Robert Frost
Poetic Movement
Robert Frost was a well known American poet who was a leading figure in the modernist movement. Like other modernist poets, he wrote his poems in new and different ways to other writings in the beginning of the 20th century. But unlike other modernists, Frost also kept some traditional aspects of poetry for example his contemporaries such as Eliot or Pound, he favored more traditional metrics and forms of poetry. It could be said that he was caught between the two movements: modernist and traditional. Being a modernist poet, his poetry used the languages and experiences of everyday life, "however the beauty of his poetry lay in its layers of ambiguities and deeper meanings hidden behind these everyday themes".
Modernist poetry is different from traditional poetry in several ways: it uses simple language and often doesn't use traditional aspects of poetry. In addition to this, modernist poets avoid using images of nature and they view the world in a relatively negative way. Finally, the modernists often left their poems vague so it is open to interpretation by readers. Like his contemporaries, Frost liked using simple language in his poems and he also let his readers interpret the meaning behind the words of his poems by leaving them a little vague. But unlike other modernist poets, Frost used traditional meter and rhyme. He also lived in the countryside and often used nature images. Therefore, we can only conclude him as being part of both movements: traditional and modernist.
Quotes
The following quotes are some of Robert Frost's that caught my eye:
"In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: It Goes On"
This quote is very beautiful it tells people that no matter what happens around you, to you or with you the world will still turn, life will still go on just as it did yesterday and the day before that.
"The best way out is always through" & "Never cut what you can untie"
To me both the quotes above give a similar meaning. I think that through these two quotes what he is trying to say is that the only way to accomplish, complete or achieve something is by doing it the straight forward way, doing it the right way even if it means it's harder than the short cuts.
"Love is an irresistible desire to be irresistibly desired."
This is a beautiful, romantic quote that two people together as partners can relate to. What caught my eye in this quote is the Frost repeated the word "irresistible" to mean two different things in the same sentence. Here in this quote Frost is trying to define the word love, his definition seems to be that love is the compelling desire to be ones most desired person.
"I'm not confused. I'm just well mixed."
This quote has the hint of humour in it. I feel like this quote is trying to imply that when we can't make decisions its not because we are confused, it is because we have too many ideas mixed in our heads and it is hard to choose from. If this is really the meaning behind the quote then we readers can relate to it on a personal level and agree, because I sure can and do.
"Don't ever take a fence down until you know why it was put up."
This is a quote that has imagery, immediately when one reads the word fence one can see the image of a fence in ones mind as that is a common thing we see everyday. This quote is trying to say that one should only accuse or blame another for a wrongdoing until he or she knows why the person did what they did.
"The world is full of willing people; some willing to work, the rest willing to let them."
Frost is defining all of humanity into two divisions: one being hardworking and giving it their all and the rest letting the hard workers work while they laze around with life.
Infuences from life in poetry
The two most important things about Frost's life that has influenced his poetry:
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Frost's poetry was often related to his life struggle, the pain he felt for the death of his loved ones and often his tragic life reflected in his works. When Frost was eleven, his father died of tuberculosis and then in a mere five year later his mother died of cancer and for a normal family this would be very hard and painful to handle. Depression ran in Frost's mother's side. Although it was never officially diagnosed, it is widely accepted that Frost himself, his wife and his children suffered from depression too. Hereafter, Frost was forced to send his little sister where she later dies, the decisions he made and he didn't made. The loss of his parents and the loss of his sister weighed a heavy toll of Frost's mind. Even very earlier on, he was being given great amounts of grief, which would later be channel to write profound poetry. Then later on, as Frost's success mounted so did his grievances. His wife died as much as 20 years before him, then his son commits suicide and not much later the deaths of his other children follow. Yet, Frost continues in his field of poetry, he actively channels his pain into poetry. He wrote poems like "Home Burial", "Once By the Pacific", "A Late Walk" and many more.
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In Frost's early years, he lived in New England and so he was primarily he was a "city boy" who spent nearly all of his time in the city life. Until later, when he spent time as poultry farmer in New Hampshire. And because this environment was new to him, and so it intrigued him. In turn he grew a passion in himself and to write poems with the use of nature imagery. Some of the poems Frost wrote using nature imagery were: "Mending Wall", "Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening", "Our Hold on the Planet" and many more.
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Frost wrote some of his poems at the time of First World War also known as the Great War, one of those poems included "Fire and Ice". This poem reflects that Frost believed; sooner or later the ways of us humans were going to be the reason for the death of humanity. Looking at the pain and anger in the poem "Fire and ice", one can see the this topic matter was something Frost felt very strongly about and in turn influenced some of his poetry.