Abstract: Nature is the most distinguished feature in Robert Frost’s poems.

Frost
possesses deep love and sympathy towards nature. However, the typical pastoral
life is not the central theme in Frost’s poems. Instead, Frost concentrates on the
dramatic conflict happened in the natural world. His poems usually begin with an
observation in nature and proceed to the connection to human psychological
situation. According to Frost, nature is not only the source of pleasure, but also an
inspiration for human wisdom. People will get the enlightenment from observation,
thus nature becomes a central character in his poetry rather than merely a
background.
1. Introduction
Robert Frost was one of the most widely read poets in the 20th century American
literature. Speaking of Frost, people may refer that he was a successful poet who
was the only poet ever invited to read his poem at a presidential inauguration. For
many people it is an enjoyable experience to read Frost’s poems which mostly
characterized by nature. For his spending a long life living in the New England
countryside, nature easily became his chief subject. Researches on Frost’s nature
poetry have been various ever since the poet became famous. Some researchers
focus on artistic technique of poetry writing while some others show
interest in the contents and themes. Besides, some researchers pay more attention
on the poet himself----his philosophies. Such researchers help to bring the Frost
study to a considerable height. This paper has a discussion on Frost’s view on
nature, so that we can better understand his nature poems and better appreciate his
poetic art. What’s more, by delving into Frost’s view of nature, we can know
more about his nature poems and more about the implications
lie behind natural scenes, and learn more about the natural environment around us.
According to Wilcox and Barron, Robert Pinksky, the 1999 poet laureate of the
United States, “conducted a yearlong survey of Americans, asking for their favorite
poet, and Frost won national poll by a large and impressive margin”.
It sufficiently demonstrates that Frost is well received in his country, if not the
whole world up to now, and “his poetry continues to be a part of an American
culture”. In the early 1980s, the Robert Frost Society was founded to perpetuate
and encourage the study of his life and work. The founding of the Robert Frost
Review in1999 and the first international academic symposium on Frost in 1997
clearly show the study of Frost gains great popularity and draw more
and more attention from critics around the world. The Pastoral Art of Robert Frost
by John F. Lynen is well worth reading in its entirety for insight into the use of
pastoralism as a poetic device. Lynen’s observation of how Frost uses nature in his
poetry is particularly useful. [4] In Theory of Literature (Third Edition, 1956),
Austin Warren makes a comment on Robert Frost’s natural symbolism to
show that in most of his poems, there are some natural symbols which are quite
difficult for readers to grasp and it is for his natural symbolism that he has drawn a
wide audience all over the world [5]. It is true that Frost is keen at the use of
natural symbolism, for, nature in the eyes of Robert Frost, according to Robert D.
Richardson, is symbolic of spirit. That is to say, when he writes something about
nature, he doesn’t describe nature purely, instead, he uses natural objects or events
as symbols to reveal and express something more profound. George W. Nitchie, in
“The World of Nature” collected in Human Values in the Poetry of Robert Frost,
comments on Frost’s view of nature, observing that Frost’s values and view of
nature are intimately related. [6] Robert W. French reveals in Robert Frost and the
Darkness of Nature that there is impenetrable barrier between man andnature. [7]
2. Robert Frost
Robert Lee Frost (1874-1963) had widely been received in American, who
received the Pulitzer Prize four times, and was the only poet ever invited to read
his poem at a presidential inauguration. Born in San Francisco, Robert Lee Frost
was named after the defeated Confederate general Robert E. Lee. After the
death of his father, the rebellious son of a prudent, hard-working, successful
Massachusetts farmer, he moved with his mother and sister to eastern
Massachusetts near his paternal grandparents. Deeply influenced by his experience
in his young, Robert Frost had a unique position in modern poetry. He has been
widely received by audience while his poetry does not receive careful critical
judgment. This neglect is due much to the nature of his poetry. His poetry seems to
lack the complexity one expects to find at the center of the best modern verse. His
verse form is traditional, his sentences are always clear, and his language is often
close to every day speech. His simplicity makes many readers’ exploration stop
here. Besides, nature is frequently used in his poetry. Frost denied being a nature
poet. “I’m not a nature poet,” he once declared, “there is almost
always a person in my poems.” [3]
3. Robert Frost’s Nature Poetry
Robert Frost was the leading modern American poet of nature and rural life. Most
of his poems are upon natural element. He was very much interested in natural
things; he found beauty in common place. Although he has a keen understanding
of natural world, Frost does not aim at presenting natural scenery and charming
rural life. His poems are concerned with human psychological condition. Robert
Once said, “some people call me poet for nature because of the natural setting. But
I am not a poet for nature, there is also something else in my poems.” [3] Robert
Frost uses nature as a background to illustrate people’s psychological struggle
with everyday life. His poems usually begin with an observation in nature and
proceed to the connection to human situation, such as loneliness, helplessness,
confusion, and indifferent human relationship. Nature is the most distinguished
feature in Robert Frost’s poems. Frost possesses deep love and sympathy towards
nature which is the source for inspiration. He used to wander in the woods with his
kids, and looked into the starry sky before sleep, from which he got the spiritual
meaning out of nature. However, the typical pastoral life is not the central theme in
Frost’s poems. Instead, Frost concentrates on the dramatic conflict happened in the
natural world, such as the confusion and dilemma in life (as in “Mending Wall”),
and the danger of nature (as in “Exposed Nest”). According to Frost, nature is not
only the source of pleasure, but also an inspiration for human wisdom. People will
get the enlightenment from observation (as in the “Birches”). Nature becomes a
central character in his poetry rather than merely a background. Nature is
employed as a metaphor in Frost’s poems. He describes the natural object and
leads the reader to a comparison. Frost’s poems are easy and precise in the literal
level, since his observation is accurate. However, he is not going to record the
natural world. He is making an analogy to some human condition through telling
the nature stories.
Though he never forces his idea on the reader, he hopes thereader is close to it.
Frost’s poetry is rooted in his psychological concern and expressed through a
material embodiment with a natural background. Frost uses to spend time to depict
it sensitively and carefully, using skillful poetic and figurative language. His
poems serve as good examples to study the use of images and poetic skills.
4. Relationship between Man and Nature
Man and nature are closely related. We can not live without nature, even if we live
all our lives in a large city. In a sense, human beings are part of nature. We are
governed like the other creatures by the same rules in nature. In Frost’s poetry man
and nature, and nature and man are counter-parts of each other. [9] We cannot
separate one from the other. He makes nature as a medium, describe nature in all
its beauty, loveliness and even meanness, but ultimately the journey of each poem
ends in the problems of man and solution of this problem in human psychology.
The poems of Frost in which, he takes up, the theme of contraries have a universal
import. In these poems, the persona poet is not an individual but a type of all
human beings who are obliged to finding a solution to their problems is as
important as their living. Since they think intensively and extensively to find a
solution of their problems, thinking becomes with them an infinite process. The
more they think, the more they learn until they feel that learning is an endless
process. Therefore, so long as man is thinking, and he will think forever, the poetry
of Frost will remain expose relationship between man and nature.
5. Symbolic Quality of Nature
Symbolism is the use of one object or action (a symbol) to represent or suggest
something else. [14] It is a prevalent use for poets to express their ideas through
indirect statements, thus invest the object with an implied meaning. Thus
symbolism means a veiled mode of communication. A poem may have a surface
meaning but it may also have a deeper meaning which is understood by the reader
only by interpreting the deeper significance of the words and phrases used. [15]
Frost’s poetry always presents the general through a particular scene. “After Apple
Picking” is an good example of Frost’s symbolic poem. The poem is a description
of the speaker feeling tired after picking up a large amount of apples from his
orchard tree. The act of harvesting apples is a symbol for the daily work in life.
Afterwards, the speaker reveals his insight as: “Essence of winter sleep is on the
night, The scene of apples: I am drowsing off.” The speaker is aware of the coming
winter after the harvesting autumn. On the literal level, it is a natural circle for
the change of the seasons, and sleep is what one must get during the night. On the
deeper meaning, winter is a symbol for death. The speaker knows that he is getting
old, and death is a natural ending for him. After accomplishing the task in life,
the speaker feels that he is drowsing off, which indicates that he is ready for death.
Frost’s poetic language is simple and the natural world in his poems are as true as
he sees it. However, the meaning he expressed is significant, which can only be
achieved through a symbolic reading.
6. Dialectical Mind to View Nature
The first implication I study here is that nature demands man a dialectical mind
towards itself. In other words, we should hold a dialectical mind if we are to treat
nature properly. This is decided by nature’s dual character. In 2.2, we have
discussed about Frost’s view on nature, namely, nature has two sides----the bright
side and the dark side. These two sides are opposed to each other, but they can
not be separated from each other. To hold a dialectical mind to view nature, we
must enumerate both sides. We should know that there is no clear dividing line for
good and evil in nature. A scene of snow-covered land is beautiful because of its
purity and tranquility, but there is the treat of chill and desolation. Such mind to
view nature is one of dialectic. It is different from either the Romantic way or the
post-Darwinian way of treating nature. The Romantics have a tendency to
overestimate nature’s love and benevolence. When they come to realize the
transience of beauty and the harshness of reality, they often become sad and
disillusioned. We can see examples of this in Wordsworth and Emerson, who both
sang high praise of nature’s beauty and benevolence in their early poetry,
but both turned gloomy in their late years with the recognition of nature’s evil [10].
The post-Darwinian nature poets, those who are influenced deeply by Darwin’s
theory of evolution, are always too gloomy. They emphasize the coldness of nature
ad the helplessness of man before the grim facts of nature. In Hardy’ s nature
lyrics, we often see the bleakness of landscape, coupled with the tragedies of those
withered flowers and frustrated people. While Frost’s way of treating nature is
different from both the Romantic and the post-Darwinian poets. He is an
intermediary between the two. He can enjoy nature’s beauty, but he is always
aware of nature’s terror. Frost takes efforts to juxtapose good and evil in nature. To
treat nature properly, we should hold a dialectical mind.
7. “From Delight to Wisdom”:
Frost
“It (a poem) begins in delight, it inclines to the impulse, it assumes direction with
the first line laid down, it runs a course of lucky events, and ends in a clarification
of life----not necessarily a great clarification, such as sects and cults are founded
on, but in a momentary stay against confusion.” ----Robert Frost This quotation is
Frost’s famous dictum on how a poem works. It is well known that Robert Frost, in
a foreword to his Collected Poems (1939), wrote: a poem “begins in delight and
ends in wisdom.” [8] Here the word “delight” does not necessarily take its literal
meaning of joy, but the wonder at some unexpected sight. Often Frost is seen to
begin a poem with the “delight” of observing a particular natural scene; but
gradually he turns to meditation on the implication of the natural scene; and finally
he ends his poem with the “wisdom” of an insight into the human situations.
Nature, to Frost, is an inspiration. Frost’s poem, “The Pasture”, which Frost
included at the beginning of every collection of his poetry, can be a good example
of his expressive and commonsense style as well as the source of delight and
wisdom. The village farmer who is the “persona” of the poem plainly talks about
his daily activities with a sense on delight narrating at the same time the delightful
bucolic atmosphere in the sight of “pasture spring” and a “little calf” tottering
beside its mother. But each stanza ends with wisdom, which actually means, deep
understanding of life, expressing the limitations of human life: “I sha’nt be gone
long”. The farmer enjoys his life with simple activities within the domain of his
farm though he cannot go beyond: I’m going out to clean the pasture spring;
I’ll only stop to rake the leaves away (And wait to watch the water clear, I may):
I sha’n’t be gone long.----You come too. I’m going out to fetch the little calf
That’s standing by the mother. It’s so young, It totters when she licks it with her
tongue. I sha’n’t be gone long.----You come too. The farmer expresses his delight
inviting others; “You come too”. The commonsense simplicity of verse, along with
deep philosophy of life, creates a sense of delight and wisdom for readers. Frost’s
wisdom has been well recognized. He is referred to as a farmer sage, a shrewd
poet, a man of insight, and a powerful seer who sees what others don’t see. It is
obvious that Frost’s wisdom comes largely from his communication with nature. If
he denies being “a nature poet”, as we have seen him declare earlier in his paper,
he would not possibly deny being a poet who is constantly inspired by nature.
8. The Bright Side of Nature
In Frost’s poetry, there exist bright side of nature. In my poems, we read the poet’s
delight in nature----his trees, grass, and animals are described with such affection;
his characters are full of such happiness. His nature is filled with beauty and
enevolence. We can fully feel the poet’s affection to nature’s beauty and grace.
“A Winter Eden” can serve as a good example of nature’s beauty. Look at the
following stanzas: A winter garden in an alder swamp, Where conies now
come out to sun and romp, As near a paradise as it can be And not melt snow or
start a dormant tree. It lifts existence on a plane of snow One level higher than the
earth below, One level nearer heaven overhead, And last year’s berries shining
scarlet red. It lifts a gaunt luxuriating beast Where he can stretch and hold his
highest feat On some wild apple tree’ s young tender bark, What well may prove
the year’s high girdle mark. So near to paradise all pairing ends: Here loveless
birds now flock as winter friends, Content with bud-inspecting. They presume
To say which buds are leaf and which are bloom. A feather-hammer gives a double
knock This Eden day is done at two o’clock. An hour of winter day might seem too
short To make it worth life’s while to wake and sport. This poem is about the place
of winter in the cycle of the seasons, and how winter symbolizes the point in the
cycle of life that marks the transition to rebirth. We may find beauty in the snowy
woods or have your mood lifted by the song of a bird. Contrary to popular belief in
winter as cold, death and bleakness, in this poem Frost shows us a beautiful,
delight and lively scene. The winter garden, although “on a plane of snow”, is
attractive with “last year’s berries shining scarlet red”. The animals in the garden
are active with their respective tricks. The birds flock as friends. This is really a
lovely and cheerful scene, a Winter Eden, as Frost suggests by the title.
Nature as a benevolent being is not only capable of pleasing, but also comforting
man. Let’s look at another Frost’s poem, “Tree at My Window”:
Tree at my window, window tree, My sash is lowered when night comes on; But
let there never be curtain drawn Between you and me. Vague dream head lifted out
of the ground, And thing next most diffuse to cloud, Not all your light tongues
talking aloud Could be profound. But tree, I have seen you taken and tossed, And
if you have seen me when I slept, You have seen me when I was taken and
swept And all but lost. That day she put our heads together, Fate had her
imagination about her, Your head so much concerned with outer, Mine with inner,
weather. The poet makes a comparison between himself and the tree out of the
window. Although he will draw the curtain at night, he hopes that there will always
see each other and be intimate friends. The branches of the tree look like a “vague”
head wavering in the wind. The rustle of the leaves could be meaningless talks and
make no sense to the poets. However, the poet has seen the tree tossed in the
storms, and the tree has also witnessed the poet swept by the storm in his dreams.
The poet’s fate is closely connected with the tree’s, and they share a deep
sympathy with each other who struggle against their own troubles. The poet feels
that they are companions-- the tree is standing up in the natural weather, and the
poet is standing up in his inner weather. By now we have read some poems by
which Frost extols nature at its beat, is the embodiment of both beauty and
benevolence. Yet these only constitute one side of Frost’s view on nature. There is
always the other side
9. The Dark Side of Nature
Lionel Trilling defined Frost as a “terrifying poet” who depicted a “terrifying
universe” [7] at a dinner party celebrating Frost’s eighty-fifth birthday. Trilling’s
speech made many critics re-examined Frost’s poetry, which they once thought
bright and optimistic. In fact, the “dark” quality in Frost’s poetry is so conspicuous
that it will by no means escape our eyes. [12] The “dark” quality brings about the
dark side of nature in Frost’s poetry. The word “dark”, in its various forms, often
occurs in Frost’s nature poetry. “Into My Own”, the first poem in Frost’s first
book, A Boy’s Will, begins: One of my wishes is that those dark trees, So old and
firmthey scarcely show the breeze, Were not, as’twere, the merest mask of gloom,
But stretched away unto the edge of doom. Increasingly enough, we see the
transition of tree imagery run throughout Frost’s poetry. “Dark trees” become
“dark woods” in “The Onset”: Always the same, when on a fated night At last the
gathered snow lets down as white As may be in dark woods, and with a
song It shall not make again all winter long... Then in “Come In”, the woods
become the “pillared dark” from which a thrush’s bewitching singing is heard:
Far in the pillared dark Thrush music went---- Almost like a call to come in
To the dark and lament Darkness is usually suggestive of mystery, ill omen and
terror. The poem shows the poet as he stands by the edge of the woods, listening to
the song of an unknown bird. The song of the bird is fascinating and lures the poet
step in the dark woods. But he resists the temptation and does not come in. What
keeps him off the woods is their darkness. So is nature in Frost’s poetry, dual-
charactered, namely, bright and dark. It can be a friend of man, but a hostile friend
at times. It can also be an enemy, but a generous one from timeto time.
10. Conclusion
Robert Frost is beyond doubt a unique poet in modern American literature. One
element that accounts for his uniqueness is the use of nature in his poetry. Frost
denies being a nature poet, but he seems never tired of using nature in his
poetry. He has written a large number of nature poems throughout his career.
Nature is used in his poems for different purposes: it is sometimes the setting,
sometimes the theme, and sometimes a metaphor for a certain human situation.
People love his poems for his clever use of nature, but they do not pay much
attention to the poet’s view on nature that lies behind his poetry. As a matter of
fact, Frost’s view on nature is an important part of his heritage to us. It helps with
our understanding of Frost’s poetry. What’s more, it provides us with valuable
insight into the natural world around us. So it deserves to be studied. Nature is a
source of human wisdom. There is a wealth in nature, and nature is, as Frost says,
“always hinting at us” [2]. Frost believes that there is close relationship
between man and nature. We can not live without nature and we are governed like
the other creatures by the same rules in nature. He also believes in the symbolic
quality of nature. In many of his nature poems, he depicts nature as symbolic of the
human world. He often begins a poem with the “delight” in nature, and ends it with
the “wisdom” that evokes on man. Frost’s views on nature are important
mplications for us. On account of nature’s dual character, we need to hold a
dialectical mind towards it. We should juxtapose contradictory elements in nature,
and then treat nature reasonably. A second implication is that we should read and
analyze nature as a book, because nature is a source of wisdom.
11. Acknowledgments
This work was supported by Program for Humanities and Social Sciences of
Heilongjiang Province (15WWE05)，Study on the Change of Themes in Robert
Frost’s Poetry.
References
[1] Lawrence Thompson. Robert Frost: The Early Years,
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[2] Lawrence Thompson. Robert Frost: The Years of Triumph,
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[3] Lawrence Thompson. Robert Frost: The Later Years,
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[4] John F. Lynen. The Pastoral Art of Robert Frost. Yale
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[5] Rene Wellek & Austin Warren. Theory of Literature. Peregrine
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[6] George W. Nitchie. Human Values in the Poetry of Robert Frost.
Gordian Press, 1978.
[7] French, Warren, (ed.). Twentieth-Century American literature.
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30 Yuanli Zhang et al.: Analysis on Nature in Robert Frost’s Poetry

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