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BIRCHES BY ROBERT FROST Poetry, according to Coleridge, is the best words in their best order. Although this remark hardly satisfies the requirements of formal definition, it does assert an important fact: the order of the words in a poem is as material as the words themselves. A good poet labors harder than any other kind of writer to say exactly what he means, because he wishes to expose his thoughts rather than hide them. His passion for excuses is like the mathematicians. But unlike the mathematician, who thinks in abstractions, the poet not only thinks concretely but presents his thoughts concretely. Robert Frost who pens this poem and has selected, arranged and rearranged the words until he arrives at the one way in which he wants to say his thoughts.
Indeed, Frost allows and takes much greater freedom with language than other writers and speakers. Poetic license, the right of a poet to deviate from standard practices in order to achieve a certain effect, allows him to ignore rules that prose writers customarily follow. This poem employs this poetic license as we shall see that some of the words have been put together in such a way that only the author is capable of making. The poet leaves his referents implied rather than stated. He takes liberties with his syntax and the order of his words in the sentences. This paper examines two articles of criticism that both analyze Robert Frost poems.
The researcher shall identify the critical approach used in each of these articles including the main points, thesis and conclusions. In the process it shall endeavor to write a one paragraph summary of the article. Lastly, it will give the researchers own analysis of the poems theme and context in which it was written. Robert Frost wrote his poem Birches when he was very homesick in the years 1913 - 14. At that time he and his family were living in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, England.
According to Thompson, from line 43, it proceeds to be metaphorical on the poems theme. While there are times when the speaker of Birches would like to get away from earth awhile. His desire to pursue something bigger is controlled by the recognition that birch trees will stand climbing before returning under the pressure of human weight back home: (Robert Frost: The Work of Knowing (Oxford UP, 1977 p. 192). It continues to explore the psychological make up of Frost at the time the poem was written and states that there is a line in Birches that Frost feels most sentimental. This is line 43 where he is made to choose, Its when Im weary of considerations (line 43). The article also states that when the poem was read at Bread Loaf on July 1954, he said of this line, Thats when you get older.
It didnt mean so much to men when I wrote it as it does now (Robert Frost: A Living Voice) ed. Reginald Cook (Boston: University of Mass P, 1954, p. 51). Indeed, Frosts poem, no matter how simple it may seem connotes a certain kind of ambiguity, too. The birches during the first part of the essay begins with a slow meter and tone as well. However, as the play progresses, there are harsher words to connote the times such as broken glasses. Does this mean that the figurative language gives depth and richness to the experience.
Some poems are so rich that they convey two or even more experiences simultaneously. His thoughts about what things lay ahead of him and his thoughts about tomorrow give him a sense of direction and expectation. Learning to be there with himself and his experiences without going anywhere can be a direction. The present moment is the focal point of past and future. It is the expression of all that has happened and the place where he must apply his energy to affect what will be. Many of his memories of yesterday and thoughts about tomorrow have some message and meaning for his life in the moment.
Most critics would say that the more one reads Frost, the more one appreciates his writings. It seems that each poem brings one closer to life and aware of the more subtler but meaningful things in life. WORK CITED Robert Frost, Birches. Poetry. Poems Arranged by Subject and Theme. Accessed October 27, 2007 at: web
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Research essay sample on Birches By Robert Frost
