The Literature Network - Frost's 'Directive.' (Robert Frost)

Frost's 'Directive.' (Robert Frost)

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From: The Explicator
Date: 19930922
Author:LeVay, John

Robert Frost's 'Directive' uses the word belilaced to mean wreathed in lilacs, in reference to the lost house that represents the Church. The lilac-wreathed hole where the Church used to stand symbolizes the demise of Christianity. An invitation to the spot suggesting that it be built upon implies the occupation of a single spot by both an aesthetic playhouse and a house of religion. The poem, which depicts the quest for the holy grail, can also be seen as Frost's response to T.S. Eliot's 'The Waste Land.'

What is the meaning of that unexampled, unlexiconed word, "belilaced" (46), which ...

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