International Journal of Advanced Academic Studies 2019; 1(2): 37-39

E-ISSN: 2706-8927
P-ISSN: 2706-8919
IJAAS 2019; 1(2): 37-39 Symbolism in frost's poetry
Received: 20-08-2019
Accepted: 22-09-2019
Dr. Shyam Kumar Thakur
Dr. Shyam Kumar Thakur
Assistant Professor,
Deptt. of English, K.V.Sc. Abstract
College, Uchchaith, Benipatti, Frost is a great regional poet and the scenes and sights, characters and events of New England form the
Madhubani, Bihar, India basis of his poetry. He does not depict all even of this limited region. There is a constant selection and
ordering of material. Even of New England, he deals only with the region that lies North of Boston, and
of this region, too, only with the countryside and country-dwellers. The result of this sifting and
selecting of material is that his regionalism acquires a symbolic significance. The region of North of
Boston becomes a microcosm of the world at large, and his Yankee characters become symbolic of
human nature in all ages and countries. Emotional responses of his dramatis personae acquire a deeper
significance as being symbolic of basic human responses. For example, the emotional agitation of the
mother in Home Burial, and the fate of the servant in The Death of the Hired Man, are symbolic of the
emotional stress and strain, isolation and alienation, which are the lot of humanity in the modern age.
In this way, he is able to embody vast concepts and infinite depths within little space. Vast vistas are
thus presented to the mind’s eye, and the effect created is one of unlimited expansion. It thus becomes
possible to read even the simplest of his poems at a number of levels.

Keywords: Symbolism, frost's poetry and basic human responses

Introduction
Robert Frost is a great regional poet. New England is the focal point of his poetry. There is a
constant selection and ordering of material. Even of New England, he only deals with the
region that lies North of Boston, and of this region, too, only with the countryside and
country-dwellers. His constant recourse to regionalism acquires a symbolic significance. The
region, North of Boston becomes a microcosm of the world at large, and his Yankee
characters become symbolic of human nature in all ages and countries.
Emotional responses of his dramatis personae acquire a deeper significance as being
symbolic of basic human responses. Thus, the emotional stress and strain, isolation and
alienation, of the modem mankind are well reflected in Frost’s poetry. In this way, Frost is
able to embody vast concepts and infinite depths within little space. Warren Austin uses the
term ‘natural symbolism” to describe Frost’s symbols, for they are all derived from the
ordinary, common place objects and phenomenon of Nature and from the common everyday
events and situations of human life. Such symbols are not peculiar to Frost; they have rather
been used by all poets through the ages, as they come to mind naturally and spontaneously.
Frost’s poems, some of the best of them, use natural symbols the reference of which we find
it difficult to control:
we think of The Road Not Taken’, Walls’, The Mountain’. In ‘Stopping by Woods’, ‘miles
to go before I sleep’ is literally true of the traveler, we assume; but in the language of natural
symbolism ‘to sleep’ is to ‘die’; and if one couples by contrast the ‘woods are lovely, dark
and deep’ (all three adjectives panegyric) with the moral and social check of ‘promises to
keep’, one can’t wholly reject the passing, not insisted on,. Warren writers: “Presumably no
constant reader of poetry will go wrong with Frost; but, partly because of his natural
symbolism, Frost has drawn a wide audience, some of whom, once grasping the possibility
of symbols, will bear down too heavily on both the natural symbols and their companions,
giving to his plurisigns a fixity and rigidity alien to the nature of poetic statement, especially
contemporary poetic statement.”
Frost’s symbols are simple because they are drawn from the simplest sources, but they are
Corresponding Author:
Dr. Shyam Kumar Thakur
also complex because they operate on more than one level of meaning. Ordinarily symbolism
Assistant Professor, is an object that represents something else. Originally it originates in France with the idea to
Deptt. of English, K.V.Sc. express a higher and invisible world other than world of concrete phenomena. This
College, Uchchaith, Benipatti, movement also affected American literature in the nineteenth century. Symbols, signs,
Madhubani, Bihar, India

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metaphors and similes are used all over the world to create 'Stopping By woods on a Snowy Evening' is another poem,
images in the work of literature. It became an acceptable in which the familiar things finally become highly
technique and medium to express and interpret the suggestive. Apparently, the poem describes the evening
materialistic realistic of life and the mysteries of human life. walk of a rural farmer, may be the poet himself. But out of
Man is instinctively impelled by his nature to know about his evening walk beside a snowy woods, the traveler
the mysteries of life. These mysteries can be understood discovers a truth universal in appeal.
easily when ideas pertaining to the hidden aspects of life, In the poem “Mowing” the poet as a laborer identifies
which are beyond perception, are expressed in terms of himself with his scythe. The narrator works in the field on a
sense experiences of the material world. The poet has to use hot day. He notices that his scythe seems to be whispering
these material objects and physical experiences in a as it works. Instead of dreaming about inactivity or reward
suggestive manner to acquire significance as symbols. for its labor as a person would, the scythe takes its sole
Robert Frost worked individual poems into a larger unity by pleasure from its hard work. It receives satisfaction from
presenting in them a recurrent speaker, a wise country “the fact” of its earnest labor in the field, not from transient
person living close to nature and approaching life in a spirit dreams or irrational hopes. The narrator follows the scythe’s
of compassionate realism. Many people assumed that this example: seizing on the pleasure of hard work and making
speaker was Frost himself, but in fact it was a brilliant hay.
artistic creation, a persona or mask. In addition he wrote In the poem 'Two Tramps in Mud Time' Frost has taken
many dramatic monologues whose speakers were New notice of both the bright and dark aspects of nature. Beneath
England farm people. The poems in which he makes use of the apparently beautiful calm there is lurking turmoil and
the familiar aspects to suggest a symbolic meaning are storms:
Mending Wall, The Road Not Taken, Stopping by Woods
by Snowy Evening, Birches etc. Be glad of water, but don’t forget
In the poem 'The Pasture', we are introduced with a farmer The lurking frost in the earth beneath
who is engaged in day to day farming life. The Pasture
describes simple, every day pleasures on the farm. Here the There is a famous poem “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy
speaker says he is setting out on an ordinary farm chore to Evening”. On the surface, it is a poem about a traveler who
clean the pasture spring of leaves, and perhaps wait for the feels tempted to go into the woods which are “lovely, dark
water to clear. But in deeper sense the poem shows the and deep” and to stay there in order to enjoy their strange
process of purifying human hearts from sin. beauty and charm, but who is not able to carry out his wish
Pasture symbolizes the world. To clean the pasture spring on account of the realization that he has promises to keep
means to purify the heart and soul from sin. Leaves and miles to go. But the poem has a deeper, symbolic
symbolize the sins that lie inside the heart. ’Wait to watch significance. The words “promises”, “miles”, and “sleep”
the water clear” means wait until the clear from sins. “To have deeper meanings. “Promises” and “miles to go” imply
fetch the little calf” means to guide the people who still have duties and responsibilities. “Sleep” symbolizes death. There
weak faith. ’It totters when she licks it with her tongue” are the promises which he has made to himself and to
means God will send his messenger to guide the ordinary others, or which others have made on his behalf. And there
people. So, God will not directly give enlightenment to are the miles he must travel through other kinds of
them. experience before he yields to that final and inevitable
In the poem ‘Mending Wall’, for example, Frost portrays a commitment-death. We are not told that the call of social
typical farming work in the context of New England. The responsibility proves stronger than the attraction of the
New England farmers built walls as boundaries to their woods, which are "lovely" as well as "dark and deep’. The
farms. These walls often became weak and broke down. So, dichotomy of the poet's obligations both to the woods and to
they needed mending. The poem Mending Wall is also a a world of promises is what gives this poem a universal
poem about two neighbors and a wall. The wall acts as a appeal.
divider in separating estates-apple and pine trees. It is a very
common picture of farming life where the people believe The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
that "Good fences make good neighbors." But the But I have promises to keep,
suggestiveness of the poem is very modern in its approach. And miles to go before I sleep,
The poem is based on the modern theme of isolation. And miles to go before I sleep.
Modern men built boundaries and made themselves isolated
from each other. Frost’s metaphysical treatment of this The closing stanza of the poem is especially symbolic. The
physical and psychological isolation is also an evidence of poem symbolically expresses the conflict which everyone
his modernity. In “Mending Walls”, Frost juxtaposes the feels between the demands of the practical life and a desire
two opposite aspects of the theme of the poem and then to escape into the land of reverie.
leaves it to the reader to draw his own conclusion. The The poem “The Road Not Taken” was also based on the
conservative farmer says: poet’s personal experience. It was based on his visit to the
woods of Plymouth, New Hampshire in 1911-1912. But the
Good fences make good neighbor poem symbolizes the universal problem of making a choice
and the modern radical farmer says: of invisible barriers built up in the minds of the people
Something there is that doesn’t love a wall, which alienate them from one another mentally and
emotionally, though they live together or as neighbors in the
But the question remains unsolved. And it is up to the society. At the heart of the poem is the romantic mythology
readers if they will keep the wall or pull down it. of flight from a fixed world of limited possibility into a
wilderness of many possibilities combined with trials and

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choices through which the pilgrim progresses to divine Frost is a conscious artist who views the society around him
perfection. in a pragmatic manner. He observes the daily actives,
'Apple Picking' describes the feelings, of a man who has customs, and rituals. He also witnesses the socioeconomic
been plucking apples from the apple trees. He's describing and the philosophical changes that take place with the
how he takes them off the tree and places them in a bucket development of society in an unknown natural setting in
and sends them off. His is a tired apple picker. He cherishes relation to the scientific developments. The behaviour of
the apples like they were jewels. After a long day’s work, human beings is lucidly suggested. In the poem “The Death
the speaker is tired of apple picking and feels sleep coming of the Hired Man” real social drama is depicted, around the
on. Similarly the Birch trees in “Birches” symbolize man’s symbol of “House”. The house stands for the roots, the
desire to seek escape from the harsh suffering man to permanent shelter, something that is yours from birth to
undergo in this world. death. The poet brings to our notice that the only source of
He wanted to write about the unusualness of the usual thing. peace and comfort in the present complex social structure is
His unusualness is not in the object but in the treatment of one’s home. The meaning of “Home” is interpreted
the object. So much so that incidents like plucking berries, differently by wife and husband, who are representatives of
returning home, going for water, harvesting etc. become different attitudes. Husband defines home as “the place,
highly symbolical. were when you have to go there/they have to take you in.”
In the Poem Mending Wall, nature is a destroyer of the But the wife defines it as, “something you somehow haven’t
boundaries between men. But the old – conservative man to deserve.” But the old Silas have no place even to die. The
has no idea without it. He only occurs: “Good fences makes house for him becomes a symbol for eternal rest even after
good neighbours.” Yet the former argues: death. Clean the Brooks has called the poem “dramatic
decorum.”
“There where it is we do not need the wall. I concludes, After a long discussion in his symbols I can say
He is all pine and I am apple orchard. that Frost was shy of self-revelation, the extremely moral
My apple trees will never get across. purpose of his poetry was clothed in simple rustic language
And egad the cones under his pines, I tell him. ” and conveyed through parables and incidents. His stories
But teach the modern man to gain his lost aboriginal strength by
He moves in darkness, as it seems to me, turning against materialism. His wisdom is implicit and
Not of woods only and the shade of trees. inspiring so that its effects are long lasting.
He will not go behind his father's saying,
...., ‘Good fences make good neighbour’. References
1. “The Figure a Poem Makes” in the Collected Prose of
Thus, Frost chooses the symbols from his experience to Robert Frost, ed. by Richardson, Cambridge: Belknap
denote the cultural transformation or the conflict between Harvard, 2007.
two contrary forces. But at the same time as a progressive, 2. Rene Wellek, Austin Warren. Theory of Literature,
liberal man he observes: Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1985.
3. Charles Feidelson Jr. Symbolism and American
“What I was Walling in or Walling out, literature, (Chicago and London: The University of
And to whom I was like to give offence. Chicago Press, 1965).
Something there is that doesn’t love a Wall, 4. Reginald, Cook L. Robert Frost: A Living Voice, 1974.
That wants it down.” 5. Connery Lathem E. (ed.), Interview with Robert Frost,
(London, Jonathan Cape, 1960).
Frost uses the symbols to depict nature, the relationship 6. Reginald Cook L. Robert Frost: A Living Voice, 1974.
between the Man and Nature. Frost does not observe nature 7. Lathem E. Connery (ed.), Interviews with Robert Frost,
as heal - all and or the perennial source of solace. But unlike (London, Jonathan Cape, 1960).
the Romantics he witnesses nature’s conflict with man on 8. “Mending Wall”, The Poems of Robert Frost.
various levels. At the same time, he does not deny the 9. “The Death of the Hired Man,” Selected poems (Holt,
beauty of nature and benefactions for man. 1928).
The activity of apple picking in the poem, “After apple 10. “Home Burial”, The Poetry of Robert Frost, (London,
Picking” is a real experience. It is symbolic of man’s routine Jonathan Cape, 1971).
life, daily activity of which he is addicted and get tired. That
is why thinks to get rid of it and after life. He feels
momentary stay against confusion by dreaming of eternal
sleep. On his ladder he had transcendental experience:

My long-two-pointed ladder's sticking through a

tree
Toward heaven still,
He is satisfied and longs, for long sleep:
And there's a barrel that I didn't fill
Beside it, and there may be two or three
Apples I didn’t pick upon some bough,
But I am done with apple - picking now.
Essence of winter sleep is one the night,...

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