Friday, January 31, 2020
Robert Frost And William Stafford Essay Example for Free
Robert Frost And William Stafford Essay Introduction            The writer chose to compare and contrast the brilliant poems of two of the most famous poets of all time. â€Å"Birches†by Robert Frost, and â€Å"Traveling Through The Dark†by William Stafford. Both poems cover nature as a theme and through it, expertly laid out their ideas and what they wanted to express.            Robert Frost (1874-1963) was a Californian poet famous for his poems â€Å"The Road Not Taken†and â€Å"Pasture†. William Edgar Stafford (1914-1993) born in Kansas was a military veteran and was a teacher at one point in his life. His best known works are â€Å"The Rescued Year†, â€Å"Stories that Could Be True: New and Collected Poems†, â€Å"Writing the Australian Crawl: Views on the writer’s vocation†, and â€Å"An Oregon Message.†           At first, it may seem that these are just simple nature-themed poems but as we looked deeper, we’ll see that it’s not the case. It may also appear that these two poems have nothing in common since Birch talks about a bent tree and Traveling talks about a dead deer. [We can see that both poems talk about hope and taking chances. Although they differ in presentation and that in Birch, the narrator tried to go back when everything was simple for him – we can see that the two poems touched the difficulty of making a life-altering decision. ]            This paper would further provide proof and verses from the two poems to support the above statements. Individual analysis of the poems would be discussed and their similarities and differences would be concluded in the last paragraph. Robert Frost’s â€Å"Birches†           Robert Frost was a pastor and his devotion to God can be seen through his works. He frequently used metaphors about nature to express his ideas of a situation or special circumstances. In Birches, Frost reminisced his childhood when he was just a young boy swinging the branches of a birch tree. In recapturing the moments, Frost used third-person narration instead of saying directly that it’s him who was swinging the branches. The branches were bent as a result of this â€Å"swinging†, and also as a result of the ice crystals from the ice storm. Frost vividly described the image of the bent birch trees, â€Å"When I see birches bend to left and right. Across the lines of straighter darker trees†and the melting of the ice crystals trapped in the branches, â€Å"Often you must have seen them. Loaded with ice a sunny winter morning; After a rain. They click upon themselves; As the breeze rises, and turn many-colored; As the stir cracks and crazes their enamel. Soon the suns warmth makes them shed crystal shells.†The poem tries to make the reader visualize the image in his head; of the bent birch tree, and its’ process of change through different seasons. This colorful description of nature can simply be as plain as about the bent branches of a birch tree; or about the many reasons why a branch, could be a metaphor for a person, would bend or go way out of his or her path in life. He also associated bending birch trees to young girls drying their hair under the sun. The seasons Winter and Summer are allegories of the obstacles one person would meet in his lifetime. This symbolizes the cycle of life, that after every winter, comes spring then summer. Same so with life, after every trouble, comes happiness. Also related to the saying there’s always a rainbow after the rain.            In general, the poem talks about how the boy who used to swing birch trees grew up and became successful in life, and he looks back and wishes for the simplicity of life when he was younger. He wishes to retreat from the current situation that he’s in and feel heaven once more, just like when he was just a young boy, â€Å"So was I once myself a swinger of birches.  And so I dream of going back to be. Its when Im weary of considerations, And life is too much like a pathless wood; Where your face burns and tickles with the cobwebs.†           In addition to this, the monochromatic tone of the verse â€Å"Id like to go by climbing a birch tree, And climb black branches up a snow-white trunk,†symbolizes the perception of a child, wherein there are only two choices; black or white – right or wrong. This fact upholds the innocence and un-complexity of being a child – the same reasons Frost wanted to go back and swing those birch tree branches once again. However, he can not go back in time when he was still light like a child and the birch tree branches could carry him high up, now, the birch tree branch bowed down and gently let him down touching the earth. He could only, but daydream of those days, â€Å"Id like to go by climbing a birch tree, And climb black branches up a snow-white trunk; Toward heaven, till the tree could bear no more, But dipped its top and set me down again.†William Stafford’s â€Å"Traveling Through The Dark†           The poem relates the story of a man driving along a narrow road and comes across a dead deer lying in the middle of the road. Since the road is too narrow to swerve and avoid the dead animal, he got off his car and inspected the dead deer. With intentions of pushing it over the canyon, he touched the deer and realized that it was pregnant. Feeling the warmth of the deer’s tummy and knowing that the baby is still alive. He chose to shove it over the canyon like they normally do to avoid accidents that might happen in the narrow road because swerving might lead to deaths.            This poem may appear to be very morbid and showcases the narrator’s selfishness, but shoving the deer into the river was actually the best and the only thing he could do. This decision did not come easy for him, â€Å"Beside that mountain road I hesitated. The car aimed ahead its lowered parking lights.†           Although, literally, the poem poses the difficult question of should you or should you not push the dead deer over the river? It is actually a representation of the difficult choices we make in life. The narrow road symbolizes life and the dead deer is an obstacle or an opportunity. In such narrow road, we can choose to swerve, or go around the dead deer to avoid it, but take the risk of not knowing where we might end up. Or we can stop and push the deer aside. This poem involves difficult decisions which we have to make in order to move on – along the narrow road, and with our lives. Discussion Both poems used nature as metaphors to express what they truly mean. Robert Frost’s bent birch tree branches are analogous to Stafford’s narrow road. The birch tree carried swinging young boys and caught heavy snow every winter, but it remained strong and flexible; instead of breaking, it bended to adapt to a changing environment. Just like the narrow road in Traveling, although it did not bend like the birch tree, the poem offered an opportunity to swerve, get out of the path, and dive into the uncertain. This just shows that life as we know it is not definite. In Birches, the changing seasons from the harsh winter to a bright summer, delivers a promise of hope. Just like in Traveling, the difficult decision of pushing the deer to the river also delivers a promise of hope for the drivers taking the same road. After many hardships in life, the narrator in Birches wanted to go back to the simplicity of a young boy’s life but realized that he can not and he should not, so he continued with his life. Just like the man in Traveling, he made a very hard decision, for the safety of the greater good, he had to live with his decision and he had to go on living.            Both poems present making life-altering decisions – Birches (choosing to stay trapped in the past or to move on) and Traveling (choosing to leave the dead deer on the road or pushing it over the river). However, the presentation of nature in Birches was more alive and vibrant unlike in Traveling wherein it’s dark and dangerous. In Birches, Frost vividly described the setting and imagery of nature and uses a lot of adjectives. While Stafford simply put out the words out there, even taking a sonnet-like form. Conclusion:            Birches and Traveling Through the Dark are among the best poems ever published. They stimulate deeper analysis and interpretation by the simplicity of the words that authors used and the un-complexity of the setting in which they derive the stories from. Poem analysis and interpretation are subjective and is solely based on the reader’s understanding of the texts used. This understanding can either go literally (based solely on the surface meaning of the words) or figuratively, wherein, interpretation in this manner could go about for centuries. There are no right or wrong answers when it comes to poem analysis; the truth is, whatever the critics say about a particular poem – only the author himself knows the real meaning and essence of the poem. References Frost, Robert. Birches. Stafford, William. Traveling Through The Dark
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