Gwynn 1 Amy Gwynn Dr. Hartvigsen Eng 335 Section 2 16 July 2011 Life and Its Images in Robert Frost s Birches As much as we fight, and much as we struggle to save and provide, all of our lives are going to end in death. There is no getting around that bleak fact. But, does that mean that we should spend our lives bemoaning our inevitable fate and treat ever circumstance with somber pessimism? Your answer may depend on what religion you favor, but all would be able to agree that there is beauty in life. Even as we inch closer to our graves minute by minute, we find joy and splendor along the way. Robert Frost s poem Birches uses imagery and fanciful language to contemplate the somewhat heavy mysteries of life. He also uses these means to explore the obstacles we face throughout our lives, as well as the ways these obstacles affect us. As stated in an article in the American magazine National Review, Frost has made a different world out of language, and constituted himself a one-an American Revolution. (Hart, par. 11). Frost as a poet has found a way to transform the experience of life through language. The poem uses sounds as a main type of imagery to demonstrate growth as well as trial in relation to the ice that has built up on the birches fragile branches. It does not speak of the ice on the trees as a burden that obviously hurts them, but they do not complain, nor is there any hint of sadness in this passage. Often you must have seen them/ Loaded with ice a sunny winter morning/after a rain. They click upon themselves (Frost, 5-7). They aren t just covered in ice, they are Loaded with it. The ice completely encases the branches of these trees, conjuring up vivid imagery, and they sag underneath its oppressive load. The irony is that trees need water to
Gwynn 2 grow, and they need a lot of it according to the season. Water is an essential ingredient of all forms of life. Nevertheless, water in the form of ice is very harmful to plant life, and very often kills it in certain circumstances. This is a classical example of something that is good ending up being very harmful, almost creating a sense of drowning. What is more, it is a winter morning in this instance, which is cold and represents the death of the year. But, it is also sunny and bright as the sunlight beats on the snow and reflects back on the ice as well. It is a happy scene, even as these trees droop under the pressure of the ice. This represents the work people have to go through in this life, which provides the sustenance we need to live and support our families. At the same time, our work also makes us droop and weakens us, becoming an all-encompassing obsession that can ultimately suffocate us. Eventually we will not be as strong as we once were, and will not be able to support as much. Yet, the clicking sound the birches make as they tap against each other is also a happy sound, and it would harmonize well with the other sounds of the woods and this bright winter day. They ultimately find joy in the burden placed upon them, as we all have to do in life. The sounds begin to change as there are more factors added to the situation of the trees. As the breeze rises, and turn many-colored/as the stir cracks and crazes their enamel (Frost, 8-9). The over lying sense of sound is still present, but there are also some literal images as well. As the breeze comes in, it influences the trees by adding more pressure to their already stressed situation. Yet, a breeze is not as destructive as a wind, and is usually associated with comfort in contrast to breathing the stagnant air or suffering a violent wind. Even some of the simple things in life, the things that can make it more enjoyable, can add stress, just as this breeze does to the trees. As the branches move under the sunlight, they turn many colors through the reflection. As the different colors can be associated with emotions, this also relates to life and growing. Some
Gwynn 3 moments are a darker hue being more difficult or tiring, while some are brighter and more passionate. The one certain aspect is that every life is going to have a share of every color, or in other words, of every emotion. The poem continues with the sounds associated with the breeze on the birch branches. The alliteration used in cracks and crazes makes this part of the line stand more. The cracking sound of the enamel is a sign of the stress and pressure placed on the trees. The enamel is the hard outer coating that protects trees form other outside influences. As the enamel cracks, they are weakened and more exposed. On the other hand, enamel in this instance could also refer to the ice, since enamel can also mean something applied to give a sheen or layer of shine. In this case, if the ice were cracking it would be a release for the trees from that burden, although further exposing them to other influences of nature. The enamel is also crazed, which could refer to the erratic cracking patterns of the ice. It also recalls descriptions of the cracking sounds getting faster and louder as the breeze stirs the trees. This would be a relief for the trees to be able to shed their burdensome layer of ice. In either instance, as the trees lose the ice that weighs them down, it leaves them weaker than they were in younger days. But in keeping with the overall light tone, the poem is not dismal. The poet s description of the matter-of fact ice storm and its effects on the birches almost immediately becomes playful, fanciful, full of the sounds of the ice, clicking and crazing, shattering and avalanching in a profusion of assonance, consonance, colors, onomatopoeia, and metaphor (Diephouse, par. 39). All of these elements come together to create a work that is happy and light considering its bleak theme. Just as life is heavy and dark, but oddly, should not be taken too seriously. As the poem follows the experience of the trees, they are further defeated by other elements of nature. They are dragged to the withered bracken by the load, And they seem not to
Gwynn 4 break; though once they are bowed (Frost 14-15). The burden grows so strong that they are dragged down to the bracken, or the lowest form of plant life that would lie on the forest floor. Although trees are inanimate objects, this image brings into question reality as compared to the perception of reality by the trees. For instance, we know that trees are planted in a singular spot, so they cannot be dragged from one place to another. For a tree to be still living, it cannot be completely leveled to the ground. There must still be some sort of trunk that rises above ground level. So how can these trees be dragged down to the bracken? Some of the branches may be hanging so low from the ice now that they brush the ground, and it may be that in the trees perspective, it feels so low now that it might as well be on the level of the undergrowth. Just as we, when we feel burdened or defeated, may feel that we have come to the lowest we can possibly be without recognizing how or where we really stand. It is all a matter of perspective. The wording then gets ambiguous when it states that the trees seem not to break. So, although the trees don t break explicitly, they do bow under the pressure and will never right themselves again. They have not completely broken, but they are making a slow progression toward being disabled or even dead. As with life, the burdens that are placed on people slowly bend them, so they may not seem to break, but they are slowly being weakened and destabilized. It may seem like grim imagery, but the overall tone of the poem is still light and whimsical. It is a good representation of how life is grim but also on average a good experience. It is a contradiction of life to be aging and weakening but also finding joy and celebration during the process. The effect of the bowing on the trees is permanent. So low for long, they never right themselves (Frost, 16). Although there may be a longing for youth, vibrancy, and vitality, once that is lost, it is gone. It is a natural process that some give into prematurely, while some have
Gwynn 5 the ability to fight off for surprising amounts of time. The undeniable fact is that this process will happen to all throughout life s development. The overall theme is that the poem offers [a] subtle allegory of persistence in the face of diminishment (Lea, par. 33). Even though life is going to weigh down on a person, there must be a will to keep going, even though all lives end the same, given that death is always the outcome of life. Another constant image in the poem is that of the boy who is the actual swinger of the birches. Although there are many interpretations in regards to his role in the poem, he is also a good representation of human kind with his actions and the way he influences the trees. The speaker of the poem expresses through the boy how he yearns to be a part of this world, but also a part of something more. However, the speaker of Birches wants both access to heaven and contact with earth (Zubizarreta, par. 5). Humanity has a natural inclination toward things spiritual, and there is a need there that they want to fulfill. As the same time, no one is too eager to end life to find out what really is there on the other side. The poem expresses this in the boy s swinging motion of moving heavenward, but also keeping that constant contact with earth by holding fast to the trees that have to bear the burden. The speaker also expresses this in such a playful way that he does not stress it as a yearning desire to know what is waiting after life. It is more of a playful contemplation of matters that others would take more seriously. The boy also has a direct impact on the trees, which influences them even more. The trees are completely helpless to the whims of the boy, and they bend and strain under the requirements of the boys play (Saltzman, par. 10). It is representative of the influences and aspects of life that we have no control over, and have to submit to due to our helplessness. In the poem it states, By riding them down over and over again/ Until he took the stiffness out of them (Frost 51). The boy is just another factor that takes some of the strength out of the trees,
Gwynn 6 as they stand helpless to his onslaught. Or, perhaps the boy is more, if not entirely, responsible for the ultimate bending and weakening of the trees. As stated in part of a biography of Robert Frost, Rather than having the ice storm (which Frost identifies with Truth, a kind of literary naturalism) bend them, however, he prefers to envision the farm boy doing it (Doreski 467). While the ice storms would be an act of nature, the boy is an act of humanity or society. Said in other words, most of the burden placed on us in life is from society, and not nature itself. Our main struggle to provide and to succeed is against humanity. To continue with this line of the poem, there is irony in the word stiffness with its reference to the young trees. Stiffness could refer to timeworn joints, but here it refers to the strength of young bodies and minds to stand against the strain of time, which is lost as the boy swings on them. Therefore, instead of growing stiff with age, the trees lose their stiffness and become more weak or fragile. So it is in life that we trade one kind of stiffness (the strength of young vitality) for another (stiff joints that inhibit movement). The progression of the poem then takes an interesting turn as the speaker begins addressing the audience in first person. It seems almost as if the poem lacks unity, which could stem from the fact that it had originally been two poems (O Donnell, par. 28). Yet, this section makes the poem seem immediate and more personal. It turns into a conversation. The speaker states, It's when I'm weary of considerations, And life is too much like a pathless wood (Frost 44-45). The speaker he compares life to a pathless wood. Meaning, it can seem aimless. Or, on the optimist s side of the argument, it would be full of opportunity to make with it what you want. This section is a representation of life, and the various paths that we follow as individuals. Some get lost along the way while others find themselves and go wonderful places, and the journey is different for everyone.
Gwynn 7 As the speaker continues with his first person address, he touches on the subject of things spiritual connecting with this life. I'd like to get away from earth awhile/ And then come back to it and begin over (Frost 49-50). It is an impossible wish, to be able to leave this life and then come back to it. It could be that the speaker wants a break from the demand of life by leaving, but has no permanent intentions of staying away, meaning he has no suicidal intentions. The speaker could also be seeking answers as the question of what is beyond this life and this earth. However, the tone of the passage seems to be so aloof and fanciful that it almost does not matter what the speaker s main objective is. It is a constant juxtaposition that the poem has to be both fact and fancy (Diephouse, par. 40). The speaker ground the poem on this earth by the birch trees, but it also has a spiritual contemplation with such lines as the dome of heaven and other metaphysical references (Frost 13). The question of what happens after this life is considered to be a serious one, but the speaker plays with it lightly without disregarding the fact that all human kind asks this question at one time or another. Birches is a poem about the speaker s contemplation of life s mystery as well as how we as human beings find joy in a struggle that always ends in death. It may sound grim, but there is beauty waiting to be found. The poem states as well that even though life may seem pathless and bleak, it gives us the power to make of it what we want. While some would see an empty wood, others would see the opportunity to play and swing while accepting the consequences. The poem uses a mixture of realism and imagination to accomplish what makes a deeply significant glimpse into life and how we live it (Gerber, par. 10). It may be grim and bleak, but it is filled with brightness and opportunity for those who choose to make something of it. Maybe since death is inevitable, it shouldn t be taken too seriously.
Gwynn 8 Works Cited Diephouse, Dan. "The Economic Impulse in Robert Frost." Criticism 48.4 (2006): 477-507. ProQuest Research Library. Web. 15 July 2012. Doreski, William. Frost Robert (1874-1963). Poets: American and British Ed. Ian Scott- Kilvert. Vol. 1. New York: Charles Scribner s and Sons, 1998. 455-477. Gale Student Resources In Context. Web. 28 June 2012. Gerber, Philip L. Poet In A Landscape: Frost s Career. Robert Frost, Rev. ed. Boston: Twayne, 1982. 30-65. Gale Student Resources In Context. Web. 15 July 2012 Hart, Jeffrey. "New Light on Frost." National Review Apr 19 2004: 48-9. ProQuest Research Library. Web. 15 July 2012. Lea, Sydney. "Robert Frost and the End of Poetry." New England Review 32.2 (2011): 140,149,204. ProQuest Research Library.Web. 15 July 2012. O'Donnell, William,G. "Talking about Poems with Robert Frost." The Massachusetts Review 39.2 (1998): 225-49. ProQuest Research Library. Web. 15 July 2012. Saltzman, Arthur M. "Futility and Robert Frost." The Midwest Quarterly 41.3 (2000): 289-301. ProQuest Research Library. Web. 15 July 2012. Zubizarreta, John. "Octavio Paz and Robert Frost: El Polvo y La Nieve Que Se Deshacen Entre Las Manos." Comparative Literature 47.3 (1995): 235-. ProQuest Research Library. Web. 15 July 2012.