Critical analysis of Stopping by woods on a snowy evening, Fire and Ice and Home burial by Robert Frost

Name: - Thakar Aneri R.

Roll no:-1

Paper no:-10   (American Literature)

Topic :- Critical analysis of Stopping by woods on a snowy evening, Fire and Ice and Home burial by Robert Frost.

Guidance by: - Heena ma’am

Submitted to: - S.M.T S.B.Gardi Department of English

              M.K.B. University of Bhavnagar

    Introduction: - Robert frost is known as the Nature poet, modern poet, and a Lyric poet. We find natural element in his poetry He is also known as Regional poet. John F. Lynen, Says that Frost has so man and such excellent poems about natural scenery and wild life, “that one can hardly avoid thinking of him as a natural poet”.  We can find some element of Modernity like his Pastoral Technique, Attitude towards Nature-Realism and Metaphysical technique. We find symbolism in his poetry like natural symbol in the poem stopping by woods and in mending wall. He is known as a Lyrical Genius because of his use of pure lyric as personal and subjective their simplicity, intensity, and melody, dramatic lyrics Diction and versification and the use of Juxtaposition of opposite.

Ø Critical Analysis of the poem “Stopping by Woods on Snowy Evening”

This poem is one of the most quietly moving of frost’s lyrics. The lyric is Simplicity itself. Poem starts with the question like,

          “Whose woods these are I think I know”

Here we find that our speaker is sound confuse, he is not confident about the owner of the woods. The speaker thinks that he knows the owner of the woods, and he lives in a house in the village and village is not the most hoppin’ place in the world. And he feels calm because he knows that the owner of the wood is not present in the wood so he can move freely in it. Here snow is a kind of Temptation. The poem is about the continuity of time and life. Poet is talking about the idea of spiritual

         “He will not see me stopping here

         To watch his woods fill up with snow”

Here God is symbolizing as village and woods. The illusion of poet we can see here because as we know that good is everywhere though poet believes that the owner of the wood can’t see him. Here woods are symbolized as nature and the owner of the nature is god. “My little horse” is use for “the soul” and horse is a kind of a tool to rich your destination. There is something strange for the horse because our speaker stop his horse in the woods and near the farm house so horse could not find the reason of speaker’s stop at middle. Poet stops in between woods and a lake which is frozen with snow, because he was fascinated by the beauty of the woods and frozen lake. And between the woods and frozen lake symbolize the period of birth to death.

              “The darkest evening of the year”

The darkest evening of the year mean by him is about the season of winter. And winter symbolizes the death. And the other meaning of it is that the one fourth parts of a day and a day means a life. Poet is saying that “Life is like a day” and the darkest evening is the worst time of the soul or may be for poet or an individuals. The darkest evening of the year is also symbolized as near to die or about to die. 

        “He gives his harness bells a shake”

Bell is a kind of guide here. And here the line suggests that a person who can predict the bad or worst situation before the things will happen by getting some signs. So here bell is use as symbol for make him aware about the place. And instead of bells ringing sound we find the sound of sweeping, and this comes from the slight wind and softly falling snow.

And the last four line of the last stanza has a very deep meaning.

       “The woods are lovely, dark and deep.”

Poet connects the word woods with life and the meaning of this line is that life is lovely as well as dark, it means full of risk and difficulty. And deep it means whatever happens with us throughout our life that is difficult to understand some times. So the complexity of life is symbolized with the word deep.

              “But I have promises to keep”

 The line suggests that whatever the life of an individual he or she has to live. Everyone has to accept the truth or reality of their life and try to live with it. And the last two lines are very important.

“And miles to go before I sleep.

And miles to go before I sleep.”

The line suggest that Death is the ultimate reality of the life but before that an individual has some duty to fulfill and the words like “and miles to go” suggest the same thing that there are so many works and responsibility an individual has  and he has to complete before the end of his life. And “before I sleep” it symbolizes the death.         

Ø Symbol analysis

Ø Woods:- Here woods are symbolizes as contrast to civilization. In line 1,4,7 and 13 some interpret the woods as an extended metaphor for death.

Ø The natural world:- In natural world  the snow is symbol of coolness and the frozen lake is symbol of the death and chillness of life means unable to help even the self also.

Ø Other symbols:- Here we find some symbol like Village, horse, sleep etc..

Ø Village:-  Village is symbolize here as Society and Civilization.

Ø Horse:-   Horse is  symbolize as soul.

Ø Sleep:-    Sleep is symbolize as Death.

Ø Form and Meter of the poem

The composed of four four- lined stanzas, this poem is a classic example of the Rubaiyat Stanza. “Rubaiyat” is a beautiful Persian word for “quatrain”, which means a stanza composed of four lines. The Rubaiyat Stanza has a rhyme scheme of AABA. And the first stanza of the poem has a same rhyme scheme.  The rhyme scheme of the poem is AABABBCBCCDCDDDD. The poem has eight syllables, or five pairs of poem syllables. He uses Iambic tetrameter in the poem.

Ø Critical analysis of the poem Fire and Ice

The poem is one of the shortest poems of frost. The lyric Fire and Ice provides the best illustration of Frost’s metaphysical manner, his habit of bringing together vastly antithetical (opposite) concepts. The union of Fire and ice is indeed remarkable. Poet try to pointing out that both the symbols are equally good for destruction. Fire, symbolizing the intensity of passion or desire, is as destructive as ice, symbolizing the cold of hatred.

 Fire and ice is a short lyric of only nine lines, but within these short spaces the poet has succeeded in enclosing vast concepts, and opening out terrible vistas to the mind’s eye.

    The poem starts with this line.

                         “Some say the world will end in fire.

                          Some say in ice.”

This quotation introduces the two sides of the debate on the world’s fate. The narrator clarifies the strict dichotomy between the elements while also revealing that this is not an expression of an individual opinion, but rather a universal understanding. The world must end in one of these two contradictory ways – at least that is what the reader is expected to believe. In the next line, however, the narrator undercuts this conclusion by introducing his own opinion and acknowledging that the world could easily end both ways; thus, fire and ice are inherently similar.

  In the first two lines of the poem, Frost creates a clear dichotomy between fire and ice and the two groups of people that believe in each element. By using the term “some” instead of “I” or “an individual,” Frost asserts that the distinction between the two elements is a universal truth, not just an idea promoted by an individual. In addition to the unavoidable contradiction between fire and ice, these first lines also outline the claim that the world will end as a direct result of one of these elements. It is unclear which element will destroy the world, but it is significant to note that fire and ice are the only options. The poem does not allow for any other possibilities in terms of the world’s fate, just as there are not any other opinions allowed in the black-and-white debate between fire and ice.
Interestingly, the two possibilities for the world’s destruction correspond directly to a common scientific debate during the time Frost wrote the poem. Some scientists believed that the world would be incinerated from its fiery core, while others were convinced that a coming ice age would destroy all living things on the earth’s surface. Instead of maintaining a strictly scientific perspective on this debate, Frost introduces a more emotional side, associating passionate desire with fire and hatred with ice. Within this metaphorical view of the two elements, the “world” can be recognized as a metaphor for a relationship. Too much fire and passion can quickly consume a relationship, while cold indifference and hate can be equally destructive.
Although the first two lines of the poem insist that there can only be a single choice between fire and ice, the narrator undercuts this requirement by acknowledging that both elements could successfully destroy the world. Moreover, the fact that he has had personal experience with both (in the form of desire and hate) reveals that fire and ice are not mutually exclusive, as the first two lines of the poem insist. In fact, though the narrator first concludes that the world will end in fire, he ultimately admits that the world could just as easily end in ice; fire and ice, it seems, are strikingly similar.

Ø Rhyme form and met

Only nine lines long, this little poem is a brilliant example of Frost’s concisely ironic literary style. The poem varies between two meter lengths (either eight syllables or four syllables.) and uses three sets of interwoven rhymes, based on “-ire,” “-ice,” and “ate.”

Ø Critical analysis of the “home burial

North of Boston is frost’s “Book of people” and there are many abnormal and alienated people in it. One such is the “Over-wrought” mother in the Home Burial cracking up under a burden grief over the death of her first- born. It is the shadow of her dead child which brings her in conflict with her husband and alienates them. It is a dramatic dialogue in which the action is developed through the dialogue between husband and wife.  The couple is caught in a moment of spiritual crisis, and the expression of their emotion has all the intensity of the lyric.

                         The poem describes two tragedies: first, the death of a young child, and second, the death of a marriage. As such, the title “Home Burial,” can be read as a tragic double entendre. Although the death of the child is the catalyst of the couple’s problems, the larger conflict that destroys the marriage is the couple’s inability to communicate with one another. Both characters feel grief at the loss of the child, but neither is able to understand the way that their partner chooses to express their sorrow.
The setting of the poem – a staircase with a door at the bottom and a window at the top – automatically sets up the relationship between the characters. The wife stands at the top of the stairs, directly in front of the window overlooking the graveyard, while the husband stands at the bottom of the stairs, looking up at her. While the couple shares the tragedy of their child’s death, they are in conflicting positions in terms of dealing with their grief.
With her position closest to the window, the wife is clearly still struggling with her grief over the loss of her baby. Incapable of moving on at this point in her life, the wife defines her identity in terms of the loss and would rather grieve for the rest of her life than grieve as a sort of pretense. The husband has dealt with his sorrow more successfully, as evidenced by his position at the bottom of the staircase, close to the door and the outside world. As a farmer, the husband is more accepting of the natural cycle of life and death in general, but also chooses to grieve in a more physical manner: by digging the grave for his child. Ironically, the husband’s expression of his grief is completely misunderstood by the wife; she views his behavior as a sign of his callous apathy.
Ultimately, each character is isolated from the other at opposite ends of the staircase. In order for the marriage to succeed, each character must travel an equal distance up or down the staircase in order to meet the other. The husband attempts to empathize with his wife, moving up the staircase toward her and essentially moving backward in his own journey towards acceptance of his child’s death. Even so, the wife is unable to empathize with her husband and only moves down the staircase after he has already left his position at the foot.
When the wife moves down the staircase, she assumes the upper hand in the power struggle between the two by ensuring that her husband cannot move between her and the door and stop her from leaving. Without the physical capacity to keep her from leaving, the husband must attempt to convince her to stay through communication - something that, as the poem demonstrates, has been largely unsuccessful throughout their marriage.

Ø Form 

In terms of form, this poem is a dramatic or pastoral lyric poem, using free-form dialogue rather than strict rhythmic schemes. Frost generally uses five stressed syllables in each line and divides stanzas in terms of lines of speech.

Ø Conclusion:-

                    Here I am dealing with the three poem of the frost, stopping by woods which we describe as a nature poem. In fire and ice he put two contradictory words together and create good image of fate of the world. Well as in the “Home Burial” we find the problem of the lake of conversation in the relationship of the husband and wife, which increase the difference and gape between them. Through these poems we know the use of variety by frost in his works.