Robert Frost, an iconic American poet, has penned some of the most renowned and hauntingly beautiful poems of the 20th century. His works are often renowned for their command of language, their vivid imagery, and penetrating insight into the human experience. His poems often explore themes of nature, identity, loss, responsibility, man’s relationship to the natural world, and everyday human life, often cast in traditional rural New England settings.
Robert Frost wrote some of his most profound and iconic works throughout his career, encompassing four volumes of poetry, as well as literature for young adults. His poetry works included poems such as ‘The Road Not Taken’, ‘Mending Wall’, ‘The Death of the Hired Man’, ‘Birches’ and ‘Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening’, to name but a few.
Frost was known to be deeply affected by his encounters with nature and experience of the physical world, which often manifested in his writing. He often wrote in meter, using a complex combination of rhythm and rhyme. He was known for his subtle wit, dark wit and often darkly whimsical subject matter. His works typically championed individualism and the ideal of the solitary wanderer. Many of his poems often explored a strong sense of loneliness, and his dealings with sorrow and death.
He was also known to engage in what poet and critic Randall Jarrell termed ‘the dramatic monologue’, in which a single character typically addresses an unseen listener, allowing the poet to craft a narrative and offer complex reflection on the human condition in his works. His works often featured birds, trees and forests, and inquires on the power of language in relation to love, adversity, and mortality.
Robert Frost was the first poet to ever win a Pulitzer Prize multiple times, and his works are still highly regarded to this day. He has become one of the most widely read and tackled poets in the world, and has been considered one of the most universally acclaimed and taught poets of the 20th century.
Exploring Nature and the Human Condition
In many of his poems, Frost explored how nature captures the beauty, fragility and often cruel nature of the human condition. In ‘Birches’, Frost evokes images of the rural New England landscape, capturing tender moments of beauty through a speaker’s account of his love for a birches’ branches, while also hinting at mortality and the passing of time.
‘Mending Wall’ is another example of Frost’s deep engagement with nature and his use of it to explore the human condition. In this poem, Frost depicts a stonewall which needs yearly mending by the poem’s speaker and his neighbour, through which Frost engages with themes of boundaries and connection, exploring their presence and necessity.
In ‘The Road Not Taken’, Frost tackles the idea of identity, as well as the theme of choice. This poem speaks to the speaker’s struggles in making a decision, as well as of the consequences of the same. It is often viewed as Frost’s wry commentary on how one’s life trajectory is shaped by the choices we make, no matter how large or small.
‘Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening’ is another iconic work of Frost’s, with many readers calling it one of his most defining works. It speaks of a traveller stopping in the woods in order to collect his thoughts and ponder his life, while also evoking a stillness and serenity in the scene.
In ‘The Death of the Hired Man’, Frost portrays the passing of a hired man in a rural New England village, exploring the relationship of those left behind in his passing, as well as grappling with questions of responsibility, restitution and mortality.
Exploring Loss, Love and Language
Frost’s works often explored loss and its impact on a person, whether It be the passing of a family member or friend from ‘The Death Of The Hired Man’, the passing of a loved one in ‘After Apple-Picking’, or the feeling of abandonment in ‘The Oven Bird’.
Throughout his works, he often speaks to the way loss, sorrow and death often creeps up unnoticed in the unlikeliest of places, and how one can, in a single moment, be consumed by grief for someone who was once dearly loved. This is particularly seen in ‘The Death of the Hired Man’, which speaks to the lasting effects of loss and guilt in its wake.
Alongside loss, Frost also explored themes of love, connection and mortality in his works, often weaving these themes within a single poem. He uniquely speaks to the power of language in relation to love, with some of his works featuring a single character professing his love or describing his musings on love, loss and life.
Frost was an avid observer of the everyday lives of regular people, often incorporating the struggles of everyday life in his works. He often set these bleak themes against a backdrop of beautiful, quiet and often peaceful moments in nature, exploring how death can be found and experienced in the unlikeliest of places.
Stylistic and Technical Mastery
Frost wrote in various forms throughout his canon, often using meter and rhyme to build complex and intricate patterns of sound. He often created a subtle argument against a job, a romantic rival, an absenting father, or an institution, often told in a subtly menacing way. This can be seen in works such as ‘Mending Wall’ as well as ‘The Road Not Taken’.
In many of his works, Frost also employed a device of his own creation known as the ‘stepped-line’. This stylistic technique refers to a set of lines in which each succeeding line is longer than the one before it, providing a sense of gradual escalation or progression. Notable examples of poems featuring the ‘stepped-line’ include ‘Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening’, ‘The Death of the Hired Man’, and ‘After Apple-Picking’.
As a master stitcher of words and image, Frost often crafted vivid and powerful images of rural life and the natural world within his works. His works often featured birds, trees and forests, and often charted the harshness and beauty of the physical world. Through these works, Frost captured and highlighted the fragility of life, as well as our ever-changing relationship with nature.
The Legacy of Robert Frost
Robert Frost’s works have a truly lasting legacy. His works have been analysed, dissected and written on by academics, studied and interpreted by students, and read, appreciated and admired by the masses. He was the first poet to ever win a Pulitzer Prize multiple times, and his works are still highly regarded to this day. His vivid imagery and darkly accurate representation of human life, struggle and love continues to inspire poets across the world.
Through his works, Frost established himself as an undisputed master of craft and innovation, offering provocative wrangles with the complexities of life and mortality, as well as love and other human emotions. His works remain iconic favourites, still being read and revered in the present day.
Conclusion
Robert Frost was an iconic American poet, well known for his stylistic subtlety, technical mastery, and evocative representation of human life, love and loss in his works. His works, such as ‘The Road Not Taken’, ‘Mending Wall’, ‘The Death of the Hired Man’, ‘Birches’ and ‘Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening’, often explores themes of nature, identity, loss, responsibility, man’s relationship to the natural world, and everyday human life, often cast in traditional rural New England settings. Through his works, Frost captured and highlighted the fragility of life, as well as our ever-changing relationship with nature, creating an extensive and still highly regarded poetic legacy.
