Thursday, April 30, 2020

Robert Frost and the Depression Essay Example For Students

Robert Frost and the Depression Essay Robert Frosts poetic images and topics changed as a result of the depression. Reflected in Robert Frosts poetry lie the feelings and concerns of Americans, expressed through different poetic images and topics. As compared to Robert Frosts earlier work, which focused on man and nature, Frosts poems during the Great Depression, shift poetic images and topics to the relationship between man and man. Later in Frosts life, after the depression, Robert Frosts themes changed another time to man and God. Robert Lee Frost was born on March 26, 1874 to Isabelle and William Prescott Frost. In 1885, at age 11, Frosts father died. As a result Robert moved with his mother and sister Jeanie to Lawrence, Massachusetts. In 1895 Robert married Elanor White, his high school sweetheart, and began a teaching job at a local school. His first son Elliot was born on September 25, 1896 followed by his daughter Leslie on April 28, 1899. In 1899 Frosts mother Isabelle, his first son Elliot, passed away. In 190 2, Elanor gave birth to Frosts second son, Carol. Frost then decided to move with his wife and daughter to a small farm outside Derry, New Hampshire. In 1905, Elanor had another daughter, Majorie. Following Majories birth in 1907, Elinor Betina was born, but quickly passed away. The death of Frosts children hit him hard; he tried to be the best father he knew how, spending every moment with his children. As said by Alan Shucard, He remained bound up in their lives and deaths. Trying to get away from his life in America, Frost traveled to England in 1912, where he settled on a small farm in Buckinghamshire. After the outbreak of WWI in 1914, Robert and his family moved to Gloucestershire. A year later Robert moved again, and returned to Franconia, New Hampshire. After his move, Henry Holt and Company published A Boys Will and North of Boston. However, in 1938, tragedy overshadowed the news of his publication when after an operation to remove cancer, Elanor, passed away. From that poi nt on, Robert Frost never stopped blaming himself for Elanors death. He thought that God was punishing him; and putting him on trial like Jobe, to show the devil that through all of this treatment, humans could still be thankful. This view was reflected in his poem Forgive, O Lord Forgive, O Lord, my little jokes on thee / and Ill forgive thy great big one on me. The great big one (joke) on me is a illusion to the treatment that Robert Frost believes he is receiving from God. 1940, just two years after his wifes death, Roberts son, Carol, committed suicide. After the death of Carol, Robert moved to his final home in Cambridge, MA. January 29, 1963 Robert Frost died at the venerable age of 88. He saw all of his children either die or suffer from mental instability. Robert Pack, a University of Massachusetts professor, compares Robert Frosts work to life, simple immediate surface, but when you look deeper the poem reveals itself to you. Pack continues to elaborate on Frosts poetic mysteries; he speaks of humor and trickery that Robert Frost includes in his poems that only a seasoned reader can pick up on. It is these dark sayings and mysteries that maintain Frosts distinctive enigmatical reserve. Robert Frost is considered by Pack as one of the greatest American poets to ever live. Compared to the revered Walt Whitman, or Longfellow. Frost wanted to be considered a poet-teacher, to make nature speak with a human voice to readers, and a poet-preacher to dramatize for the reader the divinity in the face of which belief must be given shape. Frost said that his main objective in poetry was to say one thing and to mean another, the definition of a metaphor. Robert Frosts poems are predominantly written in blank verse, poems without a rhyme scheme typically written in iambic pentameter. Literary Critic Amy Lowell compares Robert Frosts work to that of a rock, (his work) suggests the hardness and roughness of New England granite. unyielding in substance and broken in effect. Wild Grapes illustrates Robert Frosts child hood memories in grape orchards, his use of blank verse is definitely evident as no rhyme scheme is used, the poem is written in iambic pentameter, and with a definite flow:What tree may not the fig be gathered from?The grape may not be gathered from the Birch?Its all you know the grape, or know the birch. Should The Us Have Dropped The Atomic Bomb On Japan EssayI saw so much before I slept there once:I noticed that I missed the stars in the west,Where its black body cut into the sky. Frost puts emphasis in this poem on the size of the mountain and how it blocks his sight of the western stars in the night sky. From Frosts subject of the mountain, and his use of stars and sky, natural references again are predominant in the poem. Just the titles of the poems in New Hampshire, published in 1923, reveal the allusions to nature: A Star in a Stoneboat, Dust of Snow, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening. Robert Frosts poem Spring Pools in West Running Brook is one of the best examples of the use of natural references:These pools that, though in forests, still reflectThe total sky almost without defect, And like the flowers beside them, chill and shiver,Will like the flowers beside them soon be gone,And yet not out by any brook or river,But up by roots to bring dark foliage on. By all these references to nature one can see that without a doubt nature was a main theme used in the poetry written by Robert Frost before the year 1929. After the onset of the depression Robert Frost enters another phase of his poetry, in which he shifts his topics from man and nature, to man and man. Dr. James L. Potter, professor of literature and criticism ant Trinity College, has a coinciding view on the themes of Robert Frosts poetry , There are also many poems reflecting an interest in humanity independent of nature. Two Tramps in Mud Time is an example of this man and man relationship, in which the subjects confront each other:And caught me splitting wood in the yard. By hailing cheerily Hit them Hard!I knew pretty well why he dropped behindI knew pretty well what he had in mind:The use of imagery from a confrontation is unavoidable, but in no place in this excerpt is a natural reference made. This poem was published in 1936, a mid-point of The Great Depression which America had been in for more than 6 years. It is quiet obvious that the Depression was a time of great change for him mentally as shown in his writing. The switch of his general images and main topics witch is unarguably due to the depression. Bibliography:Works CitedFrost, Robert. A boys will. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1915. Collins, Mike. Robert Frost. Chicago: Hartsfield, 1979. Frost, Robert. North of Boston. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1915. Frost, Robert. Mountain Interval. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1920. Atlantic Unbound. 5 Sep. 2000. Poetry Pages. 15 Nov 2000. Ketzle, Jeff. 8 Aug 2000. Home Page. 15 Nov 2000 http://www.ketzle.com

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