyldual ha. en'orc" an apparent resolulion of the duell .. of .Ind and . .u.r that he confronts In the IIOdern
The positIon of the " .....,I08ry lin." In the first var•• I •
world.
• arked by the "r•• 1 rocks" In the third, and by the ulron" stake In the
.econd, In .... ,eb 'ro.t undersc.ral the rel.tlonshlp by rhyatlng "spina"
with 11lIne." The rh.,.lng of "Wltne•• TrM" and "....ry.. In lines 7
and 8, like the perall.1 structure .f the two lin••, ""fch JUJIltapos.s
U,.,re""1t and ftc_I t,lI ah. relnforcel the la,I'el t correspondence
between the 'ntel1actual ancf the . .te,la1.
fn add I tlon, the rhyM
Icheme . .rkl the eonc'u.lon of each of the four trlpl.tl by repeatIng
the
"bt'
rhyMe, while the ter.e tetr_ter line accentuat.. the
dec.,.
tlve ".pllclty of a highly .ophl'tlcated poaa.
fn hi. '~el.te Poems Frost placal • second poem call.d "Syca11IO.... '
on the
.8M
1Nge wI th "Beach." The poem reads:
Zaccheus he
Old clImb the
tree
Our Lord to se••
Frost obvloully Intends to sugg.st a connection betwe.n the Iye...re
33
which Zaccheus climbed in order to see Jesus (Luke XIX
own Witnes, Tree.
2~'O).
and his
80th Frost and Zaccheus are concerned with the'r
re~
spectlve trees at Implements which aid them In the attempt to discern
.anlng.
Perhaps Fr'Ost wishes to sU9gest the ironic contrast between
an era in which
S~
men, like Zaccheus, believed that they could ,ee
God walking upon the earth, and even dine with "'m, end an IIge In -..hlch
other men, like Frost, conceive ef lod, If they can believe In HI. at
811. as .. Befng fer rMOved Fr. human concerns.
implYing that
through~lt
But Frost Ny aho be
h:stQry It h.s been through the active attempt
to discover or to establish meanIng that men have most nearly approached
whatever God or transcendental order there may be.
His ....ech.. may
witness not only the bounds which real'z. hts cl••rlng, but .lso the
will to order which ml9ht stand a. evIdence of men', relationship to
some h 19M r good.
"Directive" Indicates Frost's belle' that the ".lues which enable
men to order and to clyllize the world 'n which they l'v. are IntrInsic
to humankind, so that even In an era of moral bewilderment the Indlyl ...
dual can dIscover them In himself If he il w'ltlng to se.rch hard
enough.
The poem is frost's direct'", to contemporarIes to find
wlth'~
themselves the spiritual strength to clear the moral wIlderness in
which th<Jy live.
As Fros t makes expli cit in the c los; n9 reference to itA broken
drinking goblet like the Grail," the poem plays upon the Mythical quest
that ..... been
8
popular subject In western literature for centuries.
The various versions of the myth afford
lome
of the numerous literary
precedents for Frost's use of the wllderne.s to symbolize moral chaos.
Like other versions of the myth. the quest that Frost describe. Involves
a Journey through a wasteland to a source of water. which symbolizes an
Inner journey through .plrltual desolation to spiritual renewal.
The
Poem opens:
0'
Back out
.11 this now too much for us.
Back In a time mede simple by the lOIS
Of detail, burned, dissolved, and broken off
Like graveyard marble sculpture In the weather,
There Is • house that II no more a house
Upon a farm that Is no IIOre a f.rm
And In a town that I. no MOre. town.
The roed there, If you'll let a guide direct you
Who only has at heart your getting lost,
May .e.. a. If It should have been a quarry-Great monolithic kn... the former town
Long since gave up pretense of keeping covered.
And there's a story In 8 book about It:
Besl de. the wear of I ron wagon wheels
The ledge. show lines ruled southeast northwest,
The chisel work of an enonDOUS Glacier
That braced his feet against ,he Arctic Pole.
You must not mind a certain coolness from him
Still said to haunt this side of 'anther Mountain.
Frost make. the relationship of his wasteland to the modern world and
Its confused Inhabitants evident In the first line.
The reference to
the graveyard sculpture, shorn of detaIls like names and dates which
are relevant to specific periods and people, suggests that the "time"
to which Frost refer. Is one In which men are aware of general truths-the eternal fact of death--rather than ephemeral pertlculars--the Indlvidual dead.
The place or the era to which Frost offers to guide the
reader represents those values which, Frost Implle., are as much a part
of mankind's lot a. the lner.dlcable fact of his mortality.
tn order
to discern the.e values, however, the re.der must get ''lost,'' he must
35
escape from the chaotic mals of detail, composed in part perhaps of
the data which the scientist has compiled, that obscures his spiritual
perspective.
Frost's description of the g08l, Ita house that is no more
a house,"--not simply the town In which the house Is located or the
farm on which It stands--suggests at the outset of the poem that the
values which he wishes his contemporaries to rediscover are the Irreducible principles, the axioms upon which human civilization Is founded.
Like travel on the rock-strewn road of a quarry, however, the
way to spiritual clarification Is difficult.
Frost werns his traval-
lers against a Itcertaln coldness" .whIch can still be faIt from "an
enormous Glaclerl That braced his feet against the Arctic Pole," an
appropriate repre.entatl"e of nature's apperent Indlfferance to man,
which, like the n.... "Panther Mounta'n," suggests the brute energy embodied by the stag In liThe Most of It."
Frost also states that one need not .Ind "the serfal ordeall Of
being watched fra. forty cellar holesl As if by eye pairs out of forty
firkins."
The last line plays upon • covert r.ference to the forty
thieves whom Morglan. surprised as they lurked in the oil Jars.
In
the poem, since the "thieves" are conce.led In cell.r holes rather than
firkins, they serye
8S
representatives of tho.e men who, by denying
basic human value., have lost the "houses" which protected them from
the wasteland of moral confusion.
They ha.,e .1 lowed the wilderness to
overrun their IndIvidual clearings; they have Joined the force. which
oppose the man in search of ...ni"9; but, al Frost Indicate., the threat
which they symbolize can be thwarted successfully.
36
The closing lines of the poem describe the discovery of the Gratl:
The height of adventure Is the height
Of country where two village cultures f.ded
Into each other. Both of them are lost.
And If you're 10lt enough to find yourself
Iy nOW, pu 11 In your Iadder road beb Ind you
And put a I Ign up CLOSED to all but me.
Then make yourself a t home. The on Iy fie Jd
Now left's no bigger than a harness gall.
First there'. the children's house of make believe,
Some shattered dlshe, underneath a pine,
The playthIngs In the playhouse of the children.
weep for what little thlngl could make them glad.
Then for the house that Is no more a house,
But only a belilaced cellar hole,
Now slowly clollng I.ke a dent in dough.
Thi' we' no playhou.e but a house In e.rnest.
Your destination .nd your destiny's
A brook that was the water of the house,
Cold al a spring as yet so ne.r Its source,
Too lofty and original to rage.
(we know the valley str.... that when aroused
Will leave their tatters hung on b.rb and thorn.)
, have kept hidden In the Instep .rch
Of an old cedar at the waterside
A broken drinking goblet like the Gr.'1
Under a spell 10 the wrong one. can't find It,
So can't get saved, a. Saint Mark say, they mustn't.
(I stole the goblet 'rom the children's playhouse.)
He,'• • re your waters and your watering place.
Drink and be whole aga'n beyond confusion.
As Frost's Instructions, "pull In your ladder road" and "put • sign up
CLOSED to all but me," make clear, the cl imb fr. the depths of confu·
sion to the he'ght of limited understanding is one which each person
must make for himself.
The external journey symbolizes an Internal
journey toward self-knowledge, which by definition is an Individual
process of examination for which others, like the poet, can only sug·
gelt general guidelines.
The "fleld no bigger than a harness gal'."
might be the soreness of spiritual need which remains in the traveler's
37
heart, or in his Innenmost self, once he has swept away the fragments
of detail.
It is at this point.
8.
Frost remarks, that "you're lost
enough to find yourself • • • . "
The process through which one finally finds oneself assumes a
certal n patter".
FI rst. Frost efl rects the r••der to lithe chi ldren' s
house of make belleye," syaabollc of chi ldish aspi rations to order and
to ciYlllzatlon, and next to the libel I laced cellar hole'f of a "house
tn earne.t," representatlye, perhaps. of adult disillusionment with
these same youthful Ideals.
By telling the traveler to weep
o~th
for
the "tittle thing'," like the broken dish, that were sufficient Inspiratlon(or the child's Imaginary house. and for the r.al, ruIned house
of adulthood. Frost Is guiding him to the recoqnltlon both of the nature and of the potential of the vatue. which he has 10lt in a pessimIstic era. and of the corrosive effectl of this 101. upon human civilization.
Tha fact that the Ideals upon which civilization Is founded
are reflected In the childish i__glnation reinforce. the Implication
that they are Il1'trfnslc aspects .f hUllWtn nature which man has temporarily lost sight of in the confusing mals of detail. like Iclentlflc
data. that surrounds him In the modern world.
Once the Iplritual journeyer hal reached this recognItion,
Frost directs him to the Grall, so that he can drink from the brook
that !twas tho water of the house." or so that. symbolically, he can renew his grasp upon those basic principle. whIch enable men to civilize
the world In which they ltve.
For Frost. this is each man'l "destination"
38
and "destIny"; it Is ·qofty and ortglnal," close to the "source" of
all those qualitIes whIch men call human, and In tenfts
0' whIch
they
dIstinguish themselves from the wIlderness of bIologIcal necessIty.
LIke the use of the Grai I myth, the term "desUny" suggests that
there Is a conn-Itctl .. n between the value. which Frost .fflrms, or the
source of spIritual rebIrth to whIch he directs hIs re.der, and some
divine or transcendent scheme.
The ImplIcatIon Is echoed In another
poem In which he agaIn uses the brook as a symbol, called "west-Running
Brook."
The
poetft
Is written In the form of a dialogue between a young
married couple, newly faced with the task of establIshIng and malnt.lnIn9 their own household, or clearIng In the wllderne,s.
clare. that as well
81
The wife de-
beIng marrIed to one another, they shall "both
be married to the brook,"
~nd
later the husband camments upon a wave
which" forced up by • submerged rock, pushes against the current of
the brook:
'Speaking of contrarle., ... how the brook
In that white wave runs counter to Itself.
It Is from that In weter we were from
Long, long before we were 'rom any creature.
. . . .. .... . ... .. .......
'It Is this backward motion toward the source,
Against the stream, that most we see ourselves In,
The trIbute of the current to the source.
It Is from thIs 'n nature we are from.
It Is molt us.'
The slIghtly playful tone that Frost assumes towards the Grall
myth f n "01 recti v.," al contrasted to Eliot's bl ttert y I ronle treatment
of a related myth In ''The Welteland," corresponds to the relative optlmlsm of Frost's conclusion.
His poem, unlIke ElIot's, not only Indicates
39
that we llv. in an age of moral confusion, but also that men are stIlI
capable of meintalnlng those conc.pts of yalue, 11k. dignity and love,
upon which th.lr humanity depends.
Tho characters in Eliot's poem
(the clerk and the typi.t, for ex.mple) reveal the author's beli.f th.t
men have surr.nd.red to the absurdity of the wasteland In which they
live, whi I. Frost .ddr..... "Di rectlyW' to his contemporarie. upon the
assumption that the human .pirlt 15 capable of resisting the d.spalr
which threatens man In an allen univer•••
Frost's half-whimsical comparison of those men who have yielded
to the wasteland to the forty thieves from The thOUSand and One Nights
parodies such portraits of IIan degraded as Eliot pelnts in "The Wastelaneflt or "Sweeney Among the Nightingale•• "
Sh"l1ar1y. Frost's paren-
thetical statement that hit "arall" has been stolen from the children's
playhouse might be read a. an Implied criticism of the complex, esoteric veil. of .'luslon which writers like Eliot us. to clothe their
modern myths.
Frost', deliberate simplification of the Grall myth sug-
gests that since the values which he afflnms are inherent In mankind,
as Indicated by th.lr appearance tn the child, they are to be discov.red by .tripplng away. rather than by compiling, deta'l.
'~tr.ct'v.1
recommends once more
8
return to the ¥alues repre-
.ented by that symbolic land over which the preacher In "The Black Cottag_' would like to reign, a de.ert broken by seattered oas.s, dedicated to those few. II_had, and bas'c "truth. we keep c_lng back and
back to. n
They are the truths upon which the ruined house. the "be'i-
taced e.llar hoI .... and the decay'ng cabin (the "'Iack Cottage") were
40
founded, and which men must reestablish In order to survive the .truggl. with the .ncroachlng wlld.rn••s
0'
Ideological confusion.
Among the value. e•••nt'a' to the clearing Is that of love, par-
tlcularly the lov. between IIItn and woman upon which the preservation
of the family d.pends, such as that sugg.sted by the aff.ctionat. dialogu. In "West-Running Brook."
In ttTwo Look at Two,II al In "For Onc.,
Th.n, Something." Frost d.scrlbel one of the rare Instanc•• in which
nature
I ....
to remove h.r hOlt"e mask and offer for a brief moment
some h'nt of meaning.
n..
opening lines of the POM Introduc. the
.pparent conflict betwe.n man and nature which charact.rlz•• the ....rn
dilemma:
Love and forgetting might have carried them
A little further up the mountain.ld.
WIth night so near. but not much further up.
They must have halted soon In any Case
With thoughts of the path back. how rough It wal
With rock and washout,and unsafe In darknesi.
When they were halted by a tumbled well
With barbed-wire binding. They stood facing this,
SpendIng what onward Impulse they stil' had
In one lalt look the way they must not go.
On up the f.lling path. where, If a Itone
Or earthllide moved at night. It moved Itself;
No footstep moved it. 'This', all,' they sighed.
Despite the love which binds thea together, the young couple cannot
go beyond a c.rtaln point in the darkening woods.
But, as they are
about to I.av., a doe appeer. which "se_ed to think thet two thus
they were saf.," followed shortly by h.r mate, an "antlered buck," who
remains for a moment equally unfrlghten.d.
as follows:
Frost's conclusion r••ds
41
Two had seen two, whichever side you spoke from.
'thIs ~ be all.' It W81 .11. StIlI they stood,
A great wave from it 90ln9 over them,
As If the earth In one unlooked-for favor
Had made them certain earth returned their love.
Like the mysterious whiteness in "For Once, Then, SOlHthlng,1I nature's
apparent response in "Two look at Two"
Frost's characteristic
lIAs
Is ambiguous.
lut In spite of
I f ,I' the suggestion remains that there Is,
pernaps, some higher order which verifies the value of
h~n
love.
Frost again Implle. that there Is "something:'
Frost .fflrms the value of human love even more emphatically in
the sonnet lithe Master Speed,lt which he addresses to lItwo," presumably
to a hUINnd and wH., whose love he compares to an ideal "swIftness,"
which enables them to run against the rush of time.
at
Unlike "Two Look
Two," the aff I rmat I on whl ch "The Master Speed" makes Is too extra"
vagant to be thoroughly
co~lnclng
tn the context of Frost's work. par-
tlcularly poor Is the concluding line.
The poem does, however, serve
as an Indication of the Importance which Frost attaches to the concept
of meritsl love:
No speed of wind or
~ter rUShing by
But you have speed far greeter. You can climb
Back up a stre.m of radiance to the sky,
And back through history up the stre•• of time.
And you were glyen this swiftness, not for haste
Nor chlafly that you may go where you will,
aut In the rush of everything to waste,
That you may hava the power .f standing stilI-Off any stilI or moving thing you say.
Two such as you wIth such a master speed
Cannot be parted nor be swept away
From one another once you are agreed
That life Is only II~e forevenDOr.
Together wing to wing and oar to oar.
In the face of the modern dll .... , Frost turns to hope
r~ther
42
than to despair, but he maintains an acute consciousness throughout
the body of his poetry, of the limitations of mants control over both
the internal and external forces
sents.
The
of
chaos which the wilderness repre-
preservation of the clearing require, a constant effort
since, In the event of death or despair, nature Immediately begins to
eradicate all signs of order.
Throughout his work Frost employs Images,
such as the cellar hole, "closing like a dent in dough." depicting natural forces of decay engaged in the process of overrunning the clearing.
"The Need of Being Versed in Country Things," which emphasizes
the indifference of nature to the human values which the clearing represents, Is among F'r:>st's most refined antiromantic poems.
as follows:
The house had gone to bring again
To the midnight sky a sunset glow.
Now the chimney wes .11 of the house that stood,
L1ke a pistil after the petals go.
The barn opposed across the way.
That would have Joined the house 1n flame
Had It been the will of the wind, was left
To bear forsaken the place's name.
No more It opened with all one end
For teams that came by the stony road
To drum on the floor wIth scurrying hoofs
And brush the mow with the summer load.
The birds that came to
At broken windows flew
Their murmur more like
From too much dwelling
Vet
And
And
And
for
the
the
the
It through the air
out and In,
the sigh we sigh
on what has been.
them the lilac renewed its leaf,
aged elm, though touched with fire;
dry pump flung up an awkward arm,
fence post carried a strand of wire.
It reads
43
For
But
One
Not
them there was really nothIng sad.
though they rejoiced In the nest they kept.
had to be ver.ed In country things
to believe the phoebes wept.
The content of the poem is obvIous.
Nature. as repre.ented by
the phoebes. 15 unconcerned with human losses.
But the effectIveness
of the statement dependl upon the subtle Irony which. from the t'rst
line to the last. pervades the atmosphere of romant'c nostalgia.
In
the "rst stanza Frost employs Images similar to those used by the romantic poets.
Rather than s'.ply stating that the houle "burned." he
playl upon the rOlNnt'c connotat'ons carried by phrases Itke "sunset
glOW" end "mldnlght sky."
The ute of the term ·'sunset." like the
CQIII-
pari son of the chimney to a "pfstll .fter the petals go." a ho'mpllel
that the burnIng of the house Is a part of a natural procesl of change
that is Indifferent to the human need for stability.
In the second stanza he again use. a phrase with a marked romantic flavor. "the will of the wind." In order to suggest 'ronlcally nature's hostil'ty to men.
Her. he e.tabl'shes the barn as a symbol for
the .en.e of lOIS which men assoc'.te with the destruct'.n of the house.
The third stanza reinforces the feeling of nostalgIa wh'ch the empty
barn evokes. foreshadowing the 'ntroductlon of the phoebes In the
fourth.
FrOlt's description of the birds. flying In and out of the
"broken w'ndows" of the barn. and the tJlUrllurJng sounds like human sighs •
• pltomize. the roment'c attitude towards nature a, .. force which responds to human values.
stanzas.
ThIs response he denies In the concluding
In the fifth stanza, Frost's juxtaposition of the lilac, the elm,
the puMp, and the surviving strand of wlr. fence i.plles that the phoebe. are as unconcerned with
h~n
loss
between natur.l and man-made perches.
8S
thay are with distinctions
Although the dry pump and the
half-ruined fence cannot renew themsalve., as can the litac and the elm,
theyara, like the barn, quite adequate for the birds' purposes,
if
not
for human needs.
Frost make. the implication explicit in the final stanza.
De-
spite the assumptions of the romantic. the ruined barn with its nostalgic associations r.pre.enta'hothing sad" to the birds that nest there.
To be "versed In country things" Is to re.tile that birds do not weep,
and that nature is indifferent when man suffers the lOIS of things of
vatue to him.
The 0 " "phoebe," after the mythological Phoebe, or
Artemis, goddess of the
PGCM,
'l~~e
MOOn,
is approprl ate to the context of tha
it likewise indicate. man's tendency to assoc'ate human
values with natural object..
Frost's use of the Indefinite pronoun
"oneIl in the conclUding lines, like his us. of the Greek".. Phoeba,
suggaltl that the poem not only COIIIIItInU upon the Romantic Mov. .nt In
particular, but also upon the romantic inclination charactarlstlc of
lAan.
As _uch as he ..y
s~pathlza
with this romantic Inclination.
Frost Insfsts that In tha face of tha ironic conflict between man and
natura which markl our .ra, It is dOOMed to frustration.
As his repe-
tition of "for them" (tha phoebes) in the first IIna. of tha lest two
Itanza. Implte., tha .anla of loss which tha
more tarrible because man must bear it alone.
poeM
expra••e. ;s .11 the
45
In another subtle poem, "They Were Welcome to Their BelIef,"
Frost stresses the fact that even though he has establIshed his clearing, the Individual remaIns subject to the natural process of decay
which InevItably leads to death.
The poem reads as follows:
Grief may have thought It was grief.
Care may have thought It was care.
They were welcome to their belief,
The overlmportant pair.
No, It took all the snows that clung
To the low roof over his be~,
Beginning when he was young,
To Induce the one snow on his head.
But whenever the roof came white
The head In the dark below
Was a shade less the color of night
A shade more the color of snow.
Grief may have thought It was grief.
Care may have thought It was care.
But neither one was the thief
Of his raven color of hair.
The IIthlef" Is obvIous ly time, to whom man remel ns subject de.pl te his
"overimp ortant" attempts to attribute the effects of age to the force
of his own emotions.
Still, as the clause "it took all the snows" sug-
gests, the roof which protected the aging man beneath--representative
of the barriers which man constructs between himself and the wilderness
--has served at least to slow the onslaught of nature; the protection
whIch the house or clearing offers Is limited but useful.
Frost depicts the threat of despair which the wIlderness of moral
indifference constantly poses to man's spirit in a number of poems.
Among the best of these is tlDesert Places," which once again Illustrates
the fact that the wIlderness Is ever ready to reclaim the clearing.
46
The poem reads:
Snow fal ling and night fal ling fast, oh, fast
In a field I looked Into going pest,
And the ground almost covered smooth In snow,
But a few weeds and stubble showing last.
The woods around It have It--It Is theirs.
All animals are smothered in their lairs.
I am too absent-spIrited to count;
Th. loneliness Includes me unawares.
And lonely as It Is
Wfl1 be mora lonaly
A blanker whltenesl
With no expression,
that lonallnel'
ere It will ba less-of benIghted snow
nothfng to express.
They cannot .car. me wIth thalr empty space.
Between sters--on stars where no human race Is.
I have I tin me so much nNrar home
To scare myself wIth my own desart places.
The last lIne Is weakened by the colloquIalIsm "scare," but on the
Whole the poem Is successful.
"Desert Places" plays upon the same
correspondence between 1I0utertf and IIlnna," weather as that whIch Frost
describes in ttTr•• at My Window," and which he uses repeatedly throughout his poetry.
As he Indicates In the fifth tiDe, the woods have re-
gained possession of the 'armer's stubble4 field, just as a sense of
that meaninglessness which they symbolize appear. to dominate the
poet's mfnd.
FillIng with snow, the field functions as an objective
correlative for an encroaching de.olatlon-·a sensation which Is enhanced by the use of repetition, accentuated by the unusual rhyme
scheme and by the rhythm.
In the first line, for exemple, "Snow fal1-
fng and night falling fast, oh, fast," the short al1lteratlve ltfll ''11lables contribute to the quick
mo~ement.
The constant repetition of
47
words, often wIthin a single line as above, contrIbute, an Impression
of meaninglessness by repeating the same word or thought In lieu of a
logical progre•• lon 'rom Ide. to Ide..
ploys the .... perfect
rh~
The rhyme scheme, which em-
for three of the line' In .ach four-lin.
,tanza ••xploits the r.petltlon of sounds to much the same .ffect.
Although Frost aftl rAlS marl tal love a. one of the valu•••,s.ntlal to the clearing, he r.cognlze, the corrosive effects of the mod.rn dll .... upon the relationship between husband and
w~f..
In several
poena, such as "Love and a Q.uest Ion," lithe Fear ," "The Hili WI f •• ••
"The InvestMent," and "The Thatch," the wilderness, or a figure emergIn~
frOil the wlldernetis, symbolhes the _nao_ which a hosti Ie unlv.rs.
pre.ents to the ties of affect'on uniting the married couple.
Frost
makes this thatH .xpllclt In the Shakespearian ,onnet tithe Invostm.nt":
Over back where they speak of life as staying
('You couldn't call It livIng, for It aln't'),
Th.re was an old, old house renewed with paint,
And In It a plano loudly playing.
Out In the plowed ground In the cold a dlgg.r,
Among unearthed potatoes standIng Itlll_
vas counting wlnt.r dlnn.rs, on. a hili,
With half an ear to the plano's vIgor.
All that pl8no and new paint back there,
Was It
mon.y sudd.nly come Into?
Or 101M .xtravagane. young love had b••n to?
Or old lov. on an 'mpul,. not to eer.--
,ome
Not to sink und.r being man and wlf. t
But g.t some color and Music out of life?
Th. opening phra,e,
tlng.
'v.,.r
back," .'tab) Ishes the wlld.rness set-
Th. harshness of life In a barr.n lend, which I, made evident In
the first two line., Is und.rscored by the refer.nce In the second
48
stanza to the "dlgg.r ••• counting winter dinners."
Llk. the contrast
between old and young love In the third stanza. the emphasis upon the
poverty of lffe in the wilderness. symbolic of man's spiritual prlvatlon In the modern world. accentuates the desperation which the concluding couplet evinces.
'n tithe HI11 Wife." which consists of a group of five short
poems, Frost trace. a young wife's progr.ss through Incr.aslng f.ar of
the allen world in which she lives to Insanlty--or complete lurrender
to the wildernesl of Indifference.
He wrItes the flrlt poem In the
group. entitled uLonellness.".s a dramatic monologue.
The
wife com-
plains to her husband about the Isolation whIch they suffer on their
lonely farm. declarIng that even the birds only appear frIendly. and
are In reality concerned solely "wIth each other and themselvesl And
their built or drlyen nests."
In the second poem. "House fear." Frost descrlbes the young
couple's fear that In their absence the wilderness might haye Invaded
their home.
He concludes:
And preferring the out- to the tn-door night.
'Th.y I....ned to l.aye the house-door wide
Until th.y had lit the lamp Inside.
Symbolically. the poem portrays the constant struggle with spiritual
desolation which the lonely pair faces.
The indoor night Is more to
be reared since It symbolize. the prospect
Of
complete despsff. the
surrender of one's humanity to the same moral IndIfference that characterlzes the world of nature.
As long as the couple can still reaf-
firm fa Ith In the va lues which enable them to mol t ntal n posse" Ion of
49
the house, or light the lamp which dispels the Inner darkne••• they can
survIve.
The third poem, "The Smlle,lI I. another drasoatlc monologu.,
ag.ln wrltt.n from the wlfo'. poInt of view.
She r.... I. hor Incr.as-
Ing dread by reading Into a passIng traMp's ••lle a list of Ironic In-
tent Ion. whIch rey.al her own f•• r. of tho poverty which she end hor
husband shere, of their youthful Inoxperlence, and of approaching death.
As the concluding line of the poem Indicate., she assocIates the tramp
with the Indifferent wilderness which Is at the basis of her concerns:
UHe's watchIng frCIII the woN. a. like es not."
In the fourth .... lithe Oft-Itepeated DrUII,u Frost describes a
nIghtmare which frighten. the young wife, Involving a pIne tree which
stands outside the couple'. bedroom, "Forever trying the window-latch."
The dream not only reiterate. the woman'. fear of the allon wllderne.s
which the tree repre.ents. but also Indicate. the .eparatlon which her
Increating terror ha, caused between her.el' and her husband.
final stanza of the
~
The
re.ds as follows:
It nevor had b••n Inside the room
And only olle of the two
W.I .frald In an oft-repeated dream
Of what the tree might do.
The lest poem In the group, "The Impuls••" descd be. that
in which the wife fInally yields herself wholly to InsanIty.
reads fn part:
She r •• ted on a log and toss.d
The freth chIps,
With. long only to her.elf
On her II PI.
nt
The poe.
50
And once she went to break a bough
Of black alder.
She strayed so far she scarcely heard
When he called her-And didn't answer--dldn't .peak·Or return.
She stood, and then she ran and hid
In the fem.
She runs from the cJearin9 in which her husband work., ignortng his
call., and hides In thG wilderness--she gives up her hold on the values
essentl.1 to her humanity, and surrenders to the absurdity of the unlver.e.
As Frost makes
m~ni
fest In such poems a' ItOe.ert Place.," and
lithe HIli Wife," the bifrriers of va lue that preserve the clearing are,
at best, limited and temporary.
Man's sanity is precarious; his faith
in the principle. upon whIch his humanIty depends Is continually chal·
'enged by the seemingly mechanIstic universe which he Inhabits.
Through-
out hi, poetry, but particularly In his poems on the subject of tabor,
Frost stre,.es the necessity of tho
~ctlye
and unrelentIng exertion of
the will In the struggle to maintain meaning.
labor Is, for Frost, the
cOtllblned physical and spiritual effort needed to repair the Internal
and external ravages of chaos.
Frost's affirmation of the values represented by the fanD or
the cabin In the cleadng 16 reflected fn numerous poems which _phasize the importance of the active performance of the t.sk whIch keeps
the wilderness at bay.
Among the best of! Frost', labor poems .re "Two
Tramps In Mud Time" and "The
Wood~Pf le. lt
In HTwo Trmaps In Mud Tlme"
Frost juxtapose. the pleasure of the taSk, splitting firewood, wIth the
51
need for Its performance in the uncertain .e.son of mud time when
te,n I s Ibn I y play I ng poSSUII."
1~ln-
Scme of the best II nes I n the po.- are
those which describe the threat that nature pre.ents to man. and those
whIch portray the satisfactIon that the woodcutter discovers In the
labor
nece~sary
to defend himself against It:
••• but don't forget
The lurking frost In the .arth ben.ath
That will steal forth after the sun is set
And ,how on the water Its crystal teeth.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
..
•
•
•
iii
•
•
You'd think I never had felt before
The weIght of an ax-head poised aloft.
The grl p on earth of outspread feet.
The life of muscles rocking soft
And smooth and moist In vernal heat.
Frost ,ummarlzes hIs theme In the final stanza:
But yield who will to their .eparatton.
My object tn living i. to unite
My avocation and .y vocation
As my two eye, make one In "ght.
Only where love and ne.d are one.
And the work i' play for mortal Itakes.
" the deed ever real 1y done
For Heaven and the future's sakes.
Frostts vocation. of course. Is that of poet, and these l'nes cnay also
be tnterpreted a. his comment upon his literary craft.
Just a. the
wood
which he cuts Is intended to protect him against the cold of wtnter,
his poetRl are intended al a "lIlOIIlentary stay" against the confusion to
which man Is subject in a unlvers. in whIch he can percetve no absolute
values.
a
poeI'R
Thus the
'll~1
In term. of which Frost describe. the IIflgure
_ke." Is related to the need which man feels to create some
order in
8
18
chaotic world.
"The Figure
8
18
The play Is for "mortal stakes"..-the
Poem ...k..... Complete Poems. p. vi.
52
writing of poetry, like the woodcutter's labor. Is the poet's defense
against despair.
"The Wood-Pile" Is set In
8
symbolic landscape that. like the
"samenen of the wood" in "The Demlurge's Laugh. 1I or the Itmonotony" of
the wasteland In lithe Figure In the Doorway." presents a confusIng view:
. • • all In lines
Straight up and down of tall slim trees
Too much alike to mark or name a place by.
The poet. wandering through these woods. comes upon a long deserted
cord of maple. which. suggestIng man'. need to create order from chaos.
Is IIcut and .pllt/ And plled--and measured. four by four by eight."
The concluding line. of the poem, the last of which Is one of Frost's
finest. read:
What held It though on one Iide was a tree
Sti 11 growing. and on one a stake and prop,
These latter about to fall. • thought that only
Someone who lived in turning to fresh tasks
Could so forget his handiwork on which
He spent himself. the labor of his ax,
And leave It there far from a useful fireplace
To warm the frozen swamp as best ! t cou ld
With the slow smokeless burning of decay.
The feet that the woodsman cut and stacked the maple even though It was
too far from any fireplace to be used Indicates that labor satisfies
spiritual a5 well as physical wants.
But. as the anonymous woodcutter
IIwho lived In turning to fresh tasks" apparently recognized. the order
which man create. Is ephemeral; nature's tree continue. to grow, but
the man-made stake and prop are already about to fall.
53
Thus, the clearing In the wilderness represents Frost's affirmation of man's ability to renew and to pre.erve hIs faith In those value, like dignity, integrity, and love which are at the origins of civilization.
As
he
indicates In "Directive," Frost believes that the.e
principle. are Intrinsic to humankind. and that the Individual can,
by dint of rlgorou••elf-ex.-lnatlon. discover th.. within hIs own
.pirit.
Moreover, although he I. unable to perceive clearly any moral
purpose In the universe, Frost suggests in .uch poem. a. "Directive."
"west-runnl ng Brook," "Two Look at Two," and 'IFor "bee, Then, Something," and ItSycacnore,H that the•• basic human values are In
SC1118
way
related to a meaningful, even if Indiscernible, supernatural scheme.
Des,Ite such hints of transcendent significance, h.. ever. his
afflnaatlon I, highly qualIfied.
The order which man creates Is lIm-
ited and eph..eral; it Is constantly subject to the Internal and external foree, of decay whIch the surrounding wilderness repre.ents.
For
this rea.on, Fro.t repeatedly emphasize. the Importance of labor, the
combined physical and spiritual effort whIch man mUlt continually exert in order to Impose upon the real, changing world of nature the order and stability which his spirit requires.
The clearing can be
preserved, Nn can live, only by "turning to fresh task.... by repeatedly renewing the "momentary stay against confuslon. 1t
LIST OF WORKS CITED
Cox, James H.
___ '
Robert Frost.
Englewood Cliffs, N. J., 1962.
URobert Frost and the Edge of the Clearing," ylrglnia Quar-
terly !\eyiew, XXXV (Winter. 1959). 73-88.
Cox, Sidney. A Swinger of Birches:
York, 1957.
Frost, Robert.
A Portrait of Robert Frost.
Complete 'oems of Robert Frost.
In the Clearing.
Krutc::h, Joseph W.
New York, 1949.
New York, 1962.
Thea Modern Tuper.
Pas~oral
New
York, 1956.
Lynan, John F.
The
Nltcht_, George.
Human Values In the '§!tr y of Robert frost:
Conyictrons. Durham, 19 O.
of a Poet's
Sergeant, Elizabeth S.
york, 1960.
New
Art of Robert Frost.
Robert Frost:
New
Haven, 1960.
The Trlol by Existence.
A Study
New