This page was created by Alison Morgan. The last update was by students at Xavier University.
A Green Analysis of Robert Frost
Frost was born in San Francisco, California and passed away in Boston, Massachusetts. After the death of his father, Frost and his family moved to Boston when he was 11years of age. Many of his writings focus on the Northeastern climate and the drastic changes that one experiences as seasons pass. His many years of living in the New England certainly shaped his writing style and his decisions of what he chose to discuss in his works.
Frost’s personal life a difficult one to say the least. His father fell victim to tuberculosis, and his mother died of cancer in 1900. Shortly after the death of his mother Frost had to commit his sister to a mental hospital. Frost himself suffered from depression and his decision to focus on nature may have been because it was his primary source of escape from the many burdens life placed upon him.
“Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” and “A Winter Eden” both serve as perfect examples of how deeply committed to nature Frost really was. To Frost, it seems the beauty and solidarity nature has to offer make it the ideal topic to write about. Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening is considered to be one of Frost’s greatest works and A Winter Eden compliments it very well. “A Minor Bird” approaches nature from the opposite end of the spectrum, criticizing nature instead of appreciating it.
Robert Frost passed away in 1963, yet man of his works are deemed to be timeless classics. Frost is undoubtedly one of the greatest poets in American history, and his legacy will continue to live on through the works he has left us with.
A Green Analysis of Robert Frost
When people are asked to imagine a “green” landscape, they probably picture woods in the springtime, or a beach with clear water and white sand. Very few people, if any, would imagine a frigid winter tundra as his or her “green” place. However, this doesn’t mean that winter is where nature dies, and its beauty put on pause until the crisp spring air can melt the snow away and let the flowers poke up through the soil. Robert Frost’s “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” and “A Winter Eden” strive to show readers that there is plenty of beauty that remains during the winter, even if it is not in the form that most people would recognize it in. “A Minor Song” further proves how ignorant we can be towards nature if it does not present itself in a manner that we see fit to appreciate. “Green” literature is able to call attention to the finest details in an area in order to open the eyes of a reader to the beauty that is always present, but we are sometimes too arrogant to recognize.“Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” was written by Robert Frost in 1922. The title itself paints a pretty clear image of what the focus of the poem is about. Frost aims to create a clear image of a quiet, peaceful winter evening where he takes a moment to stop on his journey and appreciate everything his surroundings have to offer him during winter, the time of the year when most people believe there is no beauty left to be found in nature.
Interestingly enough, the woods Frost finds himself in are not public nor owned by him, they are actually the property of a man who lives a while away in a village. Frost intentionally stops on this man’s property because he has such a desire to observe the snowfall in the woods. The first stanza of this poem (lines 1-4) is dedicated to Frost admitting that he has no concerns stopping in the woods because he knows that the man lives some distance away and he will not be seen on his property. When Frost says, “He will not see me stopping here/To watch his woods fill up with snow” (lines 3-4) it means that Frost values the beauty of nature more than he fears being caught on another man’s personal property.
Animals do not make an appearance in Frost’s poem, except for the short mention of his horse shaking its bells in line 9. The lack of animals may seem like it would be difficult to create a “green” work of literature, but Frost turns his attention to the other areas of nature that do not focus on animals, such as the snowfall itself and the wind he can feel while standing still. Focusing on strictly environmental features while still achieving the desired effect of creating a peaceful and tranquil scene ensures that this poem is in fact a “green” piece of work.
The fact that Frost chooses to narrate this poem during the winter months is also a unique feature since most “green” poetry tends to be written during almost every time period besides the winter. Most people tend to associate winter with frigid temperatures, long dark nights, and wind that whips and stings the face when a person leaves the safety of their home. Frost ignores all of these negative traits of winter in this poem and doesn’t bother to mention the temperature because he is appropriately dressed and not affected by the cold. He looks the darkness of the immense forest he is located in and doesn’t find it intimidating or scary at all. “The woods are lovely, dark and deep/But I have promises to keep” (lines 13-14.)
The only noise in the woods with Frost are the bells that are attached to his horse’s harness, and when these fall silent only the wind is left. The dreaded wind that is perhaps the element people fear the most during winter time. Unlike a summer breeze that cools and refreshes, a winter wind makes you shudder and stuff your hands deep into whatever pocket they can find first, but not for Robert Frost. When it comes to wind Frost states that, “The only other sound’s the sweep of easy wind and downy flake” (lines 11-12). A sweeping, easy wind doesn’t sound so bad does it? This one statement about the wind is enough to change their entire vision of the poem. Instead of a harsh and cold horse ride through the dead woods Frost is looking at a calm and quiet journey through a beautiful land covered in white.
“Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” isn’t a long poem by any means, lasting only 16 short lines, but Frost is able to describe a beautiful winter scene that contradicts how most people view the world during the winter months. At a time where most animals are hibernating, the birds have fled, and the leaves have left the trees bare, Robert Frost is overwhelmed by the natural beauty of snowfall in the woods.
The second poem by Robert Frost, “A Winter in Eden”, was published in 1923 and continues to carry on the winter theme. However, in this poem, Frost examines the winter landscape during the day, and animals also make an appearance in the poem. Frost himself continues to play the role of the observer, simply appreciating the beauty of what nature has placed in front of him.
Frost incorporates animals into this poem very early. He explains how the cronies (rabbits) have left their homes to come out into the winter sun to run around in the snow covered forest swamp. He also mentions the birds that are still around in lines 14-16. In these lines Frost notes how calm and content the birds appear to be as they simply pick at the buds on the surrounding trees. Frost describes the scene before him as being, “as near a paradise as it can be” (line 3) despite that fact that it is still a freezing winter day. He even goes as far as saying that this winter scene before him is, “One level higher than the earth below/One level nearer heaven overhead” (lines 6-7). Making a comparison between heaven and this simple winter environment is a pretty dramatic comparison to make, but Frost does so with complete confidence. It seems like Robert Frost actually prefers the beauty of a cold winter landscape over the typical warm weather one.
I believe that Frost chose to mention the birds and the tree buds because this shows that there is still plant life that exists during the winter months. Winter tends to be stereotyped into the idea that all of the trees and bushes have essentially died until the spring comes back around. Frost disproves this point with his comments about the tress buds and he also takes time to describe the “shining red” berries that still cling to the bushes (line 8). These two features assert that fact that nature has not died in the winter, it is still producing and providing and preparing to return to full strength when the spring comes along.
In the concluding section of “A Winter Eden”, Frost briefly discusses how winter days are shorter than summer days. Frost uses lines 18-20 to explain how because winter days do not last very long, people are less inclined to go out and observe and appreciate nature. “This Eden day is done at two o’clock/An hour of winter day might seem too short” (Lines 18-19). To the common person, when the sun starts to set at 2 o’clock in the afternoon, it is not worth the hassle of getting prepared to go out if they are only going to be outside for a couple of hours. Frost clearly disagrees with this thought process and believes that winter time is actually the most beautiful time of the year for nature.
Lasting only 8 short lines, “A Minor Bird” takes mere seconds to read, but the interpretation is one that can leave a reader thinking for weeks. This poem by Frost was written in 1928, and even though Frost had written many longer works by this point in his life, this short, simply worded poem is still a “green” work of literature because it calls out humanity for the ignorance we display towards nature and the creatures that inhabit it.
Frost begins “A Minor Bird” by saying that he wishes that the bird that sings by his house would fly away and, “Not sing by his house all day” (lines 1-2). He claims that his many attempts to scare the bird away have been unsuccessful and it has gotten to the point where hearing the foul creature is beginning to drive him insane. In this poem, Frost recognizes the fact that the bird itself isn’t the actual problem, but rather the tone its song is being sung in. For whatever reason, Frost has a serious issues with the pitch of the bird’s song, and he despises it for this reason.
Frost acknowledges that he is partly to blame for his lack of satisfaction with the bird’s song because the bird has no control over what its pitch sounds like. As a matter of fact, the pitch the bird sings could be a mating call, in which cases others of its species would find incredibly attractive and be drawn to the singing bird. The irony in this poem is that what man deems as being an intolerable noise is actually a love song that we are too arrogant to hear.
In the conclusion of this poem (lines 7-8) Frost has a miniature revelation about his attitude towards the bird. “And of course there must be something wrong/In wanting to silence any song.” This an incredibly powerful ending line in the poem because Frost is taking a direct shot at humanity and our ignorance to witness the larger picture. In these ending lines Frost is attempting to draw attention to the fact that if something doesn’t fit in with what we deem to be beautiful, we toss it aside like it’s a piece of trash. The bird’s apparent “off key” song, the cold of winter, downpours of rain and thunderstorms in the summer are all things that have been given a negative stigma in today’s society. In this poem Frost wants us to understand that we may have to deal with something we don’t like at first, but if we honestly and sincerely try to find the beauty in something, it is always there and we can find it.
“A Minor Bird” is a “green” piece of text because it is attempting to make the common person look deeper than what he or she sees on the outside when it comes to nature. “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” and “A Winter Eden” both urge us to appreciate what nature presents to us, and “A Minor Bird” serves as a perfect example of how we are missing out. I believe that Frost would use these three poems of his to argue that we have become blind and lazy over time, and because of this we continue to damage our environment and destroy or ignore the beauties that are being displayed right in front of us. All three of these texts are “green” but they each have a unique approach to proving this point.
Works Cited:
"Robert Frost." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 21 Mar. 2016.
"Robert Frost." Poets.org. Academy of American Poets, n.d. Web. 21 Mar. 2016.
"Robert Frost Biography." Bio.com. Ed. Biography.com Editors. A&E Networks Television, 2016. Web. 21 Mar. 2016.
Commins, Carol A. Red Berries in Winter. Digital image. Fine Art America. 3 Jan. 2012. Web. 13 Apr. 2016.
